CALDWELL, Idaho — The Caldwell School District is doing something they say no one else in the state is doing.
They will be adding a mariachi program for the middle schools and high schools which will start the 2024/25 school year.
The school district wanted to find a way to connect with Hispanic families and help them feel included and what better way than through music.
For people like Cruz Arreola, the director of Cantares de México, a youth mariachi group, mariachi music is something he wants to keep alive in the younger generation.
“Culture is very important and that the kids don't forget tradition,” Cruz said.
The mariachi group has been around for over 6 years in Caldwell and has more than 50 members, people like high schooler Samantha Medrano.
"Well to start, my mom just told us, we're putting you in one and we were like okay," Medrano said.
Even the director's son Saul Arreola, who plays the trumpet, felt being put in the mariachi was forced at first.
"Lots of students playing mariachi music kind of felt, not resentment, but why are you making me do this thing that no one else does,” Saul said. “I don't see other kids doing this activity and they felt kind of different. Especially because this was their intention, they wanted this not us."
The more they played and more exposure the group got from playing at quinceañeras, and other events across the treasure valle,y the kids realized something.
"How much we enjoyed doing this,” Saul said. “We saw the people we were making happy like the memories we were giving to people."
"It's something they hold close to, and we weren't exposed to that side, but now that we are it's a very good thing to connect with them."
Marisela Pesina, the chairperson for the school board at the Caldwell School District was one of those people they were able to inspire. She noticed other schools across the nation had mariachi programs.
"You know, if [they] have it [there], we could possibly have it at our school and how can we go about doing that."
So, after a few years and a $7,000 grant from a local organization, the Caldwell School District will have a mariachi program.
"It's like a dream come true,” Pesina said. “It's something that's going to happen here in Caldwell, that, you know, you haven't seen very much in the state."
Which the kids in the mariachi group are excited for.
"It's also good to expose that to the whole school, the whole district, even like the whole state,” Medrano said. “They're saying we're gonna be one of the first schools to do [this] in Idaho and it's a cool thing to share with everybody."
Which for Cruz Arreola, was a childhood dream that has been passed down to his son.
"I'm grateful that he gave me that opportunity even though at first I didn't want it because I'm kind of living his dream, but then it became mine," Saul said.
The $7,000 grant money the district received will go towards getting charro suits for the students and getting the instruments needed for the mariachi group.
As for Samantha and her siblings, they are planning to join the program when it starts next school year.
Unfortunately Saul, the son of the mariachi director, is a senior and won't get a chance to be a part of it. Even though he won’t get a chance to, he's glad that all the kids following behind him will be able to get an opportunity he never had.
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