Santa Rosa mariachi camp extends music to new generation

When four dozen schoolchildren first stepped foot on campus at Cook Middle School this month, most of them had no idea how to handle a violin, trumpet or guitar case, let alone play an instrument.

Jose Soto Jr. planned to not only teach the kids, from age 8 to 17, to appreciate mariachi but also to play and sing the Mexican folk music. All within three weeks.

“We were a little scared because it was a new program,” said Soto, who has teamed up this summer with the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts to put on the inaugural mariachi camp at Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa.

With the free camp now in its second week, the kids showed confidence Monday as they strummed guitars, blew on trumpets and played notes on violins.

“They’re doing really well,” said Soto, 23, a violinist with his own family ensemble, Mariachi Barragan, and co-founder the Mariachi Club at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa. “A lot of them didn’t know what mariachi music was. They (now) get to learn about their parents’ culture and their own culture.”

The free, three-week summer program was created to introduce mariachi to underserved children in southwest Santa Rosa. Many of the students come from low-income families who cannot afford to pay for music lessons or instruments, Soto said.

All the instruments were provided by the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, which has been reaching out to the Latino community for years, said Kyle Clausen, the center’s marketing and patron services director.

One of six children, Soto began playing when he was about 10 in the small town of Tapalpa in the Mexican state of Jalisco. His father played violin in a mariachi band.

Now his brother, Carlos Soto, 20, is helping him teach guitar. Their 9-year-old brother, Adrian Soto, who already plays violin, is in the camp learning guitar.

Among the other students, Yuritzi Guerrero, 8, and Xochipilli Olivera-?Vera, 14, had some experience with instruments. Yuritzi learned to play the violin a year ago. She reached for the trumpet during camp.

“I wanted to try something new,” she said. “It takes a lot of work. It’s hard to make a good sound.”

Outside, Olivera-Vera and a handful of other advanced students practiced on their trumpets. Olivera-?Vera learned to play the trumpet when he joined band in seventh grade at Wright Charter School. He was excited to be learning mariachi, though.

“You really don’t get to learn this anywhere else,” said the 14-year-old incoming freshman in Santa Rosa High School’s ArtQuest program. His family comes from Guanajuato, Mexico. “This gives you pride.”

Araceli Montoya was waiting in the courtyard Monday as her 8-year-old daughter, Diana, wrapped up her violin lessons. Montoya has a family of musicians. Her husband plays the jumbo-?sized guitarron in a local mariachi band, while their son plays the violin. Both of them were volunteering at the camp, which she called a great investment for the community.

“It keeps kids off the street and away from bad influences,” she said.

After trumpet practice, the children gathered in the school cafeteria to practice their vocals. They followed as an animated Soto climbed on a chair, urging them to sing louder to the classic “Cielito Lindo.”

The mariachi camp is part of a pair of new cultural programs supported by the Wells Fargo Center, which this year officially took over the One City Arts project, launched last summer by Santa Rosa artist Maria de los Angeles. That program, which offers free art classes for children, wrapped up earlier this month.

Soto said the need for such programs is evident. He had to turn away nearly two dozen applicants for the mariachi camp because of lack of space.

Cook Middle School principal Linsey Gannon could hear the children practicing from her office Monday.

“I’m just thrilled. It’s a wonderful opportunity for the youth of our community,” she said, noting the confidence, creativity and teamwork it instills in children.

“It gives them such power,” camp violin instructor Joella Olsen said. “They’re creating in their culture.”

The camp will conclude with an 11 a.m. concert at Cook Middle School on Aug. 7. The public is invited.

Yuritzi Guerrero said she can’t wait to show how much she and her fellow campmates learned.

“I feel nervous,” she said. “But we’re going to do great.”