There’s a new sound drifting out of the orchestra room at Mayberry Middle School these days — deep-bodied bass guitars, lively violins, brassy trumpets and a chorus of young voices singing in Spanish.
De colores, de colores se visten los campos en la primavera,
De colores, de colores son los pajaritos que vienen de afuera…
It’s a traditional Mexican folk song about finding joy in all the colors of nature. A dozen students in Mariachi de Mayberry, the middle school’s new mariachi band, joyfully sing out and smile as they perform.
“Here in Kansas, specifically in Wichita, there is not a lot of mariachi presence in town,” said Mayberry orchestra director Panya Amphone. “So I figured: See a need, fill a need. And here we are.”
Amphone started the mariachi program at the beginning of the year with six eighth-graders. Since then, the class has nearly doubled. And although about half of Mayberry’s students are Hispanic, most aren’t familiar with the genre that got its start in west-central Mexico in the late 18th century.
“We are teaching everything from scratch,” Amphone said. “Even though a lot of these students … are Mexican in descent or ethnicity, they don’t necessarily all come with musician backgrounds or come from families that have mariachi backgrounds.”
So they’re learning new instruments, like the guitarron, which takes the bass lines of mariachi music, and the smaller vihuela, which looks like a cross between a guitar and ukulele and provides rhythmic support.
Eighth-grader Evelyn Soto plays several instruments and sings, so she was eager to join what could be the first middle-school mariachi program in Kansas.
“When I saw my teacher be interested in a new genre of music that was part of my culture, I was impressed,” Soto said. “So when I heard there was going to be a mariachi (class), I was super excited and got in it.”
Mariachi combines many of the performing arts in one genre — instrumental and vocal music, and even a little bit of theater. During a recent class, Amphone reminded his students to bring the lyrics to life with their bodies and facial expressions.
“Fix your posture, ground yourself, unlock your knees. Use your air when you’re singing,” he said. “And remember, we have to tell a story. Don’t just sit there. … Open your arms up, hold your instrument, sing!”
Many of the mariachi students speak Spanish at home. But some don’t know the language at all, so they’re learning it along with the music.
Eighth-grader Aixa Moreno happily translates lyrics for her classmates — tunes like “Arboles de la Barranca,” which means “trees of the canyon,” but actually tells a story of unrequited love.
“It’s very nice, welcoming other people into our culture,” Moreno said. “You can always join it and be in the family of it. It’s just very nice to spread our culture and share it with other people to make them happy.”
Amphone said he hopes other schools consider the genre, especially as classrooms across the state become more diverse.
“By teaching them mariachi, I’m helping them get in touch with their culture, but also getting them in touch with an art form that they can say is born from Mexico,” he said. “It’s something that they can claim as their culture.”
Mariachi de Mayberry will perform 5 p.m. Friday, May 3, at the Ulrich Museum at Wichita State University.
They will also perform on the Wichita River Festival Food Court Stage on June 7 at 11:30 a.m.
