When you think about high school music class, you probably recall marching band, orchestra and choir. At Maryvale High School in Phoenix, students can stick with the mainstays — and they can also study mariachi as part of Mariachi Las Panteras De Oro.
Mike Dominguez is the school’s director of bands. When he arrived at Maryvale High, there was already a mariachi class. Over the past few years, he’s created and nurtured the off-campus performing group.
“I saw the potential. You know, especially in this community, like, the Mexican-American population, it's just very, very strong in this area,” Dominguez said. “And so the culture along with it, I figured what better way to not only get these kids to play this awesome music, but to make those connections with their roots and their heritage and all that.”
His students at the time chose the band’s name and designed the logo. A catrina-style panther head topped with a sombrero adorns the back of their trajes, or suits. “Las Panteras de Oro” is a nod to Maryvale High’s panther mascot and gold colors.
Las Panteras are active around the state. They’ve performed for the American Heart Association, the Arizona Senate and former Gov. Doug Ducey.
And they’re paid for their performances.
Esmeralda Valencia is a member of Las Panteras.
“I feel very strongly about it. It’s something that will always, always have such a special place in my heart,” Valencia said.
Dominguez is incredibly versatile. He teaches marching band, jazz band, and orchestra. He’s something of an unlikely mentor for Las Panteras, considering his early distaste for mariachi.
“When I was a kid, I couldn’t stand mariachi music,” Dominguez said. “You know when people do the gritos, you know the yelling? I went ‘Ahh that’s so stupid, why do they do that?’ I was a dumb kid, I was an uneducated kid. And I was around it all the time because my grandparents listened to it.”
His feelings changed in middle school, around the same time he started to play the trumpet. Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Dominguez trained as a mariachi after school with a group of kids his age. Eventually he was paid to perform.
Dominguez says that’s what mariachi used to be about: providing for himself.
“But now, it’s got a completely different meaning. It’s student success, student achievement, student ownership over what they do. And just seeing them achieve, it’s an amazing feeling. It’s like beyond pride.”
One of those students is Esmeralda Valencia, a senior at Mayvale. A violinist, she’s the longest-tenured member of Las Panteras.
Her parents are from Guerrero, Mexico. Mariachi music has always been in her, but the songs of José Alfredo Jiménez really sparked her passion.
“I know my parents saw me when I was like 12 years old and was like ‘Aw, she’s gonna stop listening to mariachi in a few years, like it’s something that’s gonna go away.’ But, I personally, I don’t think it’s something that can just disappear from my life forever,” Valencia said. “It’s something that I will always find a way to carry with myself in a way that will help me communicate with other people.”
Valencia loves to play sones. The string-heavy songs are the truest form of mariachi music. Think of a song like “Son de la Negra.”
“It makes me see how far I’ve come as a violinist and a mariachi. Being able to realize how much growth I’ve made in such little time is just so refreshing. I don’t think 10-year-old me would be able to see how much I’ve grown,” Valencia said.
Dominguez, a self-proclaimed traditionalist, agrees.
“If you don’t play a son, you’re not a mariachi,” he said.
David Castillo finds connection with rancheras, a style of mariachi that literally means “from the rancho,” or ranch.
That’s Castillo, another Maryvale senior, singing one of the most famous rancheras, “El Rey.” He plays the vihuela.
Castillo grew up on a ranch in Sonora, Mexico. He started playing mariachi when he was 8, and played gigs in Hermosillo. He moved to Arizona with his family when was 11.
“A lot of the people told me a lot since I was a kid, ‘Mariachi is a way of living, and it’s a way of being,’” Castillo said. “Mariachi is not just one style of music, it’s just a way that you can communicate towards the gente, and towards the people. You’ve got to be communicative towards that type of music.”
Now upperclassmen, Castillo and Valencia are leaders of the Panteras, the only mariachi performing group in the Phoenix Unified High School District. They say they learned a lot from the seniors who guided them through their early high school years.
Many of those alumni have continued their mariachi careers at Phoenix College, where Dominguez also teaches.
“They always were actually ready to rehearse, man,” Castillo said. “When it comes, like, to 15 minutes being late in class, or just 10 minutes late in class, they were like ‘Man, you gotta be there, you gotta be there.’ They were always on point. They actually influenced a lot of us.”
Every April, Las Panteras attend the Tucson International Mariachi Festival, where they get to talk shop with and learn from some of the most accomplished mariachis in the world.
The first formal mariachi class in the United States was offered at UCLA in 1961. Dr. José R. Torres-Ramos is an ethnomusicologist and mariachi director at San Jose State University.
“The discipline of ethnomusicology has been to study musics that are outside of the Western classical tradition, what historically has kind of been referred to as ‘world music,’” he said. “So mariachi was a way to, an entry into studying, you know, Mexican folk music, if you will.”
Dominguez says it means everything to have mariachi programs in schools.
“I think people are just starting to see the value in being able to teach a folk music, you know, that, especially here, you know, that hits so close to home,” Dominguez said. “Just some of the stories I can tell you about kids that have come to me, and they’re like ‘Oh, my grandma wants me to sing this song, or my dad likes this song, can we do this song?’ And it’s absolutely, amazingly powerful.”
While he wishes he’d had a chance like this when he was in high school, he’s grateful for the opportunity now.
“Man, I’ve got the best job in the world. It’s cool. I feel very, very fortunate and very lucky.”
You can see Las Panteras de Oro perform at the La Cultura Car and Bike Show at Carl Hayden High School on April 5.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct the spelling of David Castillo's name.
