The magic of mariachi music in school

Transcript:

ZAIDEE STAVELY: Zaida Ramos first learned the magic of mariachi music from her father when she was a little girl.

ZAIDA RAMOS: My parents are both from the same small little town outside of Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico. And so I had the best of both worlds. I had, um, the American experience, and I also had the Mexican experience, and I also had the Mexican American experience, . Um, and part of that, definitely in, uh, growing up, it was music.

ZAIDEE: Her father, Juan Manuel Ramos, was a singer and a musician.

ZAIDA: Anything from, uh, ranchera, boleros, lots of boleros. He would do mariachi, trio, quartet. 

ZAIDEE STAVELY: Her dad had taught himself to play music as a kid back in Mexico. But he could never afford music classes. As an adult in California, he studied singing under a maestro at the San Francisco Music Conservatory. He also worked odd jobs and did landscaping to scrape together enough money for Zaida and her brother’s music classes. That’s how important he believed music was for kids. And not just his own kids. Later he became a vocal coach for the San Jose State University Mariachi program.

ZAIDA: And what he learned was that a lot of families weren’t able to afford the program. So his dream was to always help kids that had similar, growing, similar situations growing up that he did, where he wasn’t able to afford music classes or an instrument.

ZAIDEE: Zaida followed in her father’s footsteps and also became a mariachi singer. Together, as a family, they created a nonprofit, called Escuela de Mariachi Oro y Plata, where kids could learn music for free. Then, an opportunity arose.

ZAIDA: One of my uncles was a principal at Dorsa Elementary at the time, so we were able to use, uh, the cafeteria. And then at that time, the, uh, superintendent was Dr. Wood. And so we ended up sort of merging the nonprofit into Alum Rock. And eventually we just started the Alum Rock Mariachi program.

ZAIDEE: Zaida and her dad have now  been running the bilingual music program in San Jose’s Alum Rock Union School District for more than 20 years. Students from third to eighth grade gather after school to learn how to play the guitar, the trumpet, the violin, the guitarron, and the vihuela, and how to sing mariachi music.

Here they are, performing, in traditional mariachi attire – bright blue suits with shiny embroidery, boots, wide-brimmed hats, and big floppy bow ties. The suits are fashioned after those worn by horsemen known as charros. Zaida says most of the students have Mexican heritage, and the program teaches them pride in their identity.

ZAIDA: We teach bilingually, um, and of course the songs are in Spanish, so if they’re ever struggling with Spanish, once they start mariachi, it just, it helps them because they have to read the song, the song lyrics and the way we teach is, you know, you have to interpret the songs, so you have to know what you’re singing. You can’t just, you know, sing in a language that, that doesn’t resonate.

ZAIDEE: This is Education Beat: Getting to the heart of California schools. I’m Zaidee Stavely. This week: the magic of mariachi music in school.

Zaida has seen the impact of the program on students.

ZAIDA: It shows them so much in terms of responsibility and as well as pride and just confidence in how they carry themselves and how they, uh, go about their day to day, how they interact with other people, how other people. And, uh, it, it’s just benefited so many kids.

ZAIDEE: She recalls one child in particular, who had just come from Mexico when she joined the program.

ZAIDA: She had just come from Mexico and she was really struggling, um, acclimating to the new environment. She didn’t speak the language. She didn’t have any friends.

ZAIDEE: But learning to play violin and play music together with other kids in the mariachi program changed everything, Zaida says.

ZAIDA: And after that year,  mariachi was her life. Her mom made really great friends with other moms in, in the group. And, um, she had a really good core group of, um, of, of girlfriends that she made that year. And they, they’re still friends. I see them on social media, , they’re, they’re, you know, they’re godparents of each other’s kids and, you know, it’s just really great.

ZAIDEE: My colleague Karen D’Souza wrote about Alum Rock’s Mariachi program for EdSource.

Hi Karen.

KAREN D’SOUZA:

Hey Zaidee. 

ZAIDEE: So Karen, how did you hear about this um, mariachi program?

KAREN:

Actually, I kind of got lucky. I just met someone at a conference, um, about arts education and they were talking about, um, how happy they were that there was finally that EdSource was paying attention to arts education ’cause they feel like it’s been an overlooked field. And she mentioned this as one of the programs that she’s loved for years and years. It never gets any attention, so it was very pleased to be able to shed a little light on them.

ZAIDEE: So what stood out to you most about, about this program in particular that Zaida Ramos and her dad run?

KAREN: Gosh, I guess just ’cause it seems so organic, it’s wonderful. I mean, all arts education is fantastic and I think the arts actually are really universal. You know, I was an Indian American kid and I fell for Shakespeare. I don’t think it has to be your culture specifically, but what’s really wonderful about this program in the Alum Rock District, it is predominantly, uh, Latino, a predominantly Latino district. And so the mariachi program, which is bilingual, really helps connect a lot of kids to their specific heritage, to their ancestors and their culture. And I think that’s wonderful.

ZAIDEE: How does this kind of program help kids?

KAREN: People tend to think of the arts as kind of a little luxury item that’s nice to have, but not an essential to learning. And I thought the Mariachi program really explicated how untrue that is. First of all, you learn so much about culture and history that’s embedded in the music, that music isn’t just sound. There are a lot of ideas and concepts for kids to learn, and they’re actually gonna learn it much better being immersed in something like music than just reading a chapter and a book that they’re quite likely to forget about, you know, once when, when they’re done with it. 

The other thing about music education is that it really does build resilience in students because you have to practice really over and over and over again. The arts really sort of like sports. They make you do things repetitively and that, that helps, actually helps with the rest of life because so much of, you know, work and life is being able to relentlessly pursue an objective, even if it’s no longer immediately engaging. And I think we have kind of a short attention span culture right now, and people are, are used to clicking back and forth away and, and shifting their focus. And the arts force you to keep your focus to maintain it over long periods of time. So thirdly, I, sorry. That’s the other thing about music is that it’s so engaging. Kids love music. A lot of times you hear that the only reason they’re coming to school, not just music, drama, dance, whatever they love is they didn’t wanna come to school and they weren’t going to come to school that day, but that was the day they had music class, so they forced themselves to go. And right now, you know, chronic absenteeism is a huge problem. There’s a lot of disengagement from schools both on the part of children and families. So anything we can do that the kids love, I think we really should think about doing.

ZAIDEE: Zaida says research has shown music not only helps students show up to school but also boosts their academics.

ZAIDA: There’s been so many studies about how, um, how it uses, uh, different sides of the brain and how, uh, there’s a direct correlation with grades, better grades with, uh, kids that are learning music.

ZAIDEE: She’s also seen the mariachi program help students grow in other ways.

ZAIDA: Based on what we’ve seen and what the parents have come back and what the students eventually come back and tell us, it just has a lot to do with, uh, giving them a way to express themselves, um, and to tap into just the, those artistic abilities that they might not even know that they’ve had, or just a goal that they really want to work on. And they, they, they work and they build it, and they reach the goal that they want to be on stage performing

ZAIDEE: She remembers one little girl who struggled a lot when she started the mariachi program in second grade.

ZAIDA: She was struggling and she’s really, really young. And I just, I kept teaching her, kept teaching her. Um, I honestly, I thought she was gonna quit, and I’m so glad that I just kept insisting because by third grade she was playing pieces that were just so amazing. And she was outperforming seventh to eighth graders and at third grade.

ZAIDEE: A few years ago, Zaida ran into her at a restaurant. The girl was now in college.

ZAIDA: And she ran after me when I left the, the restaurant, she said, do you remember me? She said, I miss it so much, and it changed my life. And I kept going even after high school, and I still play in, uh, in college. And it was such a great feeling because I remember thinking, oh goodness, she’s really struggling. You know, I wasn’t sure she was gonna make it, but she kept going. 

ZAIDEE: Another former student now at Yale plays mariachi on the weekends to help pay for books or anything else he needs. And another loved mariachi so much that he learned trumpet, guitar, guitarrón, vihuela, drums and accordion, and made his own band, which won a prestigious award.

But despite the big impacts on students who’ve participated, Zaida says funding for the program is always a struggle. At one point the program taught mariachi  in 10 schools. Now it’s only in four.

ZAIDA: Every so often, um, there’s been more cuts and more cuts.  And especially after Covid, um, you know, we, we had our budget cut drastically. Uh, and then when we came back it was really great, but we lost teachers because they couldn’t, they couldn’t afford what we were getting paid. Um, and it’s been a struggle. Uh, we would love to expand the program. There’s always schools and families that would love the program at their schools, but if we don’t have the funding, we can’t bring on the teachers and we can’t provide the classes. And, you know, we are very in demand in terms of, in terms of performances. But again, if we don’t have the hours to support that, we can’t have the kids experience these wonderful, uh, opportunities to perform.

ZAIDEE: Karen, California is expanding arts funding statewide, with a billion dollars a year coming through  Proposition 28 funding. How can that funding help programs like this one?

KAREN: It’s a great question. It has been a constant struggle, I think for all the arts education programs, um, really ever since Prop 13, right? Kind of took a bite outta school funding. Um, so Prop 28 can help in a lot of different ways. It kind of depends on the school and the school district and the choices they make in terms of what to fund. I think this district is still trying to figure out what their prop 28 plan would be. There’s a couple ways it could work. 80% of the funding from Prop 28 goes to staff. So a school or a district could choose to hire someone who specialized in this kind of music and have a staff person. Um, alternately 20% of those funds can be, can be used for other things. So, um, ZDA and her dad, they’re not, uh, school employees. They’re not full-time employees. They’re contracted employees. So 20% of the funds could go towards something like the way program is constructed now, right?

ZAIDEE: Or they could somehow be included.

KAREN: Absolutely. I mean, the hope I think across the state is that a lot of schools with this funding will restructure the way they, they think about arts funding now that there’s a stable source of funding. I think partially what happened to people is, you know, maybe you had enough funding for one year, but you knew it was unlikely to continue. I mean, especially right now, a lot of budgets are shrinking for a lot of different state monetary reasons. And so the, the great thing about Prop 28, it will take a long time for, I think for schools and school districts to change their mindset in the way they do business. But one, once everyone realizes that the money is, you know, here to stay, it should be a real boon for a lot, lot of different programs.

ZAIDEE: So Karen, you actually have another story out this week that despite Prop 28, there are budget cuts in some districts, including some cuts to art programs. And you write that a growing group of arts teachers are concerned that some districts may be misspending their Proposition 28 money using the new funds to pay for existing classes or activities outside the scope of arts education. What’s going on?

KAREN: Well, I think it’s sort of a perfect storm of events actually, in terms of California schools right now. So there’s less money for everything that the school wants to do. And I think overall, I think the takeaway is there’s not enough transparency. So there are some districts where it looks like they’re, um, subtracting arts, arts classes and perhaps using those funds that should go to arts classes for other uses. And that’s what the allegations are, is that there’s not enough accountability. And if you’re cutting a dance class, when you have all this new money for the arts, you know, why are you doing that? Then there needs to be more accountability so people know what’s going on. 

ZAIDEE: How has the California Department of Education responded to those allegations?

KAREN: CDE um, says that they’re taking the allegations seriously and looking into it, but, um, but they’re not actually holding people’s feet to the fire and they’re waiting for the process to unfold. There’s an accountability process sort of built into Prop 28 with, um, independent auditing, and that I think CDE is leaning on them where there are many, as you said, arts advocates, teachers, parents who are really hoping that the CDE can provide more guidance, um, not just in terms of scrutinizing the use of the fund, uh, the monies, but actually just helping schools and school districts figure out what the rules are for Prop 28 spending. Many, many people argue that they’re quite complicated and it’s really fuzzy. And so there might even be some cases where people are misunderstanding or misinterpreting the rules as opposed to, um, you know, going out of their way to sort of cheat the system. They might simply have interpreted them incorrectly, and that in absence of guidance, you can in fact, you know, expect people to make mistakes with a complicated new, um, accounting system. 

ZAIDEE: Like, for example, if a PTA has been paying for some arts programs in the past, does the school have to expand programs beyond that? Or use the new money to pay for those existing programs?

KAREN: Yeah. That is a fascinating thing. So a lot of parents do argue that, um, you know, private philanthropy, parent donations shouldn’t count in the baseline because you can’t count on that someone grad, someone’s kid graduates from that school. They’re probably not going to continue to give funds, right. That they were given previously. Then at the same time, 

ZAIDEE: You’re not expanding arts. 

KAREN: Exactly. So that’s a question of interpretation and I think, um, although the, the author of the legislation has been very clear that no, all arts funding counts against the baseline. I believe CDE hasn’t yet come up publicly with a statement on that, and so it’s up to sort of individual districts to interpret how they wish. 

ZAIDEE: Going back to the Mariachi Program, you know, for parents who are listening or maybe even teachers who don’t have this kind of program in their school and want to want something like this, what can they do?

KAREN: Now the great thing about Prop 28 is supposed to be responsive to what families and parents and teachers want. So the best thing you can do is go talk to your school. Go talk to your principal, find out if they have a plan yet for the Prop 28 money and tell them what you think. Um, your region, your city. You know what those kids really want. Do they want a mariachi program? Do they want Indian dance? Do they want jazz music? Whatever you think would really speak to those kids, it’s important to, um, have your voice be counted right now while plans are being set.

ZAIDEE: Zaida Ramos is hopeful the Alum Rock mariachi program could expand with Prop 28 funding. But she’s not certain what will happen.

ZAIDA: We haven’t had a, a firm, um, you know, uh, agreement or proposal put aside that, you know, that yes, we’re gonna expand the program this year. Uh, we do know that they would love for the program to be, uh, performing more. But, you know, it, it, you can’t expect, you know, a pre covid type of program on a covid budget. 

ZAIDEE: She hopes it will expand, for the kids’ sake.

ZAIDA: I definitely think that it would because it’s, it’s exactly for programs like this. Uh, I mean, this is a program that is after school. It’s music, it’s of course visual and performing arts. It’s the music component, but it’s also bilingual and it’s cultural. There’s so many different points that this program specifically, um, taps into that it’s, there should be no reason why the funding wouldn’t be available.

CREDITS:

ZAIDEE: Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of Education Beat: Getting to the heart of California schools. A production of EdSource.

You can find links to Karen’s story in our podcast notes and at EdSource dot org.

While you’re there, check out a special EdSource project,  “College Behind Bars: Life With The Possibility of Transformation”, a documentary about four men sentenced to life without parole, who had the chance to earn a college degree while incarcerated.

Our producer is Coby McDonald.

Special thanks to our guests Zaida Ramos and Karen D’Souza.

And thanks to managing editor, Adam Eisenberg.

Our theme music is from Blue Dot Sessions.

This episode was brought to you by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

I’m Zaidee Stavely. Join us next week. And subscribe so you won’t miss an episode.