Inside a music room at Fresno City College, students playing violins warm up on a recent Friday afternoon. One might think they’re part of a classical orchestra. But then, they break out into a fast-tempo Mexican folk song.
They’re learning traditional mariachi music as part of the Fresno County Summer Arts Academy. Together, the group of 14 high school students are called “Mariachi Unidos.”
This is the second year of the Art Academy’s Mariachi Performance and Composition course. The class was created to create opportunities for students in ensembles at their schools to continue developing their skills over the summer, according to director of arts education Aaron Bryan.
With no audition required, students only need to apply to the course to be accepted. Nearly 110 students applied for the course this year, with only a handful selected to join. The course is also free for all Fresno County students.
The popularity of mariachi music programs for youth certainly is not confined to Fresno. The revered musical tradition is also the focus of youth programs in Merced County and other areas of the Valley.
The ensemble in the Fresno area is filled with students from Kerman, Bullard, McLane and Roosevelt high schools. And while the majority of students in the ensemble come from Latino backgrounds, students from a wide range of cultures and ethnicities participate.
The tradition of the genre appealed to Isa Ceballos, an incoming freshman at Bullard High School. She enrolled because she wanted to learn more about her Mexican ancestry.
“Mariachi's a very old thing. It's very classic, very traditional, very, ‘ Don't mess around with it, Don't play with it too much,’" Ceballos said.
But she, and the other students, are playing with it. The ensemble is filled with different instruments, like violins, guitar, bass and trumpets. Ceballos plays the saxophone, a non-traditional instrument in mariachi.
And that’s part of the point of this class – to put a modern spin on the genre.
The students aren’t just learning to play this music, but also to compose it with new instruments, new themes, and even write lyrics in both English and Spanish.
“Because mixing in the old with the new, despite not being as quite traditional, can be studied for new generations to come and be considered traditional,” Ceballos said.
‘It’s part of us’
Mariachi dates back many generations, and became prominent in the Jalisco region of Mexico after France invaded the country in the 1860s.
It’s believed the French hired musicians to play the music at weddings. But after the Mexican Revolution, the genre became a hallmark of Mexican independence.
Classic songs like ‘Son de la Negra’ or ‘Cielito Lindo’ can be heard at any Mexican celebration, like Fresno’s annual Fiestas Patrias event in September.
The class is led by Omar Naré and Pamela Galicia, two life-long local mariacheros. They both teach and perform their music around the San Joaquin Valley.
Galicia says the students love the class because it draws many of them to their cultural roots.
“I think it's absolutely intergenerational,” Galicia said. “It helps them to not only connect with the past, but also here in the present.”
Naré said mariachi is an essential part of the Mexican lifestyle.
“For the same reason that we're gonna keep tacos alive and enchiladas and mole, we need to keep mariachi alive. It's part of us,” Naré said.
New performers of an old genre
The group performed their compositions at a showcase a few weeks ago. They commanded the stage with traditional “trajes de charro,” embroidered black and gold suits. And they debuted their original song called “Forever and A Day.”
It’s a somber piece in the bolero style – slow and emotional. For many of the students, the song symbolizes the loss of life and faith.
But it was especially meaningful for incoming Roosevelt High junior Ash Reyes. She sings and plays violin.
“I play it to connect with my family,” Reyes said. “It was a really good connection with me and my dad.”
He introduced her to mariachi when she was a kid. But he recently died, and Reyes says she honors him through her music.
“It was a lot of emotion, thinking about him while playing and singing,” Reyes said. “It’s really emotional but it's nice to be doing that.”
The group’s final piece was a song written in the 1800s. It’s called “Ya No Se Si Me Quieres,” which translates to “I Don’t Know If You Love Me Anymore” in English.
Naré found the lyrics to the piece in an old songbook. While the narrative in the song suggests it was intended to be performed in the slow, romantic style of bolero, the ensemble decided together to transform it into a modern, uplifting dance song.
“It was so cool that we got to turn it into a cumbia,” said Ceballos. “Just because it’s a traditional piece, that doesn’t mean it has to be performed that way. We’re definitely not traditional at all.”
After their last song, the audience jumped up in applause and cheers – fully embracing new performers of this old genre.
For more information on the program, visit the Fresno County Summer Arts Academy website.