Las Vegas is training the mariachi educators of tomorrow

In a city where Latinos make up more than a third of the population, mariachi music is so popular in schools that the Clark County School District struggles to find enough teachers for its program of about 6,000 students. To help fill that gap, the University of Nevada Las Vegas created a minor in mariachi — one of the only such university specializations in the country — designed to train future educators for the district.

Axel Rodríguez Olivas, 20, is set to become the first student to graduate with the minor. He said the music connects him to his Mexican heritage and creates a bridge for conversation with his family. "I think joy is what I feel ultimately," Rodríguez Olivas said, describing the experience of performing in a traditional traje charro.

Stephen Blanco, who oversees the minor at UNLV and directs the award-winning Mariachi Joya at Las Vegas High School, said mariachi is a staple of entertainment across the city. "If you go out today, there's going to be mariachi somewhere on the Strip," he said. Blanco described the genre as a form of Mexican folk music born of joy and pride that tells stories capable of moving any audience.

Both Blanco and Rodríguez Olivas perform professionally with Mariachi Paloma Azteca at weddings, funerals and parties. Rodríguez Olivas said there is beauty in the precision of a mariachi performance, from the unison playing to the way violinists hold their bows, calling it a powerful means of expressing deep emotion through storytelling.

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal