CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — At Tuloso-Midway High School, some students are using music to connect with their roots and culture.
Since 2018, TMHS has been offering mariachi classes for students who already are in the band but would like to take their music to the next level.
Antonio De La Rosa, the mariachi director, said that exposing students, faculty, and staff to the mariachi culture brings diversity to TMHS.
"We are in an area where the Hispanic culture is huge it's big and I think everybody should try to understand everybody else's culture at some point because that makes us better people," he said.
Classes like mariachi are important to help the students navigate and learn about their culture. For senior Andrea Rodriguez, she said being a part of the Tierra Mia Mariachi group at Tuloso-Midway has helped her learn how to be true to herself.
"It kind of showed me a world that I didn't really know existed because I didn't grow up that much around it and so being a part of it really brought in my perspective and really opened up something that I didn't know I loved," she said.
De la Rosa said Tierra Mia not only helps develop the students as musicians but also helps build character and confidence not only for Hispanic students but for everyone like senior Jonothan Litchenberg.
"I feel great because it allows you to be open-minded about other people because there is a whole world out there and not even on is told that not everyone realizes how many things are out here out in this world," Litchenberg said.
He added that he has been playing in the mariachi group for six years and has loved everything about it.
He said he has been exposed to the food the culture and the language. Litchenberg sings in Spanish without knowing the language and said this class has helped him learn about the world around him.
De la Rosa emphasized the importance of music and how it all connects everyone no matter where you come from.
"We are looking at music in general music is it speaks it's beyond boundaries you can have jazz, you can have mariachi you could have all these other things but it's all one language," De La Rosa said.
