SILVER CITY, NM –  The sound of mariachi music could be heard throughout the western part of the Western New Mexico University campus June 4-6, as the university hosted El Son de la Gila, its annual mariachi conference. Drawing students and their mariachi directors from across the southwest, the conference provided an opportunity for high school students to learn from master mariachis, and it allowed their group leaders to network and learn from each other.

Organizing the conference was a group effort, involving not only WNMU music faculty and staff, but also the members of the university’s mariachi group, Mariachi Plata de WNMU. One member of Mariachi Plata de WNMU, Alejandro Salinas, who plays guitarrón, said that Plata members had helped with a wide variety of tasks, from setting up tables to helping the high school students get where they needed to be.

Fellow Mariachi Plata de WNMU member Anais Orantez Middleton added that the team worked especially well this year to organize the conference. “We are blessed to have a really like-minded team this year. We are all working toward the same goal, and it motivates us to work harder,” she said.

One of the benefits of helping to organize the conference is that the members of Mariachi Plata get to learn from the maestros alongside the high school students, said Laisha Vargas Garcia. The maestros are members of Mariachi Estrella de Mexico from Guadalajaro, Jalisco, and they teach both individual and group sessions over the three days of the conference.

“We have learned so much from them,” said Vargas Garcia, “like how to put our whole bodies into mariachi. The performance is not just about … sound.”

Director of Mariachi Plata Bryant Chaffino, who has organized El Son de la Gila for the past three years, said that the biggest challenge this year was a lack of funding. This lack of funding meant that he was not even sure for a time that the conference would go forward. However, the community stepped up to support the conference, Chaffino said. “Last night’s dinner was provided by LULAC,” he stated on the first full day of the conference, referring to the local arm of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “They put on a beautiful, delicious spread.”

Despite the challenges of this year’s event, El Son de la Gila drew in over 80 students from across the region.

Carolina Romero, who leads the music program at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque, said that she would never miss an opportunity to bring her students to the conference.

Romero stated that she first became aware of Mariachi Plata de WNMU when she saw them perform at Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque several years ago. At that event, she met Chaffino, and they have worked together since. “That was the start of our collaboration,” Romero explained. “We have been working on how to unify our state on mariachi education.”

Since that time, she has brought her students regularly to the conference, and many of them have gone on to matriculate at WNMU. Several of the current members of Mariachi Plata de WNMU are Atrisco Heritage alumni who first learned about the university through El Son de la Gila.

“We come to show these students what they can do after high school and to see how great these college kids are—how they are thriving,” said Romero. “It is just inspirational for everybody.”

Romero added that the collaboration between her high school and WNMU has been outstanding. “We are building a bridge between high school and college that is so important for these kids,” she said.

Tamarah Lucero, who directs youth mariachis with both Albuquerque High School and the Santa Fe Symphony, said that she has been bringing students to El Son de la Gila since the conference began. “We like to go to all the conferences that we can, so the students can learn from the different maestros,” she explained. “Conferences bring in maestros from out of state and out of country, so students can learn as much as the can.”

Lucero said that one of the most important things students gain from El Son de la Gila is a sense of camaraderie with students from other schools. “They get to see each other in these different settings and, of course, learn from the maestros,” she added.