Mariachi Music Coming To Your School Soon

More schools getting in tune with mariachi music

Jan. 5, 2009 -Associated Press

DALLAS - Jose Perez often butted heads with his grandfather, who emigrated from Mexico years ago and feared his American-born grandson didn't appreciate the sacrifices his family made. Then the teenager started playing the music of the elder's homeland.

Perez, 14, took a mariachi music class at his Fort Worth high school, and gained a cultural connection to his grandfather as he learned how to strum the five-stringed vihuela (pronounced vee-way-la).

"He used to always yell at me because I didn't want to do my chores," Jose said. "But as soon as I got into mariachi, I guess we developed a better relationship." Mariachi not only gave Perez closer ties with his family, it gave the North Side High School freshman one more reason to stay in school.

With soaring dropout rates among Hispanic students, mariachi education programs, long popular in parts of South Texas and California, are springing up in schools across the country to help keep the nation's largest and fastest-growing ethnic group academically engaged.

"You don't have to worry about your kids joining gangs, we provide the gang," said William Gradante, a master mariachi teacher and chairman of the National Association for Music Education's Mariachi Advisory Committee. Click here to read the rest of the article.