Students in the Middle School and High School Vocal Competition participate in last year’s FESTIBA Mariachi Festival Grand Concert in the Performing Arts Complex on the Edinburg Campus. PHOTO COURTESY UTRGV PHOTOJOURNALIST PAUL CHOUY
The Festival of International Books and Arts 2023 will come to a close with the Mariachi Festival on Friday and Saturday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex, featuring master classes, competitions and a concert by Mariachi Aztlán and Mariachi Sol de México.
Festival organizer Dahlia Guerra, UTRGV assistant vice president for Public Art and Special Projects, said the event was established in 2006. FESTIBA was created to promote the importance of literacy, culture and the arts to the community.
“This is my 18th [festival] and I just think it’s gotten to be a really popular and significant tradition here in the [Rio Grande] Valley,” Guerra said. “It’s a reflection of our culture and something to be proud of to see how hard these kids work. … It’s a big celebration and we just want everyone to be a part of it.”
The festival starts at 11 a.m. Friday with several master classes and with a handful on Saturday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex. Starting the festival is Adolfo Estrada, a legacy institution University of Texas-Pan American and UTRGV alumnus who is currently an assistant professor in the Texas State University School of Music and director of Latin Music Studies.
“He was in Mariachi Aztlán for many years,” Guerra said. “So we’re excited about him because he’s one of our homegrown kids that went on to get a doctorate and now he’s coming back to talk about different regional music of guitar and mariachi. Mariachi music is quite regional in the different styles of guitar strumming and playing.”
One of the other featured presentations at the festival is eight-time Emmy award-winning audio and video engineer Charlie Borrego, who will show students how to perfect a sound system when working with mariachi music.
The mariachi festival also has a live competition component, featuring middle schools and high schools across the Valley on Friday and Saturday. Some of the schools in the competitions are McAllen Memorial High School, Roma High School and Michael E. Fossum Middle School.
“It should be a lot of fun,” Guerra said. “These are little kiddos that just have amazing talent. It’s really fun to see both the middle school and the high school competitions because it’s just surprising how much natural talent these young men and women have from the Valley.”
She said it is thrilling to see the progression of development and of talent.
“It’s interesting to watch the little ones and then the way they’ve developed through high school,” Guerra said. And then you see Mariachi Aztlán at the university level. And then you see a professional mariachi, which has two Aztlán [members] in it.”
The competition winners will perform at the festival concert. Guerra said anyone can attend a master class or the competition.
“The concert will be a wonderful showcase of all the talent across South Texas because we have many schools represented here and it’s a beautiful tradition that has grown here in the Valley with mariachi music,” she said.
Priscilla Espinoza, a music education senior with a minor in mariachi performance, plays violin in Mariachi Aztlán and told The Rider it is awesome to see students being competitive and sharing their talents with the community. Espinoza attended the mariachi festival as a child and competed as a student at Edinburg North High School.
“I think it is a very rewarding feeling to see students competing and getting creative,” Espinoza said. “In high school, it was when I started competing with my school, so I know what that feels like. I know the adrenaline backstage when you’re about to go on stage. I think it is only ideal that we keep watering the seeds with events like these for students from the Valley to prosper.”
The final concert will feature UTRGV’s own Mariachi Aztlán with Jorge Iván Velasco, an internationally renowned harp player and director of the Mariachi Universitario de La Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico, as well as Mariachi Sol de México de José Hernández.
Mariachi Sol de México is known as the world’s premiere mariachi group, having performed in places such as Madison Square Garden in New York City and Pyongyang, North Korea.
Mariachi Aztlán is nationally recognized and has performed throughout the nation, including for former U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House and just went on tour with Aida Cuevas, the queen of mariachi.
The Grand Concert tickets are $20 and can be bought at the box office inside the UTRGV PAC.
For the full schedule of events and more information, visit utrgv.edu/music.
