Santa Rosa summer mariachi camp expanding to Cloverdale

Jose Soto Jr. had the kids at the edge of their seats as he called out “do-re-mi,” clapping between each note. The kids blew into their trumpets, watching him closely as they tried to follow the mariachi player’s rhythm.

“We have to feel the muscle,” Soto told the seven students in the class, pointing to his mouth. “It’s hard, but we’ll be working on it all week.”

In nearby rooms, dozens of other children tried their luck on the violins and guitars. Many had never held an instrument before.

Soto once more partnered with the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts to offer a three-week mariachi camp at Cook Middle School. He’s leading a team of 10 instructors. Considered his “brainchild,” the camp kicked off Monday.

They first launched the free camp last summer to introduce music and instruments to under-served children in southwest Santa Rosa. It drew 50 children between the ages of 8 and 17, the same as this year.

“It was amazing,” said Soto, a violinist with his own family ensemble, Mariachi Barragan, who will be studying music education at Sonoma State University this fall. “After three weeks, the kids were asking for more.”

So were the parents. Soto, who previously co-founded the Mariachi Club at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa and started a similar after-school program at Cook Middle last year, said some families reported that for the first time their children were choosing to speak Spanish at home and were more interested in the Mexican folk music.

“It’s not about music. They use the camp to learn about their culture,” Soto said about the kids, who will learn traditional songs, such as De Colores and La Raspa. “Music is just 1 percent.”

Due to the program’s success, they’re expanding it into Cloverdale, said Tracy Sawyer, education and outreach manager at Luther Burbank Center for the Arts. The camp will be held from Aug. 1-19 at Washington Middle School.

They have room for 50 kids. They’re still accepting children, Sawyer said. As in Santa Rosa, the instruments will be provided for the children, she added.

Xochipilli Olivera-Vera, 15, was among those students who returned to camp this year in Santa Rosa.

“It feels like you’re family,” said the incoming Santa Rosa High School sophomore, who spent much of the morning greeting and high-fiving some of the younger kids. He learned to play the trumpet when he joined band in seventh-grade at Wright Charter School.

It’s important to expand the program to other communities, he contended.

“We need to get out there more so that more children can have a chance to play an instrument,” he said, adding that kids don’t always get that exposure at school.

Edgar Guerra, 13, started playing the guitar five years ago. However, the Rincon Valley Middle School student said he never played mariachi music. He became interested in the music after Soto, his godfather, played it at his first communion.

“It was exciting,” said Guerra, who hoped to learn enough at summer camp to one day play with his godfather. “It gets me going,” the teen said about mariachi music.

Jeremy Decker, superintendent of the Cloverdale Unified School District, said a large portion of his students have ties to Mexico.

“Mariachi, while it’s origins are rooted in Jalisco, has come to represent all of Mexico. The Mariachi band program gives students the opportunity to learn about their culture,” Decker said.

There’s been a real push to add more music and fine arts instruction at their schools, he said. Decker would like to see the mariachi program continue through the school year if they can find someone willing to provide lessons.

“Hopefully somebody in our community has some experience, and would like to provide lessons to our students,” he said.

Sara Flores, a Sonoma State music education major, decided to teach violin at the Santa Rosa camp as a way to give back to the community and keep her Mexican roots alive.

“This helps (students) appreciate where they come from,” she said. “There should be more programs like this.”

Santa Rosa City Schools provided $20,500 for the camp at Cook, where the arts center also is offering the visual arts program called One City Arts, Sawyer said. Santa Rosa artist Maria de los Angeles created the program in 2014 in response to the shooting death of 13-year-old Andy Lopez. She wanted to help children cope with the boy’s death. Both she and Lopez had been students at Cook.

Last year, De los Angeles teamed up with the arts center to continue offering the free art class. She’s not teaching this year’s class. However, she highly recommended Windsor High School art teacher Melissa Jones, who’s co-teaching the class with Cali Calmecac Language Academy kindergarten teacher Aida Herrera-Kheen, Sawyer said.

Herrera-Kheen said the students get to learn about contour drawing, colors and shading. They have in the class more than 50 children, who will receive a backpack and sketch book and shading pencils to take home and are expected to have their artwork displayed at the Burbank center.

“It’s an opportunity for kids to do something that they may not have a chance to do,” Sawyer said. “Parents want (these experiences) for their kids but don’t always have the money to do it.”

Like One City Arts, the mariachi camp became a source of pride for the community, she said. It also engaged Latino parents, who often are too timid to get involved in their kids’ schools because of language barriers, she said.

“They were really invested (in the program),” said Sawyer, adding that a student doesn’t have to be Latino to join and learn about mariachi. “This is someplace where it’s completely inclusive.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 707-521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.