High school hosts 1st mariachi concert after program’s launch

Students at Cheyenne High School wished a “Feliz Navidad” to their parents, teachers and the mayor at the North Las Vegas school’s first mariachi concert on Wednesday night.

Principal Anthony Nuñez said he has wanted to launch a mariachi program at Cheyenne since he arrived two years ago, but it was a $60,000 grant from the North Las Vegas City Council and Mayor Pamela Goynes-Brown that made it possible to begin the program at the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

“Mariachi brings the community in,” he said of the traditional Mexican folk music. Nuñez, the former principal at Orr Middle School in Las Vegas, recalled the success of that school’s mariachi program.

For three years now, North Las Vegas has given “micro grants” to schools to fund projects like Cheyenne’s mariachi class. The grants aim to solve some of North Las Vegas’ schools most pressing issues: student achievement, chronic absenteeism, teacher retention and family engagement. The $60,000 given by the city was used to buy instruments at Cheyenne.

“We just wanted to encourage families and students to be active participants in the educational process. This program is doing exactly that,” Councilwoman Ruth Garcia-Anderson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “Mariachi is a big part of the cultural identity for many of our community members, and when they feel connected to their school and their city, the chances of succeeding are higher.”

Power of music

Students beamed and danced along as they sang in both English and Spanish on Wednesday night, even asking the crowd to sing along at points. They also played the traditional mariachi instruments: the guitarrón, trumpet, violin and vihuela. The four-song show ended in a standing ovation.

As a classically trained pianist, Goynes-Brown said she is no stranger to music’s benefits.

“I am so super excited for these young people,” she told the Review-Journal. “To be able to have their culture emphasized here, to share their stories about mariachi and the meaning behind it.”

Mariachi is especially important in North Las Vegas, where 42.2 percent of the population is Latino, according to census data. But Goynes-Brown also pointed to the diversity of the students in the group. Although many of the students spoke Spanish, not everyone did. Elyzabeth Adair, a ninth grader, said that at first, pronouncing the Spanish words was really difficult. But on Wednesday night, she sang front and center.

“It was really fun,” she said, adding that she would definitely continue learning mariachi.

Adair was not alone. Several students also said afterward they were eager to continue learning how to play the music.

Students also said they also got to know each other through playing together.

“First we started getting to know each other, and after we got to know each other, we started playing, and we all just sounded comfortable,” said Nicole Smith, a ninth grader.

Nerves and excitement

Wednesday’s show was the first time the students in separate mariachi classes all performed together. Combined with the fact that all of the instruments had only arrived at the end of October, nerves were running high prior to the show.

Just before going on stage, ninth grader Ashari Pierce came running out of practicing to tell Nuñez that she was nervous. But she was also excited.

Whereas before, Pierce had wondered if playing mariachi could be a bit boring, she said she became motivated to play once all her friends said they were coming to watch her Wednesday.

The performance, Nuñez said, was key to the students continuing with the programming.

“We really wanted them to get that experience of performing,” he said. “It’s the extracurriculars that keep them on the path to graduate. When you can have these kind of experiences where the students get to showcase talents — maybe talents they didn’t even know they had — that’s what keeps them invested.”

The students, meanwhile, got to take a breath and collect praise from family and friends who had watched them perform.

“We’ve been practicing for this moment,” junior Lupita Bolivia said. “So for it to finally happen, it was exciting.”

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ktfutts on X and @katiefutterman.bsky.social.