By Ayse Guner
Isabel Gil felt like a star when she saw herself on TV, playing mariachi music under the twinkling lights of Disney World.
Gil, an 18-year-old Pueblo High School senior, plays the violin in her school's advanced mariachi band, Mariachi Aztlan.
She is one of 15 students in the band who get the chance to travel around the nation to play at large concerts, such as the one in Orlando, Fla., where the band performed with the world-famous Mariachi Cobre two years ago.
That is not all they have achieved.
This high school band has traveled all around Arizona spreading its music. They went to Las Vegas in November to perform for middle- and high-school students interested in learning about this Southwestern group. In addition, Aztlan plans to visit Disney World again next fall.
"One of the messages I have for kids is, 'Right now you are playing here, and one day you will be a guest here,'" says Richard Carranza, about the luxurious places where the students play. Carranza is the founder and former instructor of the band.
While preparing for Sunnyside's 10th Annual Mariachi Festival - Noche De Las Estrellas - on April 21, Aztlan students walked calmly in front of the microphone. They are used to working like professionals.
"It is a bunch of high school kids, but they sound like professionals," Carranza says. "Kids are the toughest critics of themselves."
Gil is not planning to pursue a career in any mariachi bands and says she will greatly miss her moments when she graduates from high school. After all, she spent five years training to become a part of this large family.
"It is fun playing to my music - the one I grew up to," Gil says. "You are feeling it inside."
Adam Romo feels it too. Romo is a 16-year-old arpa player and a singer who has been involved in mariachi music since he was in elementary school.
"I used to dance to this music," Romo says, adding that he wants to continue playing for the rest of his life because it reflects his roots.
The group has trained more than 800 students since it was founded in 1992. About 25 of those students have joined professional bands.
Carranza, currently an assistant principal, created the band after several students saw him performing and asked him to teach them the skills to become a mariachi musician. He was a social studies teacher at the time. The program has grown to 200 students from the original class of 11 members.
But Carranza advises his students to use these skills as a tool to make their way to the university.
"I was able to pay for school by playing the mariachi music," he said.
Mariachi Aztlan's current instructor, Javier Trujillo, a University of Arizona student, agrees with Carranza.
Achieving a professional career as a mariachi is tougher now, says Trujillo, who plays with Mariachi Cobre, a professional group based in Orlando.
When he was younger, Trujillo says, getting into professional bands was easier because being a mariachi was not popular among youths. Now, though, the younger generation is becoming more aware of the meaning of this traditional music, which still uses songs written 100 years ago, he adds.
"To make a career out of this is hard," he says. "There are only three groups in the nation, with 12 members in each, and thousands of mariachis want to make it into these groups.
"And you can't really make a living with the mariachi unless you play professionally."
Students who play professionally earn money for their performances and receive about $800 at graduation, and the money applies to their college tuition.
Besides the scholarship, the music keeps students away from gangs or any other activities that can potentially ruin their education, Carranza and Trujillo say.
"Kids get the taste of being in front of the microphone," Carranza says. "They don't need to look for gangs, because they already have the acceptance here."
For example, one student who graduated six years ago changed his life after playing in the high school band, Carranza says.
"His whole family was involved in gangs and drugs. He was headed in that direction too," Carranza explains. "Once he became part of the group, he turned himself around."
That student, he says, received honor degrees in his last two years of high school and then went to Italy with a cultural-exchange program to talk about the mariachi tradition.
"He didn't have the best surroundings and mariachi offered him the safe haven," Carranza says.
"This is like a bug. Once you catch it, you can't get away from it," Trujillo says about the mariachi music. "At the end, (students) become responsible, outgoing and positive kids."
Historians suggest that the mariachi music - founded in the late 19th century in the Mexican state of Jalisco - expanded from only a few instruments played at weddings to become the respected traditional music of the Hispanic community. Now, the music is played at almost every festivity.
"Mariachi is the culture and the symbol of Mexico," Trujillo says. "The whole uniform is a story and a statement. It is not a Halloween costume you wear. Every time we clap on the uniform, it is a respect that we owe to our culture."