Elsie Allen ties forged by mariachi music

When kids at Elsie Allen High School first learned that Jose Soto Jr. played in a mariachi band with his father, some students teasingly started calling him, "Mariachi."

At the time, the nickname was one of many things that made the young violinist cringe with embarrassment. It was fall 2008, and Jose, who had only recently arrived from Mexico, didn't speak much English and was unfamiliar with the culture.

But it wasn't long before Elsie's students, teachers and staff recognized the musical talents that Jose and his family brought to multiple fundraisers.

"I was first embarrassed and then later they started asking why don't we play more," Soto said.

When the Soto and his younger brother Francisco arrived on campus, many of the Latino students did "not show a very keen interest in mariachi music," said Brien Farrell, a government and economics teacher.

"Now it's a big part of who we are," he said. "And that &‘we' is not just more recent immigrant students. It's a big swath of Elsie Allen. They play at big events and everybody looks forward to it. The energy rises. They engage, and Jose Jr. is a master entertainer."

For the family, the musical tradition rooted in Mexico helped them endure two decades of the lengthy and arduous process of becoming legal residents of the United States. It was an extension of Soto's culture even as he and his family embraced a new life while experiencing immigration changes that go back to the amnesty of 1986.

Jose was born in Tapalpa, a small town in the southern part of the state of Jalisco, where mariachi music is said to have originated.

He has been playing music ever since he was 12 years old. His father, who also plays the violin, started when he was 14, about a year before he came to the United States as an illegal immigrant.

Jose Soto Sr. was only 15 when he arrived in Washington to pick apples and cherries. He was short and not yet shaving, making him look even shorter.

"Nobody wanted to hire me because I looked like a little boy," he said, speaking in Spanish.

An elderly American woman finally gave him a job, paying him cash to pick cherries and water her fields. After he returned to Mexico, she sent word back to him in 1988 that she could give him an employment letter that would help him gain legal residency through the 1986 amnesty law.

He got his green card four years later and with it the right to go back and forth across the border. He worked in the United States most of the year, and spent one or two months in Tapalpa with his growing family.

Leaving them was never easy, and he did it at least once a year.

"I always left at 4 in the morning because I didn't want them to see me cry and have them all start to cry," he said.

In 1996, Jose Soto Sr. moved to Potter Valley in Mendocino County to work in the vineyards. That year, when the mariachi group Los Giros of Windsor played in town, he was asked to sit in and sing, earning $100.

By that time, he had four children and the extra money was needed in Tapalpa. But he also tried to pass along what he had learned, sending back money that in part paid for music classes.

"I always tell them that the only thing I have to give you is what I know," he said.

Also in 1996, one of the elder Soto's cousins told him he should petition to bring his family to the United States. He filed the paperwork and waited. The years passed, and by 2004, Soto was desperate.

Then he learned that his immigration case had been closed because he had not filed certain papers. He had spent $5,000 on the process, including paying an immigration specialist in Ukiah to help him.

He hired another specialist and paid another $280 for each family member. The case was reopened and again he waited. It wasn't until April 2008 that his family was given an appointment with U.S. immigration officials in Ciudad Juarez, the border city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The family was granted residency and immediately entered the U.S., coming to Sonoma County with only one change of clothes and a single pair of shoes.

For three months, the family slept in the garage of a house where Jose Sr. rented a room with other immigrants. The kids could not immediately enroll in school because the year was nearly over.

Jose Jr. and Francisco tried to enroll at Roseland University Prep, but could not get in.

"We had to write 15 pages telling our life story, but we still couldn't get in," Soto Jr. said. "It took two days to get into Elsie Allen."

Soto Jr. was the first to join his father in a mariachi group. Back in Mexico, his talent had earned him a statewide award and the right to record a song.

When he arrived in Santa Rosa, Jose Soto Jr. played with his father in a local group called Los Caporales. Soto Jr.'s oldest brother, Juan Antonio, soon joined.

But by last year, the three Sotos were at a crossroads. Trouble was brewing with Los Caporales, and the recession was eating away at the usual employment opportunities for immigrants.

In June 2010, the Sotos formed their own band, Mariachi Barragan, and decided the quality of the music and appearance of the band members both were important. They would not skimp on their mariachi suits, which average about $800 each.

Soto Jr.'s brothers Francisco and Leo joined as well, along with a cousin and two other aquaintances.

Playing in the mariachi has not made the Sotos rich, but it has helped them through the recession. Soto Sr. pays the rent and the bills and the others earn their own money.

"They never ask me for money," Soto Sr. said. "If it weren't for this, we couldn't have done it."

At Elsie Allen, the Sotos have helped raise thousands of dollars playing fundraisers for students. Two events helped send nine students to perform plays in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group also twice played the school's Dia de los Muertos dance to help pay for college tours for Elsie Allen college prep students.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213

or martin.espinoza@

pressdemocrat.com.