J. Javier Trujillo began his musical career at age eight, performing guitar, vihuela, and guitarron mariachi music in a local Arizona youth group, Los Changuitos Feos, which means Ugly Little Monkeys. Twenty years later, Trujillo’s love for Mexican folk music has inspired him to reach much greater heights: teaching the music he loves to public school students.

Trujillo honed his teaching skills for two years at Pueblo High School in Tucson, Arizona, presiding over mariachi guitar, violin, and ensemble classes in an existing program. His popularity with the kids and well-attended classes soon caught the eye of Clark County, Nevada, education officials who invited him and one of his ensembles to perform for school administrators, teachers, and parents. The response was wildly enthusiastic, and the district took him on a year and a half later as project coordinator and instructor for mariachi instruction at the Clark County School District, which includes Las Vegas.

In the three years since he started the Clark County program, Trujillo has helped institute one of the most successful mariachi programs in the country, with 1,200 students in ten high schools and middle schools participating in the music classes, which are electives the students can sign up for. The program currently has seven teachers, and Trujillo, who no longer teaches, hopes to bring on an additional six instructors.

Music Is an Incentive to Achieve
On a daily basis, Trujillo sees the many benefits of the mariachi programs in Las Vegas. “The Hispanic population here is growing tremendously,” he says. “Mariachi provides an opportunity for students who would not otherwise enroll in orchestra, band, or choir. Many of these students were not involved in any extracurricular activities—not sports, not music, not a thing.”

Trujillo says the opportunity to study Mexican folk music has often filled a void in the lives of the Latino students he’s taught in both Las Vegas and Tucson, many of whom are from low-income families in inner cities. “It’s an alternative style for many kids,” says Trujillo. “There is a cultural connection the kids are drawn to because they are able to sing in their native tongue.”

The Clark County program, which has doubled in size since its inception, is particularly well regarded due to its academic requirements and standardized curriculum. The classes range in size from 20 to 35 students and include beginning guitar and violin. Students are required to take a year of one of those instruments before entering into the program’s mariachi ensemble class. Only those students who maintain at least a 2.5 GPA may perform with the program. As a result, Trujillo says he has seen students improve both their attendance and grade point average because of the mariachi instruction. “They have ownership,” explains Trujillo. “They work for it, they earn it, and they enjoy coming to school.”

Fostering Community and Pride
Trujillo’s true secret to instructing students so successfully in mariachi music is a lot less complicated. “My style involves interacting with the kids. I’m very excited,” he explains. “I display a lot of emotion. With music, you can play it, you can read music, you can read the charts, but you have to play it with feeling. That’s one of the things that is more intrinsic. Kids have to be happy, to play with that feeling. You have to enjoy it. So keeping the kids excited is really the key to making the program successful.”

Trujillo works diligently to foster a positive group dynamic. One technique he relies on is having singers and instrumentalists alike sit in a circle and vocalize together. “In mariachi,” he says, “the instrument is the voice. The violinists, guitarists, and trumpet players all practice harmonizing.” Such an activity, Trujillo explains, helps students “let go of their shyness and be comfortable with one another. We’re individual performers,” he has told his classes, “but as an ensemble, we’re one performer.”