Kids involved in folklórico attend a week of intense but fun classes

Roskruge School eighth-graders (from left to right) Christina Bermudez, 13; Maritza Rojas, 14; and Anna Maldonado, 14, play violins at a mariachi workshop.
Photos by NORMA JEAN GARGASZ/Tucson Citizen

MARY BUSTAMANTE
Tucson Citizen
April 28, 2003
Andrew Garcia is a 10-year-old who realizes he isn't quite old enough to appreciate his surroundings.
He was one of only a couple of males in the beginning folklórico class at the Mervyn's Tucson International Mariachi Conference last week at the Tucson Convention Center.
"This is fun, and we do cool stuff," he said, "but maybe I'll like being outnumbered when I'm older."
The girls are dressed in casual tops, shorts or jeans and their folklórico shoes.
Their sneakers are stuffed underneath folding chairs piled high with the flowing skirts they will wear later, when they have learned more of their routine.
There is no music in the room, just the sound of the heels of the folklórico shoes on the wooden floor panels brought in for the occasion.
Instructor Maricruz Muñoz, with the local dance group Folklórico Tonantzin, speaks Spanish to the dancers but occasionally interjects - in English - "Smile, please."
Smiling is important, because the dancers (250 in all, with differing levels of experience) and more than 500 music students were to be part of last week's annual mariachi concert, the culmination of the weeklong classes and other activities.

Andrew Garcia, 10, learns folklórico dance steps from Maricruz Muñoz at the Mariachi Music Workshop.

Outside their door and up an escalator is a handful of harpists, whose soft melody is a stark contrast to the tuning of about a hundred violins, guitars, trumpets and other instruments in the Level Three mariachi room.
But when Nati Cano, leader of Los Camperos de Nati Cano, an internationally known mariachi group, came into the room, the music was right on key. Members of Cano's group and the local Tierra de Sol were instructors at the conference.
Most dance classes were being taught by students from the prestigious Ballet Folklórico de la Universidad de Colima in Mexico and their director, Rafael Zamarripa Castaneda. That group has performed for the queen of England and the pope.
This was Tucson High Magnet freshman Antonio Federico's first year at the conference and playing with a school mariachi group, he said, although he has been playing the trumpet since fifth grade.
"We learn faster because we're learning from professionals, and they really know what they're doing," he said, adding the students are supposed to learn 10 songs during the three days of classes.
In addition to the education, students say there are other benefits. "We make new friends, and the experience makes it easier for us to perform or speak in public," said Sunnyside High junior Daniel Rodriguez.
Desert View junior Crystal Cocoa, who works for the applause and loves it, said the best part for her is being around professionals and being able to put herself "in their shoes."