WHS Mariachi: ‘Raising the bar even higher’

Although Mariachi teacher Ramon Rivera predicted that last year could not be topped, the Mariachi program has been raising the bar even higher this year, according to Rivera.

“The talent level has gone up a lot this year. We have 110 students in the program within the three classes, and in 2005 we only had about 35 students. The size of our program has tripled,” Rivera said.

As well as more improvement this year, the Mariachi program has taken part in many different performances; about five more than last year due to more notoriety. In November, the program performed at the Pantages Theater in Tacoma, accompanying America’s Got Talent’s Sebastian De La Cruz, which was an honor, Rivera said.

The band was a featured act for student leadership conference performances at Washington State University and Eastern Washington University.

“We get a lot of invitations to perform, I would say about 40 times a year,” Rivera said. They’ve had about 20 performances so far this year, which is double what they would have had at this time last year.

Recently, the band was practicing for its winter concert that took place on Dec. 5. Along with performances in Wenatchee, the program will be doing more traveling in the near future. Next month, the band will perform at the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle. They have also been given the opportunity to travel by ferry to the San Juan Islands and perform on Orcas Island. The music group will be returning for their third year back at the Orcas Performing Arts Center, where the whole island is invited to come watch performances as part of the PAC’s concert series.

“So far the year has been great. We’ve had a lot of performances where we’ve done very well, especially when we opened for Sebastian De La Cruz. It’s been a challenging but a good start to the year,” senior Laura Guzman said.

As for new things added to the program this year, the music group has added two new harps. Wimmer Solutions, a business based in Seattle, has donated 15 new laptops to the program, and redid their website. They brought in a professional website maker from Microsoft to assist the program with their web page, and the company provided all of it for free.

“Mariachi has kept me on track since you have to have good grades,” senior Manny Rivas said. “I really enjoy playing the violin and singing; it lets me express myself. We’ve also been lucky to have so many opportunities this year.”

On top of performances at the Sounders game, the Puyallup Fair, and the Washington State Fair, the program was invited to perform at the celebration for the 125th Anniversary of Washington’s Statehood in Olympia on Nov. 11.

“This has been another banner year. We were so excited to see how the program was recognized nationwide, and to have our students achieve even more,” Rivera said.

The program was recognized nationwide when it was featured in news outlets for USA Today, Fox News, ABC News, and the Spanish network Despierta America.

As well as recognition, Rivera received the Washington State Jefferson Award, which is the highest award for community service in a Mariachi program. The program was also honored by the Seattle Seahawks as the best Hispanic Program in the state for Hispanic Heritage Month.