A few weeks after the last day of classes, the Metropolitan State University Arts Building seems, predictably, deserted.
And then you hear the trumpets.
As you ascend the building’s stairs, the violins, guitars, vihuela and guitarron come into earshot. Then the powerful voices of the Metro State mariachi ensemble are booming through the music room’s doors.
The group of eight students, selected to perform from the roughly 20-student mariachi class, were practicing the day before the university’s 50th anniversary celebration this month.
Led by musicology professor Lorenzo Trujillo, the ensemble that began as a club and blossomed into a for-credit class gained so much acclaim around campus and local venues that it booked a birthday party gig through word-of-mouth.
But the thirst for mariachi in the state goes beyond birthday entertainment, Trujillo said.
“There’s a serious void in Colorado of teachers that can teach mariachi music,” said Trujillo, who’s out to fill that pipeline with his college students.
Benjamin San Martín Kellog, 31, is a music education major at Metro State who blasts the trumpet for the mariachi ensemble. Kellog plans to bring his formal education in mariachi music to Denver public schools this fall.
“I want to let the students know they’ll be able to impart their culture and be represented and be recognized,” Kellog said. “It’s our responsibility to bridge that gap.”
With about 56 percent of the Denver school district’s more than 95,000 students being Hispanic or Latino, according to 2014-15 Colorado Department of Education data, Trujillo said mariachi music is imperative to teaching kids about their heritage.
“It’s important because it validates the increasing Mexican culture in Colorado,” he said.
In Trujillo’s class, all students are welcome regardless of their heritage or major.
In the middle of one boisterous song, 20-year-old Randy Juarez springs from his seat with his vihuela — a type of Spanish guitar — and is unable to stop himself from dancing to the music.
Everyone joins in, swinging their hips with their lips curling into smiles as they continue playing.
“You’ll notice that there’s no school today, but we love it so much that we’re here,” Kellog said. “Here, you get to express yourself. You get to dance and play loud and have a very fun experience.”
And that’s an experience educators across Colorado want their students to have.
Trujillo is sending his willing students to Denver-area schools — mostly as volunteers— for the time being, but he said he’s receiving calls for his students’ musical expertise statewide. Eventually, Trujillo hopes his students who are interested can graduate as certified teachers and go teach in the places they’re wanted most full time.
“There’s a need for this program in two ways,” Trujillo said. “First, it’s among highly impacted schools where it becomes a thing to keep kids in school, to maintain their interest. And it also keeps the community and parents engaged in the school.”
Pamela Liñan, principal of Bryant-Webster dual language school, said her school just celebrated its 14th year of their self-sufficient mariachi program. The program begins teaching students the classic mariachi instruments from third grade through eighth grade and now instructs 50 to 60 students a year.
“Sometimes these kids don’t speak Spanish, and they can communicate with their grandparents through the music,” Liñan said. “They build that culture and that relationship.”
A handful of students who grew up in the Bryant-Webster mariachi program are furthering their education with Trujillo at MSU. These students have already been returning to help out at Bryant-Webster’s mariachi program.
“They feel connected,” Liñan said. “The music connects us all.”
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The essence of mariachi, according to Trujillo
- Origin: Mariachi dates back to the early 1900s in Mexico when community gatherings like weddings, baptisms, funerals and fiestas would be accompanied by boisterous music consisting of string instruments, singing and trumpets. Commonly, seven people are in a group, but that number varies depending on availability and occasion.
- Dress: Men typically wear a black suit with silver or gold buttons or embroidery down the side and a sombrero, if it’s formal wear. Women wear long, black skirts with gold or silver buttons or embroidery down the side, a black jacket and a white blouse. Everyone wears a collared bow tie.
- Themes of mariachi songs include love, betrayal, death, politics and sometimes specific celebrations like birthdays.
- Common mariachi songs include: “Son de la Negra,” “Las Golondrinas,” “Las Mañanitas,” “La Adelita,” and “Guadalajara.”
- While mariachi began as a community’s way of celebrating culture, it began making its way into churches, onto movie screens and into restaurants through the middle of the 20th century as it pervaded popular culture.
