The Fox Tech High School mariachi band performs on stage during a groundbreaking event for the San Pedro Creek Culture Park in 2016.
A professional trumpeter, Miculka had experience performing in salsa bands and developed a special appreciation for the art form of mariachi when he witnessed firsthand the professional mariachi ensemble assembled by Juan Ortiz for Fiesta Texas. Both Miculka and Sandoval credit parents in their districts with establishing the importance of formalized mariachi education programs.
“This had a significant impact on me as a young teenager as I realized that our culture, music and history was way deeper and more beautiful than I ever could have imagined,” Muñoz wrote in a Facebook memorial post commemorating Ortiz’s influence.published in 2022, Texas writer Cecilia Ballí wrote extensively of the importance of the Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza competition for mariachi education programs.
Lopez said the Kingsville program “was like lighting a match,” with students going on to create ensembles at schools in their home communities throughout the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas, many of which have been formalized as programs as those former students rose into the ranks of school administrations.
Quintero said that with Lopez’s retirement, she took a job at De Zavala Elementary School in the San Marcos ISD to continue the tradition of creating “feeder” programs for collegiate mariachi schools. But with her own impending retirement and the passing of these programs to a new generation, she worries for the future of mariachi studies. One issue is the lack of mariachi-specific music textbooks, a gap she said she aims to fill by writing her own book in the near future.