They’re modern Central Texas teens, a world away from the cradle of Mexican mariachi music.
But something happens when they put on the charro suit and strike up the old songs.
In discovering tradition, they discover themselves.
Becoming Mariachis
A season with University High’s Los Mariachi Troyanos
Story by Raquel Villatoro, photos by Justin Hamel
Andrea Monrial was in mariachi class at University High School on Dec. 2 when she and her classmates were called across the hall into the school auditorium.
The curtain opened on racks of solid black suits, with intricate patterns embroidered across the jacket, pants and sombreros in the school colors of purple and white.
It was her first glimpse of the trajes de charro: the uniform of the mariachi, rooted in centuries of Spanish and Mexican history.
Soon she was on stage with other student members of Los Mariachi Troyanos, wearing her traje and strumming her five-string vihuela to a traditional Mexican ballad. In that moment, she was more than a 17-year-old high schooler in Waco.
She was a mariachi.
“Some people die without putting on a traje,” Monrial said. “That’s what I think. And I’m just like, I got to do that. And stepping on stage in a traje, I feel like that’s very important to keep that alive.”
The majority-Hispanic high school in South Waco has long been fertile ground for cultivating the mariachi tradition, hundreds of miles north of its origins in Jalisco, Mexico. It has been a pipeline for area bands such as the venerable Mariachi Azteca.
UHS band director Archie Hatten IV, was part of an earlier version of Los Troyanos before he graduated from the school in 1999.
He continued to play the music at Texas State University, and when he returned to Waco he revived Los Troyanos in 2005 and has led it ever since. But it wasn’t until last year that the ensemble was able to afford authentic trajes, thanks to a $45,000 grant from the Cooper Foundation.
The 40-piece ensemble debuted with the Mexican-tailored uniforms at a Christmas concert. Hatten said the results were transformative.
“Without a uniform, Superman’s only Clark Kent, right?” Hatten said. “So I think it’s really cool, especially with marching band as well. As soon as they put on the uniform, their ability just skyrockets.”
Finding their voices
The Troyanos have grown in confidence and musicianship since The Waco Bridge began documenting their school year in September. The ensemble is heading to Fort Worth this weekend for regional competitions through the University Interscholastic League, which expanded mariachi to include state competitions in 2018.
Sophomore Jade Garcia joined Los Troyanos as a freshman after watching her sister play violin in the ensemble. She herself learned violin through videos, and she was self-conscious about her playing abilities.
“But then after a few gigs or so, I started falling in love with it,” Garcia said. “I love performing to the people, putting myself out there without, like, actually, like going out there. I like playing with everybody, enjoying my time with them.”
Garcia is no longer afraid to put her talents on display.
“I’ve never been able to speak publicly or sing out there, but being in this mariachi, being able to sing for it, and being in the private one, it opened me up to the world,” Garcia said. “And I allowed myself to let people in, in ways of being confident and just taking everyone and everything in, all the emotions.”
Garcia sang a duet for the first time in December during a performance for patients at Ascension Providence Hospital. By then, the Troyanos were beginning to find their confidence as an ensemble, parading through the room as they played.
Her duet partner was Abel Serrato, who joined the ensemble last year as a shy freshman.
Serrato grew up in a musical family, beginning piano lessons at 3 and starting trumpet in middle school. Serrato also performs with the off-campus student group, Mariachi Corazon de Oro.
“Now that I do it professionally or with my group of friends, it gives me an all-new level of confidence,” Serrato said.
Serrato said the new trajes de charro gave him a confidence boost.
“I didn’t really mind not having a uniform, but it did feel like fish out of water,” he said. “So now that we’re going to be in uniforms, I feel like we’re going to not only look more professional, I think we’re going to be more intimidating to other bands.”
Rooted in tradition
Junior Jacob Mendoza began playing piano at 11, inspired by the Freddie Mercury biopic, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Since then, he has learned 10 instruments, including viola, violin and the bass guitar. When the band director needed a violin player for the UIL competition, he asked the freshman Mendoza to participate in the mariachi ensemble.
Mendoza has been part of the ensemble since, and he’s ready to pick up any instrument and learn it if Hatten asks. Now he is learning the trumpet.
He loves music and is a part of several other ensembles, including a blues rock band, Paratism.
“Watching everyone that I’ve been playing with get to a level where they can play whatever he puts in front of us, that’s that’s where I want to get,” Mendoza said. “And then playing harder and harder and harder stuff, and watching everyone just sound 30, 40, times better. Because, I mean, this is all corny, but we technically are all in this together.”
He said mariachi has connected him to his Mexican roots.
“Being the color that I am, and living in America and being away from everything else, it feels like I’m missing out on part of something that I should know,” Mendoza said. “And something that’s important to everyone else, but I just don’t understand. So learning to pick up the culture… is definitely, definitely helping.”
Monrial, the vihuela player, described her journey from shy freshman to confident senior performer.
Monrial’s mother had long dreamed her daughter would sing and play violin for Los Troyanos.
But early in her career with the group, Hatten had to remind her to play louder, and she was hesitant to sing. Then a senior passed along a solo song to Monrial.
During her first time performing “Los Laureles,” Monrial remembers introducing herself to the crowd and feeling nervous.
“My heart sank,” Monrial said. “I was like, ‘Stop the music.’ And then I sang the wrong note. And I remember that to this day, I sang the wrong note at the beginning, and I was thrown off the whole rest of the day, and I was so upset.”
During her sophomore year, Monrial wanted to quit, but her mother and uncle encouraged her to keep going. At a competition, Monrial got to sing the song again, which accounted for 50% of the ensemble’s score. Although she was nervous, she felt great about her performance.
“But ever since then, I just wanted to keep going, and I wanted to get better,” Monrial said. “And now I’m one of the lead players in mariachi. I’m really proud of that.”
After graduation, Monrial plans to continue performing with Mariachi Corazon de Oro, an independent mariachi group that started in May 2025.
Mariachi’s past and future
Hatten, the director, said it’s exciting to be part of mariachi’s growing nationwide popularity in high schools and colleges. Baylor University’s school of music has one of the newest collegiate mariachi ensembles, Mariachi Oso Dorados.
“There are plenty of opportunities now,” Hatten said. “Like I said, it’s mariachi fever, like get ready, it’s about to blow up a lot bigger.”
Garcia, the sophomore violinist and singer, said mariachi is more than a high school elective for her.
“I feel like it’s always going to be a part of me,” Garcia said. “I’m going to most likely do it when I’m older, and if I don’t, I’m always just going to start bragging, being like, actually, I was in the mariachi band. That was me, that was me in those videos.”
Disclosure: The Cooper Foundation is a financial supporter of The Waco Bridge, a nonprofit news organization that is funded in part by donations from individual donors, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Bridge’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
