Sunnyside summer program nurtures budding mariachis

“It’s been in my life for as long as I can remember,” said the soon-to-be Pueblo High School freshman. Naturally, she also took an interest in the music.

Rodriguez plays the trumpet and is spending her summer break playing music in the Sunnyside Unified School District’s summer mariachi program.

The four-week program, facilitated by the Sunnyside district’s musical directors, serves about 20 children from across the Tucson area, said Daniel Dong, the program coordinator and musical director at Lauffer Middle School.

Mariachi has deep ties to the Sunnyside community, he said. The program seeks to deepen those ties with the rest of the community.

“We’re hoping to allow students to really gain appreciation for mariachi music,” he said.

One recent morning, students from third to eighth grades filled the mariachi room at Sunnyside High School, where the program is being administered.

The group is in its second week, and some students came to the program not knowing how to play musical instruments, Dong said. But now, the kids have about four songs in their repertoire.

By the end of the program, the students will know six to eight songs, he said.

Aneisa Jaure had never been in a mariachi group before, though most of her family members in Mexico are involved in mariachi in one way or another.

“I decided to do it so I can be like them,” the soon-to-be fifth-grader said.

She is one of the students who didn’t know how to play an instrument. Aneisa picked the violin, which she said her mother also plays.

When she returns to Gallego Intermediate 4-8 Fine Arts Magnet School for the new school year, she hopes to join its mariachi program.

And maybe, she says, a career as a professional mariachi musician is in the future.

Rodriguez, the new Pueblo freshman-to-be, said she plans to continue participating in mariachi when she advances to high school.

“If this experience can continue into a career, that’s even better,” she said.