Mariachi Spectacular turns 30 as advocates long for more music in schools

Jul. 14—If you go

Mariachi Showcase Concert: 6 p.m. Friday, Civic Plaza in Albuquerque

Mariachi Spectacular Concert: 7 p.m. Saturday, Sandia Resort and Amphitheater

More information: Mariachispectacular.com

During her sophomore year at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque, Yusaleth Lozano was placed into a mariachi music class by accident. She'd hardly touched an instrument before then.

But now, at 21, she's a lead vocalist and second violinist with Mariachi Plata de Western New Mexico University — the only competitive collegiate ensemble of its kind in the state. A business major and music minor, Lozano chose the Silver City school for its mariachi program and has ambitions of possibly going professional someday.

"It completely changes your perspective on music," Lozano recalled in a phone interview from Albuquerque, where she's attending the 30th annual Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque conference this week. "Once you're around the people who share the same passion as you, it's like the flip of a switch."

For New Mexicans who can parse the difference between guitar and guitarrón, mid-July is a key time of year: the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque conference draws talent from across the U.S. and Mexico, attracting students from throughout the state for workshops and performances.

The event, which features a Friday evening competition among mariachi groups from across the U.S., should be turning 32 but is marking just its 30th anniversary because of the coronavirus pandemic. But it will be the backdrop for a celebration that includes the unveiling of U.S. Postal Service stamps that honor the genre.

As the Mariachi Spectacular returns, enthusiasts are calling for schools throughout the state to rejuvenate students' interest in music by creating or supporting mariachi programs.

Doing so, supporters say, will help teach students more about their cultural identities.

Historians are still digging into the origin of mariachis, or Mexican orchestra music ensembles, which have their roots in the spirit of 18th-century western and central Mexico. The groups typically rely on guitar, violin, the high-pitched five-string vihuela guitar, and the guitarrón, a six-string bass. Those instruments are abetted by evocative vocals provided by everyone in the group.

Trumpets became part of ensembles in the early 20th century.

"We're still trying to figure out what the word mariachi means," said Western New Mexico University music coordinator and Mariachi Plata Director Bryant Chaffino, who helped start the group six years ago and also performs in a mariachi band himself.

Chaffino said contrary to some stereotypes people might hold about the genre, mariachi music is a technical and ever-evolving endeavor that fuses together concepts like band, orchestra and choir. In recent years, mariachis have become increasingly gender-inclusive and more welcoming to women, he added.

"Mariachi music is still growing; it's still thriving," Chaffino added. "We're not just teaching music; we're teaching culture and history. We're keeping it alive."

Peter Sanchez, chief executive officer for the Atrisco Cos., which runs the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque nonprofit, estimates there are about 10 mariachi music programs in New Mexico's K-12 schools. He said there should be at least 50.

"We're a majority-minority state. ... We have a very long history of Mexican and Mexican American heritage," he said. "It would be such an obvious thing to add into the curriculum of our school systems."

As part of that effort, Mariachi Spectacular will have a workshop this year for band instructors on how to teach and instruct mariachi music, Sanchez said.

"At some point, it has to be embedded in the school system," he said.

Sanchez said Mariachi Spectacular usually has 14 to 20 mariachis competing in its annual competition. This year, there are just 12 competing at different levels — mostly groups from out of state, including Colorado, Arizona and California. But local groups also are part of the mix, including one from Atrisco Heritage Academy and Western New Mexico's Mariachi Plata.

While Santa Fe mariachi students are not competing this year, many are attending workshops. Those involved in the local scene want to see more students sporting the mariachi trajes de charro with the iconic wide bow ties and prepping to perform around town.

Mary Helen Romero Kelty, a retired Santa Fe teacher and school counselor who serves as a liaison for Mariachi Milagro de Ernesto Gonzales, a mariachi club for students grades 5-12 that operates out of Milagro Middle School, said more in-school programs would increase participation in mariachi.

Currently, she said, after-school programming competes with athletics.

"If it was up to the parents, all the kids would be in [mariachi]," she said. "And the best thing is, they'd be practicing every day."

In a video call Wednesday, Santa Fe Public Schools Superintendent Hilario "Larry" Chavez said he'd not heard community demand for more mariachi in Santa Fe Public Schools.

"We work with [Music Coordinator] April Pickrell to offer programming that is wanted and requested; at this point it hasn't come up from the community," Chavez said.

District spokesman Cody Dynarski said Ortiz Middle School offers a mariachi program, while the district maintains outside partnerships to provide mariachi education after school, including with Mariachi Milagro de Ernesto Gonzales, which currently has about 20 students practicing weekly.

The group originally formed as Mariachi Conquistador in 2003 at the now-defunct DeVargas Middle School under the leadership of Romero Kelty and the late Gonzales.

Romero Kelty said participation in Mariachi Milagro has declined since the onset of the pandemic and noted a lack of experienced music teachers may have to do with the small amount of mariachi programming available in schools.

Tamarah Lucero, a mariachi musician who directs the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association's mariachi program and oversees programs in Albuquerque Public Schools, said there are benefits to in-school and extracurricular programs.

"I know that the desire is there from the kids, and I wish every school [had] these programs for kids," she said.

Through the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association, Lucero helps oversee anywhere between 30 and 40 Santa Fe students, ages 7 to 20 in three levels of mariachi. The Youth Symphony's performing arm is known as Mariachi Estrella. The group, composed of 17 students, is attending Mariachi Spectacular for the first time in recent memory.

Lucero said the kids will not be competing yet, but perhaps next year.

Lucero herself found mariachi as a student in Española. She started playing in high school and still remembers her first Mariachi Spectacular.

"Once I started playing mariachi music, I literally found who I was," Lucero said. "It clicked with me. It was home, it felt like what I was supposed to be doing."

Lucero's experience is not isolated. Atrisco Heritage Academy High School mariachi Director Carolina Gonzales, who was gearing up her varsity students for Friday's competition, said mariachi is an important way for schools to incorporate cultural relevance in music programming to keep students engaged.

At her school, the overwhelming majority of students are Hispanic and many grew up listening to mariachi music.

"You have a student that might take band, and for some reason it doesn't work," she said. "You have them take mariachi and they come alive. ... Their parents want to come to concerts because they know the music."

Gonzales said in her time as a music teacher she's been accused of "killing" classical music traditions in school, like orchestra and band, or that some music teachers may be afraid to let go of classical music in schools.

"When we have pep rallies, the mariachi plays," she said of Atrisco Heritage Academy, located on Albuquerque's Southwest Mesa. "It's all representation."

Gonzales said New Mexico is behind when it comes to providing an educational connection to mariachi music compared to states like California, Texas and Arizona. Many instructors and student mariachis are siloed due to distance between districts and a lack of any formal state organizations for teachers, she said.

She hopes New Mexico develops an association of mariachi educators as Texas has done, so the whole state can collaborate.

While other states have district competitions to motivate student musicians, she said Mariachi Spectacular is the only shot her students have at competing all year.

Gonzales doesn't anticipate Atrisco Heritage Academy will place in the competition but said it's important the school represents New Mexico at the conference.

"They need it to be motivated to practice," she said of competition. "The caliber raises when you raise the stakes, and we just don't have it here. Not yet."