If you walk down the music hall of Wenatchee High School, varying sounds would catch your ear: the Golden Apple Marching Band playing their field show for the 1,000th time, Chamber Choir singing “Africa” by Toto or the bass players of Chamber Orchestra plucking away to “Stand By Me.”  However, on your journey to this section of the high school you may just come across one of Mariachi Huenachi’s trumpeters: senior Jairo Aguilar.

“Ever since I was little, [mariachi music] is all I’ve listened to. I [lived] in Mexico and from there, I just fell in love with the music,” Aguilar said. One of the lead trumpet players and co-president of Mariachi Huenachi, Aguilar is at the forefront of this year’s mariachi. Although Aguilar is now immediately recognizable as one of the mariachi’s many talented trumpet players, the reality of him playing this instrument almost never came to be.

“I remember in class, we were choosing which instruments we were going to play for mariachi; at first I was actually going to play guitar, but then I noticed that no one else picked trumpet, so I was like ‘Sure I’ll try it,’ and I just kind of took off from there,” Aguilar said.

Mariachi Huenachi has been recognized around the nation, winning the Univision Seattle Latin Music Award for Mejor Cancion de Mariachi, opening for Grammy award winner Lupillo Rivera and performing for Congress in Washington D.C. last year. For Aguilar, however, it’s the impact that the mariachi’s music has on other people that brings him the most joy.

“Bringing a smile to people’s faces is amazing because a lot of people – especially those who have moved here and haven’t been able to go back to Mexico for a while – come up to us and have said ‘Thank you’ and ‘You guys reminded me of where I came from.’ Being able to be part of something bigger like that is incredible,” said Aguilar.

Having a leadership position with Mariachi Huenachi is a large responsibility, as officers set up schedules, are active role models for the mariachi’s members, plan out trips and help Mr. Rivera with anything he needs. Aguilar has taken these leadership and life skills from mariachi and hopes that he can apply them towards his future endeavors.

“I’m going to try and get my science credits transferred from WVC to Portland State University, where I want to major in either sports science or sports medicine. From there, I want to go the the University of Western States and enter the chiropractic field,” said Aguilar.

Although Aguilar’s future may be more heavily involved with science, he still plans on continuing to pursue his love of mariachi.

“It’s definitely something that I’ll still want to do and I plan to continue doing it on the side along with my actual job,” he said. “I really want to be a part of a mariachi and go around and play different gigs in the future.”