Sophomore Sara Xique has been into Mariachi for a few years now. Before coming to Lawrence North, Xique attended quite a few musical academies and played with other mariachi groups in Queens, New York. Xique joined the Mariachi club to try and advance her skills on music. Xique hopes to include more people while teaching them how to play the instruments and hopes students can learn what the instruments are like and the history they carry.
“By the end of the year I want to get students acquainted with their instruments, get them to know and feel their instruments, get them attached to it. But by the end of my four years I’m hoping to have a full group, complete with the melody section, harmony section all that. I’m excited about it. It’ll be hard because learning how to play a new instrument does take a while but I’m really excited and I really hope more people will join and we can advance more,” Xique said.
Xique believes student will learn a lot because while students would be learning how to play new instruments, they would also be learning spanish by translating the songs and a little bit of the history through the songs they play. Some students are joining the club to connect more with their culture and ethnicity, and learn more about it because they don’t know much about it.
“I mainly joined the mariachi club because it’s something that doesn’t seem basic and I also wanted to learn more of my mom’s culture so by learning this I can try to somehow connect and learn more of my heritage that I couldn’t get while being here,” sophomore Victor Rodas said.
Xique began learning to play the instruments in middle school and knows how to play all the instruments that are played in Mariachi. She hopes to help create a full Mariachi group this year.
“I want the Mariachi club to go around and perform publicly and raise money for the club, I also want us to participate in contest but to that first we will need to build up a good mariachi group,” Xique said.
Club adviser Jose Valencia himself has always had a passion for Mariachi and wanted to get people involved in it as well. He thought it would be a fun and new learning experience for the students and wanted them to have an opportunity to learn about other cultures. It’s also a learning experience for him as he is on a 70 day duolingo streak, which is an online website that teachs you new languages.
“I think there is an increasing number of students who are interested in latino culture here at Lawrence North. They may be of latino background or they may just be appreciative of interacting with the culture, and I’m thinking that this music celebrates that culture. It’s actually pretty exciting and fun and it could be a different way of getting people to express themselves through music. I think we have a population here at this school that could support it,” Valencia said.
Something that students are very thrilled about is their adviser, Valencia.
“My favorite thing about Mariachi would definitely be my teacher. He’s amazing and he’s so much fun,” Eshleman said.
The club meets every Monday right after school from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in the orchestra room 153. If students can’t get a ride they can sign up for the activity bus on Naviance.
“Come ready to make friends, sing, and experience some culture that may be part of your background or may not to be part of your background but we want to share it,” Valencia said.