Story by Kassandra Easley
Photos by Rena Lev-Bass
Walking through the brightly-lit gymnasium, a sense of community and wonder fills the air. Colorful posters line the walls while children run around and parents reconnect with each other. Arts and crafts to celebrate Día de los Muertos, the day of the dead, lay upon tables waiting for the fiesta to begin. With so much going on indoors, it’s easy to forget about the storm that has been brewing outside for most of the afternoon. The band walks out in their delicately embroidered traditional trajes de charro, or suits, lighting the crowds’ eyes up with anticipation. As Mariachi Del Sol, Springfield High School’s mariachi band, plays its first tune, the festivities kicks off. Toes tap and hands clap as the band shifts from piece to piece, filling the room with life as the music of Mexican culture vibrates from floor to ceiling.
Mariachi music has been around for hundreds of years and supposedly originated in 18th century Mexico. Similar themes prevail and emerge between the regional differences associated with mariachi music. Mexican culture is intertwined with mariachi, and more often than not, the two go hand-in-hand. Each member of the mariachi band is expected to both play an instrument and perform vocally, and this expectation is prevalent in Mariachi Del Sol. The young musicians sing throughout pieces, encouraging the audience to join in.
The unique sound associated with mariachi music is due to the instrumentation of the ensemble. “You need to have the traditional mariachi instruments to sound like a mariachi,” Mariachi Del Sol Director Christopher Holt says. By using guitars instead of traditional instruments, it is easy to mimic a mariachi, but the sound will never be authentic. The traditional mariachi has anywhere from six to seven violins, two to three trumpets, one vihuela (a medium-sized guitar-like instrument with nylon strings.), one arpa (harp), one guitarrón (with the same body shape as the vihuela and three steel and three nylon strings with a fretless neck), and one guitar. Each one of the vihuelas and guitarrónes are handmade, which provides variety in the shapes and design. Occasionally, other instruments are added and subtracted to this instrumentation.
Mariachi ensembles are believed to have hundreds of songs memorized so they can play them at different celebrations, occasions, and fiestas. Mariachis perform traditional songs; their music is meant for dancing, singing, and remembrance celebrations. “There are so many celebrations mariachi music is used for,” Holt says. Mariachi music couples the celebrations and traditions that comprise Mexican culture. There are certain songs like “Las Mañanitas,” which is sung early in the morning to wake up loved ones on birthdays, Mother’s Day, and other celebrations throughout the year.
“Las Mañanitas” is a special song Holt’s students told him can’t be performed at each event. But during the Día de los Muertos performance, it happened to be one of the vihuela player’s 18th birthday, so the song was performed in her honor. As the night progressed, The band played several other crowd favorites, including “Los Machetes,” “La Bamba,” and “La Raspa.” Smiles brightened the faces of young and old alike as rhythm and tone resonated with the here and now, evoking memories. When Holt approached the microphone to briefly introduce a popular song usually taught in Mexican elementary schools, “De Colores,” the audience shifted in their seats with excitement. Throughout the night, a sense of unity swept through the room as Mariachi Del Sol played, and audience members of different walks of life sang in unison.
In 2007, Holt saw the Woodburn High School Mariachi, the only high school mariachi band in Oregon at the time, perform at Springfield High’s annual multicultural assembly. “The student body just went nuts for this; they loved it —literally dancing in the aisles, cheering and screaming,” Holt remembers. At that point, he knew he needed to begin a mariachi music program at Springfield High.
Logistically, Holt needed about $5,000 to buy the instruments, music and trajes de charro to get the program going. The school district gave him $1,000 for the program, but the other $4,000 was up to him. Elena Espinoza, a multicultural liason for the Springfield school district, was very supportive of Holt’s desire to start Mariachi Del Sol and helped with the fundraising efforts.
Espinoza arranged for an interview with a reporter from The Register Guard to inform the community of the possibility of a new and culturally rich music program. The article encouraged community members to donate as little as a dollar. The article was picked up by smaller papers throughout half the state, and Holt received donations from places as far as Bend, which was a promising sign of the program’s potential success.
Once the money was raised, Holt’s job began. “I didn’t have kids enrolled. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have any equipment. It was like, ‘Wow, I’m starting a mariachi band!’” He bought instruments, opened the class up for student enrollment, and took it one step at a time. As the first year began, “we had this incredible mix of Latino/non-Latino, Spanish-speaking/non-Spanish speaking students, and experienced musicians/non-experienced musicians all in the same class and we were able to make it work and have a lot of fun,” he fondly recalls.
The second school year began, and the group became well known throughout the community as requests for public performances became more frequent. Holt says that in the course of the 2008-2009 academic year they played nearly forty performances. At each performance, Holt asked for donations, which enable him to buy new trajes de charro, instruments and music.
Throughout this second year, Holt says he was really able to see the connections between the music and the people. “I got to see all of these celebrations and different things they do in their culture where the mariachi music is an important part of that,” he says. The mariachi classes at Springfield High are open to all students. He says out of the thirty-four enrolled this year, half are White and half are Latino. As these students of different backgrounds come together to make something bigger for their community, they are eager to help each other and become the best they can be.
Most kids enrolled in high school band began playing their instrument of choice in middle school, if not earlier. With the mariachi program, Holt has found that music is now accessible to more kids. “I can take a student and put a guitar in their hand, teach them three chords, and in a very short time, they can play mariachi,” he says with enthusiasm.
Within the next year, Holt hopes to begin a middle school mariachi program at Goshen Middle School this year and plans to have a full program running by next year. He sees the way mariachi brings students together, not only with one another, but also with their community. Members of the community attend each public event Mariachi Del Sol performs, and Holt says he receives requests weekly. Besides being culturally rich, he says, “mariachi is a very fun style; it is certainly one that people who aren’t familiar with music really enjoy.”
Perhaps it’s time to put on those dancing shoes and hear what these students can do with a few instruments, a little guidance, and a heart full of mariachi.

Read up on one of the band’s local events.