Welcome Back Repeat Guest

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Welcome to another episode of Charrosy Classicos, a Boski Strings podcast. I'm your host, Miguel Gutierrez, and I'm here with my good friend and co-host, Joel Ozuna.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Today we're making Charossi Classicos history, our first repeat guest. He's from Riverside, California, a proud McCann High graduate, UTRGB alum, and former member of Maria Chillos Campeos at Chui Guzmán. Welcome back, Alex.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Oh, thank you guys so much for having me. Thank you for the great introduction, Joel. Thank you again for having me. It's always a good time being here. I remember uh I recorded that first podcast with you guys. It was at TMEA in San Antonio, probably two years ago. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 0:49

We were just looking up at the dates, and yeah, it was in 2024. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

We were at a what it's at an apartment. No, what was it? A hotel?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

It was a hotel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I remember it was a crazy week for all of us. And then I got a text from you. Hey, can you do the podcast? I was like, heck yeah, let's do it. And that that's been a good podcast for I think all of us. It was it's always good to look back, like, oh, that's what I was thinking at that point in time. So I hope this is going to be the same thing for the future. Of course. It's always a little good snapshot of what you're thinking in that current moment. Yeah, these are these are good, good things that you guys do. It's like um the way I see them, they're like little time capsules, right? You record this, you put it out there, and then it's just there for the rest of the time. So yeah, thank you guys for what you do. I you were telling me that this is the first one you guys have done in a in a little while, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, we were just looking, and uh it's been eight months since our last recording.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Yeah, we've been busy. It's uh a lot's happened. And yeah, you know, as we're so at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yeah, that's awesome. We're not going anywhere. Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

That's right.

Birthday Week And Teaching At TMEA

SPEAKER_01 1:48

So, what brings you into town? So, a lot of reasons. This week was my birthday week. Pretty happy, yeah, very, very happy. A little delated. Thank you, thank you. It was on Monday. Uh Wednesday I had a doctor's appointment, so that was good as well. And then Friday and Saturday, I was teaching at the TMEA All Region Mariachi Comp conference. Yeah, so there was a region event. It's uh two high schools and two middle schools with all the students all across the region, uh, Region 15 in Texas. And it was a good show. I was one of the clinicians, I was a middle school group A clinician along with uh my good buddy uh Nathan Fernandez. He was he was the middle school clinician as well. Um, Adrian Grijalva, a good buddy of ours as well. He was also a high school clinician. Oser Nandes was the the group A clinician for high school, and then something really cool they did this year was uh a vocal and armonía specialist. So that was none other than Rafael Palomar, someone I admire a lot. And it was really cool because I had never actually met him before. So we got to talk a lot. We were talking for hours and hours, and uh he was he would come into each of our rooms. So I was doing my thing, all the other clinicians were doing their thing, and they would do you know vocal pull-outs, they would come into our classes and do harmonia. So it was really cool. It was really cool to work with him, like side by side, co-directing a group. And I really like that a lot because I have the the nonprofit that I'm working with right there in Riverside, and he has his in Corona. So for those that don't know, in California, Corona and Riverside are neighbors, right? So it's like one Mariachi Academy and the other one. And I actually live in Corona, I live in Corolla, California, so they're like right there, and we had always known of each other, but uh we had never worked together. So I think we were both really, really pleased, you know, working together. That was really nice. I liked, I liked that. And then just seeing all the other directors too. Like it's it's home, you know. At the end of the day, you can't beat it. It's it's home. This, you know, RGV is home to me. So seeing all the directors that I grew up looking up to, all the all my friends who are now directors. That's the crazy part. Like, it's like it's been that long, yeah. We went to like high school together, college together. Even people younger than me are like directors now. And I'm like, dang, this is crazy. I'm like, oh, that's that is crazy to see. But I don't know, it's always a good place. It was there at Roma High School. So uh Eloy Garza and all the all the team of teachers, Aviela, Antonio, they're they're really good hosts. They treated us really well. Uh Juan Amaro, the the region president. They all treated us really good. They every morning they got us, you know, nice tacos and and you know, whatever we wanted, coffee. They value food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They put us in uh a good hotel right there in Rio Grande City. Uh, they took us out to lunch and dinner every day. They treated us, they treated us like kings, you know, and it's it's good. It it shows they they had good hospitality. So yeah, I enjoyed it. It was a fun event. And then it was a big turnout, too. Like a pretty much a packed house. And yeah, there was just a whole bunch of people there. They got to play uh La Negra at the very end of the show, and yeah, it was it was pretty cool. I enjoyed it.

From Pro Stage To Elementary Music

SPEAKER_00 4:45

So a lot has happened since our last meeting.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Oh my gosh, I feel like I lived like two whole different lives since our last podcast. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I think last time you were uh playing with Manichi Los Camperos. Correct. Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

What are you up to now? So since then, I had an amazing time with Los Camperos. I I loved playing with them. And then after that, I uh what did I do right after? Okay, I remember. I got a full-time elementary music teacher position uh in Riverside Unified School District, right? So not to be confused with Riverside Arts Academy, that's the nonprofit. I was with the city school district, right? So uh that was my my little gateway into the Riverside community. Um and I was just, yeah, full, full blown, you know, 7 a.m. to like 3 p.m. every single day elementary music. So I got to teach um even younger than pre-K, I think they call it like uh there's something called like early childhood. So it's early childhood, pre-K, all the way up to sixth grade. And I was just teaching them music class. And that was definitely out of my comfort zone, but it grew me so much as a teacher and educator because it was a good reminder that a lot of the kids that we deal with now, like middle school or even high school, they're a lot closer to like a baby than you know, like to an adult. So it really reframes the way I teach them now. You can have more fun with them, you can, you know, make it more like a game, and then you just have to relate to them on a different level, too. So ever since uh I started teaching elementary, I feel like my teaching game got a little like a lot stronger with the high schoolers and middle schoolers because you do things that remind them of when they were young. For example, when I was teaching the pre-K's or the kindergartners, you can't go obviously super in depth, right? You're not gonna go all crazy. So you have to make a game out of it. They teach you all the music pedagogy songs, and it's really fun, it's just very exploratory. You're exploring, you're learning what is music and what is the main objective. Yeah, at that age is so crucial. And you would know, Joel. I mean, you're you have a your daughter, right? And it's it's such an important age for them, right? So, your main goal in that moment, you could go a whole bunch of different routes, but I think to me, success looks like hey, they love music. As long as they love music, you get the foot in the door, all the I guess quote quote perfection and success will come later. And don't don't force it too early. That's that's the thing that they always teach us. If you force it too early, you know, sometimes it can work, and there's a there's a big chance that it might not work, right? So when I was with all those little kindergartners, hey, let me just get them to love music. Okay, first graders, you know, same thing. You know, we're getting a little bit more, hey, you know, quarter notes, steady beat, rhythm, pitch, and right, you know, you can do soul fed with them. So and then it was cool, you know. I could ramble forever. I love music education. But once we started getting into fourth grade, it's like, okay, now we're getting really advanced. And then fifth grade and sixth grade, I taught orchestra. So I was an orchestra teacher all of last year as well. So I had my cellos, my basses, my violas, and my violins. Luckily, that's what I went to college for. So it wasn't too out of my comfort zone. So I was doing elementary music and orchestra. In August, I get a call from my my former director, uh Chui Guzmán, and I would always talk to him. I was like, Oh, you know, maestro, I want to be um I want to be a music teacher. And it's so cool because I believe in the podcast, the last podcast, that's what I kind of left off with. You you asked me, or you asked me, like, what does the future look like for you? And I was like, you know, I don't know. I don't think I could predict that far ahead, blah, blah, blah. And then I said, I do know it, I want it to involve teaching to some capacity. And little did I know it would be like something so crazy.

A Job Lead In Riverside

SPEAKER_01 8:39

So he he knew that as well. He knew that as well. And he gets an email from the executive director of the Riverside Arts Academy, who who I now work with very closely. His name's Adam Corellan. Great guy, super, super awesome guy. I've learned so much from him. He emails Chewie, because Chewy is also the professor at UCLA. He says, Hi, Professor Guzman, we're looking for a mariachi teacher to be leading our mariachi program. Prior to that, they had some different directors, and there was a there was an opening for me. And uh he forwarded that email over to me and I said, Hey, this is gonna be pretty cool. I think this is gonna be a good opportunity for you, and I think you will you'll like it a lot. So I said, you know what, why not? Let me give it a shot. So I applied. I did everything I needed to do, my resume, blah blah blah, all that good stuff, and I get a call back. So I was like, Oh, I got a call back, let's see what, let's see what happens. And they say, Hey, we're very interested in what you have to offer, we're we would like to have an in-person interview. So I go over to Riverside, and it was crazy. So I I was in Texas that week, and I get a call that I need to be in Riverside the next week. So I'm like, Oh well, let me pack up all my stuff again. You know, I I had the idea that I was gonna actually move back to Texas. So when I was done with Gamperos, I was like, you know what, I think I'm gonna move back to Texas. Ultimately, I guess, you know, God had a different idea, you know, the universe is just a different story ended up playing out. So I I went over all the way over to Riverside, and I I was, you know, staying in Culver City. So for those that don't know, Culver City is right by the airport. And Culver City to Riverside is like a two-hour drive in the morning with all the traffic. So I drove right and I gave myself three hours to get to the interview because I was all I wanted to get there with time and all that stuff. I drive all the way to Riverside.

The Tire Blowout Interview Story

SPEAKER_01 10:45

The last exit I'm getting uh off of the freeway and onto the actual streets of Riverside, you know. So I'm five minutes away from the office. I'm driving down and then I hear, and I'm like, no, there's no way. Like, there is no way this is happening to me right now. My tire explodes, not even pops, just like explodes on the road. And I'm like, dang, like this is gonna be really bad. Like I'm five minutes out from the location, and I have a blown-up tire. So all you hear is I had to like make like a split second decision. I'm like, am I gonna pull over and like just put my car on the side of the road and like be late to this interview, or am I gonna just destroy my car and get this job? Because at the time it was, it was rough. Like, I don't tell a lot of people this, but you know, I'm it's been a lot of time has passed, so I don't mind sharing with the world. Uh, when I was out of Camperos, I did not have a job, obviously, right? Like I had no job, no source of income. So I was like four or five months without a job. Like I was it was rough, guys. I was like, I did not have a place to stay. I was like a little bit homeless. I was backed up on so much debt. It was it was a rough point in my life, right? Now, obviously, it's a whole different story, but in that time, it was really, really rough. A very low point for me. Really, really low point for me, you know. And I think we go through cycles. That's what life is about. High points and low, low points. Anyways, my decision was I'm gonna destroy this car and just get to my interview because I need this job. I really need this job. So all you hear the next five minutes. And I'm destroying my car. Like I'm destroying it so much. But it's funny. I roll up to the side of the building and it's like and I like finally park it in the spot. And the windows, they're those types of windows where you could see outside, but you can't see inside. So the entire committee was on the inside, and I didn't know they were right there. So they just see this car roll up, and then I walk out of it, and then I go to the side, and I'm like, hi, my name is Alex Storinho. I'm ready, I'm ready for my interview. And then they're like, Oh, okay, we'll be with you shortly. I do my interview, it goes well. It goes well. It was with a board member, some staff, a student as well, actually. Um, and it went well. Um, and you know that little question that they always ask you at the end of every interview. Do you have any questions for us? I was like, uh yeah, do you guys know of like any like tire shops or like a body shop or something? And they're like, why? What happened? And I think they're like pretending they didn't know. And I was like, Oh, my car like blew up. Like it's like outside and the the wheels all popped. And they're like, um, well, you're very in luck because on this same street there's a tire shop. So I like got out of uh the car, I put it into I was able to move it up to the street and I put it on what is it called? Neutral? Yeah, I just started pushing it to the tire shop, and they told me, like, I'm sorry, this is too much. Like, we can't fix it. You have to go to Volkswagen. So I was like, dang it. So we call a tow, tow truck, and then they take it to Volkswagen. We get it fixed. Like I said, I didn't have a lot of money at the time. I had like negative money at the time. So I was like, How am I gonna pay for this? And it was just really tough. But I got shown a lot of kindness through one of our current board members. His name is Alturo Alcaraz. Shout out to him. He uh he saw he was on my interview and he saw that I was having a really tough time. He was like, No, you know what? I'll take you to Volkswagen, I'll do this, blah blah blah. He got me lunch, he helped me out a lot that day. And um I was there the whole entire day. So the whole entire morning was my interview, and the whole entire afternoon up until like 7 p.m. was just me at Volkswagen. Finally, 7:30 p.m., I get out of Volkswagen. My car's better again. I drive you know, two hours again back to Culver City. On the way back, I get a call from Adam Corellan, the executive director. He says, Congratulations, Alex, you got the job. And I was like, Oh, beautiful, like this is great, you know, this is amazing to hear. And he was like, When can you start? And I'm like, today, you know, like so it was the rest is history, you know. So that was that was really cool. That's how I got involved with Riverside, and that's that's pretty much what I've been doing. There's a lot of new developments as well, but that's really the start of the story, right? That's kind of where we where we left off last time, right? So canceros, unemployed for like four months, and then I have my brand new two jobs, Riverside Unified School District and Riverside Arts Academy, right there in Riverside. So I said, hey, you know what? This is not gonna make sense living in Culver City anymore. For the first two weeks, I was driving every morning, two hours, and I'm like, this is not sustainable. This is not, you know, we're not gonna be it's sustainable here. So I re- relocated to the inland empire. The inland empire is just basically everything, you know, more inland in California, right? It's not Orange County, it's not LA, um, but it's more inland, right? So that's where I've been ever since.

Rebuilding Riverside Mariachi At Scale

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

And tell us more about the programs that you're running right now. So you started with how many students?

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah. So the Riverside Arts Academy Mariachi program itself, it was it was uh in a rough spot. It was in a very rough spot in in every single aspect, you know, in terms of culture, in terms of student numbers, in terms of level, like playing ability to just everything is just bottom of the barrel, right? And it's not a bad thing. I don't say that in a oh, it's bottom of the barrel. No, I say it in a way, every time I I say something is not to standard, it's never me bashing something, it's me looking at it through the lens of opportunity and growth and potential. So I'm like, okay, well, I have like seven students, right? I have like three little violins, a viuela, uh, a trumpet, you know, maybe another violin or two. And it was rough. It was it was very rough. And I was like, well, I mean, I I can trabajar, you know, like I gotta work. So you know, it started very, very, very slow. And um, we had opened up like a little after-school program. It was going slow too. But through time, through time and discipline, we we were able to grow it over we're over 250 kids alone in the mariachi program. Wow. So the entire Riverside Arts Academy is like a little over 500. Just the mariachi portion alone, it's well, actually, we're starting at another district next week. So that's gonna probably boost our numbers to around 300. Wow. But it's good, it's beautiful to see like so many brand new mariachi musicians being created because that didn't exist over there before.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

And if I'm not mistaken, so you started off. I mean, obviously you were the first teacher, right?

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Yeah, yes. Well, I was the first teacher in this part of the new kind of like I guess revival or little renaissance of the academy. There was teachers before me, um, and they did amazing work too, but it was just such a period of uh almost kind of like a nothingness for a little while, and then I came in and and was able to help out, you know. So I was yes, I was the first one in this new little generation. Yeah. How many teachers are there now? Oh man. Um, well, because last year went so great, there was just so much of a demand for we've expanded to so many schools. In terms of teachers, I was able to help hire a lot of my buddies actually. So a lot of you know, great names and great buddies of ours that we know uh are working with me now. So in August, I said, hey, I cannot do this. Like this is too many students, too many hours, too many schools, and then just too much talent now. We have to be honest with ourselves as educators. I'm not like the most I there's a lot of things that I don't know. I obviously we're all we're all flawed, nobody's perfect. And I think being honest with yourself is the the key to success, right? I know I'm not a trumpet master, I'm not a you know, an armonia supermaster, right? I have an understanding of them, but I'm not gonna know it more than like a somebody from Sol or Camperos or a trumpet player from Badgas. Like I'm just not, you know, right? And my main thing is, you know, you know, violin, voice, and I just have have a good understanding of that. So I kind of use the Texas model a little bit, and I said, hey, I want a trumpet teacher and an Adamonia teacher with me. I want to start a Huanil group so we can have a feeder. I need a team of three for there, and then we have two school districts this year, and I need teams of three at each school district. So I was able to hire, oh my gosh, great people. You know, my my uh my friend Angel Chavez, he's on my team as well. He came here from Nevada. My friend Yamila de la Rosa, she's with Reina, she's helping us out now. My friend Patrick Molina, he's helping us as well. Christopher Rubalcava, he plays with the Rams in Corazón de mi tierra. We actually play together. Uh, my buddy Kevin, he's from Vegas as well. Mr. Juan Miramontes, he was a ex guitarrone player for Internacional de México, so studied a lot with Remy over there as well. Um, a really good buddy of mine, Giovanni Monzon, love that guy. He's in the Moreno Valley School District. Uh, another one is uh Angel Castillo. I uh I you know have a special place for him. He was one of the teachers that helped me out through the first district as well, so he did really good. So he's still in our Alvor district. Oh my gosh, I hope I'm not forgetting anybody. I'm gonna feel really bad if I don't, but just teachers, if you're listening, I appreciate all of you so much. And we were able to hire them in August, and they've been with us ever since, and they've been doing a killer job. They've been doing so, so, so well. And I'm I'm proud of every single one of them. And I'm just fortunate that they they trust me. They trust in the vision. They're like, hey, you know what? Let's do this, let's build something together. And we've been building it, you know, because a lot of kids out there don't have the same opportunities as the ones here. That's what I always reiterate to the kids here in Texas. That's literally the first thing I told them when I started to teach the region group. I'm like, you guys have no idea how lucky you are here in Texas. You cannot compare. It's like night and day. You guys have mariachi every single day in school. You guys have mariachi after school, you guys practice for multiple hours a week. It's it's insane. It's insane. There's no comparison. You have amazing directors, a team of directors who are super skilled and you know, directors that aren't flaky either, you know, directors that are always there, you know. Sometimes you get those directors over there, ah, no puedo tengo chamba, blah, blah, blah. Oh, it's because I have this, oh, it's because I have a concert, it's because I have blah blah blah blah blah blah. I think culturally it's still developing over there, you know, putting the student first and really putting the student's needs, you know, and then eventually letting it grow. You know, that's it's it's really cool to see that here, you know, just the how much they care about their programs here. It's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

And it's funny you say that too, because um, well, you enrolled one of your students to drive all the way from California all the way to Texas. To experience the Mariachi culture here in the Rio Grande Valley.

Bringing A Student To Texas

SPEAKER_01 21:48

That's right. Yes. Her name is Eileen Ramos. She was uh she's a great student. She was a section leader for a while for Mariachi Campana. And honestly, it took a year. It took a year to really get the students to. I love mariachi to really feel it. You know, we brought them with Los Camperos, Sol de México. We took them to the nationals. We took them to all these different places, all these different uh concerts and events as well, where they could see other mariachis. We bring people from Reina Internacional. We tell them to watch, you know, the Mariachi Master Series, all these, all these amazing resources out there. And finally, after one year, they love mariachi. They love it. It's like a like I think you told her, it's like a little mariachi bug, right? So she got really into it, and her mom was telling me, Hey, well, we're gonna be on spring break as the same time as you. Uh, as a family, we want to go over and experience all the stuff that you always talk about. Because I'm always, you know, blah, blah, blah over there, right? I can't stop talking about it. Just so people can get an idea of what I've seen and experienced, you know? So they're like, hmm, I better see Sierra. Like, let's see what you're talking about. So I said, Yeah, we could set up some visits. Uh, I set up a visit with my good friend Clyde, Clyde Guerra, who's now teaching at UTRGV, really good friend of mine, and he was so kind to open the doors for her to watch, not only watch, but play in a rehearsal. She actually got to play it in a rehearsal with the group that he teaches, and she loved it. And my dad as well, very kind of him. He opened the doors and let her play a couple of songs at a fundraiser that they had, and she's just really into it now. And basically a couple months ago, her mom was telling me that, yeah, I think she wants to major in music. I think she wants to be a mariachi, you know, do this for real. So let's let's see what resources we have. So I said, hey, yeah, let's take a little trip to Texas. And yeah, they're already back in California now. And I think the mom was just telling me, Thank you so much. Like, thank you. This was a life-changing experience, you know. We always talk about like, oh, professional development and learning. It's like, you can't get any more, you know, professional than this, you know. It's literally field work, you're experiencing everything with your own eyes, you know, and thank you for that. I mean, she was able to get a really nice violin there with you guys. We were trying out violins here at Boski for probably like over an hour and just checking out all the different options we have. And I told her, hey, you know what? You like this violin a lot, sleep on it, try it out, keep playing it. And I think two days later she she bought that violin from you.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yes, yeah, she was really happy. And uh I was just really blown away by by their story. Like, who comes 21 hours just to experience, you know, mariachi here.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

The beautiful thing that is mariachi music, mariachi education here. Yeah, it's awesome. It's it's awesome. I'm very proud of her, not only her, but all my students. I think all my students are finally seeing the big picture. You know, um, this week Clyde also invited me to be a guest lecturer right there in UTRGV and talk to some of his students about um a lot of different topics, right? But my main my main theme was just basically seeing the world with a different lens, right? Sometimes as musicians, we get so caught up in our own little bubble. And it's like a little bubble, and we're always inside of it, and we're always just thinking about, you know, instant gratification. We're thinking about the now. And I really encourage them to think just take a pause, take a moment to pause and look at the biggest picture you possibly can. Don't zoom out too much because then you'll get very existential and you realize we're like a little rock floating in the universe, you know. So don't zoom out too much, but at the same time, what are you doing to impact the world? Like, what are you personally doing to impact the world and change it for the better? You know, what do you do? Who are you and why does it matter? Right? It's kind of like a little mission statement. I was teaching them about nonprofits, LLCs, and a cool exercise that I did with them is I knew they're all studying music and they're all in the mariachi program. So I think they were a little bit weirded out, but I hope they understand that it was to make them stronger. Um, I had like six little bullet points, and it was six bullet points, and they were all like crazy statements attacking mariachi in every possible way. Like mariachi is bad because this, blah, blah, blah. Just mariachi is horrible because. And I said, You have 10 minutes to defend against all these statements, right? And it's like, oh, a lot of them were telling me we'd never thought about this before. And I'm like, Yeah, because you might never have had to. You know, um, we're very fortunate here that there's a lot of support and backing, but in other states and other countries, you might not have the same support, right? So you say you love this thing so much, but you can't advocate for it. That's a tricky thing, right? If you can't defend against all these points, you really can't advocate it, advocate for it. And if you don't advocate for it, you don't really truly love it. In my eyes, I could be, I could be wrong, but you should always try to be able to defend against your points. So it was like it was kind of really cool. It was like a master's level course, and we were just discussing, going back and forth, just kind of like really challenging each other's thoughts. And they were like, wow, that was cool. So I was teaching them just big picture ideas, you know, businesses, what you should be doing. You have a lot of talent, but what are you gonna do with it? What do you do with all the talent that you have? So it was it was a good class for them. But yeah, I feel like all the students, at least all the students that I have over there in California, they're they're starting to see the big picture, and they're starting to see, hey, maybe I can maybe I can really do this. So I feel happy. I feel very, very, very fulfilled. And for the first time ever. Yeah, for the first time ever, I finally feel like I have roots over there. You know, for the longest time I felt like I have one foot in Texas, one foot in California. Kind of don't know. But like confidently, confidently, I can say like I feel like I have really strong roots in California now. Because I know there's so much change happening there. And that's what makes me happy, seeing change.

Building Standards For California Programs

SPEAKER_02 27:51

I think what you said a while ago about it changing, uh changing the culture, that's something that was missing a lot in California. Yeah. Uh, because you know, there's so much talent out there. I mean, I've seen some of it too when I've gone uh when I used to go with Aslan and we would teach classes and we would see all these kids that have all this potential, but uh, we always felt like the right people were lacking, you know, or the uh people with the right mentality. Um, do you think that with your example you could also not just teach students but teach people around you?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yes, yeah. And then to your statement, yeah, there's a it's it's a huge question and it's a huge conversation because there's so many components and there's so many moving parts, and it's tricky because it's okay. We want to examine the entire music education scope on a on a macro lens. It's it's one of those things where there's there's a lot of good things happening there. There are amazing things. Um, just to name a few. Um, people I look up to a lot, you know, José Hernandez, he has his his foundation right there. They serve so many students. Another one that I look up to so much, Chuy Guzmán, right there, UCLA. Uh Checo Alonso with uh Mariachi, I believe it called Master's Apprentice program right there in San Fernando, Rafael Palomaro. There's a lot of amazing things happening. I have so many more too. My friends at Plaza de la Raza too. So many amazing things happening right there in California. Um, but it's very sporadic. It's kind of like they're they're kind of like, I don't want to call them like one-offs, but it the sad reality is they kind of it's it's very external. It's not embedded within the school districts, right? And I think that's our next step, right? I think we really need to infiltrate the school districts, and that's gonna be the next area where we make progress. Another area where we're gonna make a lot of progress is in terms of uh statewide governance, right? What do we have here in Texas? We have UIL, University Interscholastic League that was started by the University of Texas at Austin, that now governs sports, academics, and music. And the incentive is if you do really well at UIL, you get ones or something. Your school gets good ratings, they get extra money. It's good stuff, all amazing things. TMEA. It's um at the end of the day, TMEA and TMEA, Texas Music Educators Association, it's a nonprofit, right? And then that's another thing. What is a nonprofit? Basically to fill a crucial gap in the community or to serve a mission, a purpose, right? You look at the budget for TMEA, just take a guess. What do you guys think the budget is for TMEA? It's around 7.2 million just for this year, right? So that's that's pretty good. 7.2 million. You could reinvest a lot of that money and just do a lot of great events like region events. You could host the yearly annual TMEA events in San Antonio, the actual TMEA. And then you could do other so many amazing things. There's also Tame, which is a mariachi organization. That's also another nonprofit run, you know, by my good friend Velma. And you uh you have a lot of governance because there's so many things that are backing it, you know? And in California, it's a little different because they're more advocacy tools, right? Guess the budget of CMEA, California Music Educators Association. No idea. It's like $170,000 or like $180,000. So it's just very different, right? One is an advocacy tool, one and one is a governance tool, right? So that's another thing that I'm trying to get into. So I've been talking to a lot of the people at CMEA, and although they are an advocacy organization, there is, you know, a little bit of power there. I'm not gonna lie. There's they they have some people backing them. It's just more than anything, it's a network of a lot of educators over there in California.

Turning A Showcase Into A Festival

SPEAKER_01 31:42

So I'm really excited because this year we're gonna have one of our first ever mariachi showcases in Southern California, the CMEA Mariachi Showcase right there in Orange County, in Anaheim, I believe, or Cerritos, one of the two. And it's gonna be cool because I was promoting the event like crazy. They said last year they had only had two people register, so they didn't even go through with the event. Wow. This year I got I got together with my good friend uh Chris Lernandez, uh, Monica Salinas, a whole bunch of my friends, and I said, hey guys, look, this is what's happening. Uh, let's promote it like crazy. Because we all have, you know, our nonprofits, we all work with all our schools and stuff, we all have a lot of students. And I said, let's let's make an impact, let's make a little splash, let's show everybody here that mariachi does exist here in California. It's not just the professional scene, it's mariachi education. Within six days, all the slots were filled up. Within six days, there's hey, all 13 slots are filled. We can't take any more people. So I'm telling them, hey, this is a great news. What does that mean for next year? Next year it shouldn't be a showcase, it should be an actual um, I don't want to say competition because we don't want to do first place, second place, third place. We want to follow the model of UIL where they get a division one, okay, a division two, like a festival, and it's adjudicated, right? Because I believe that um it should be adjudicated, right? So you can see what's a universal language that admin understands, a ranking, right? Because right now, what if there is no adjudication? There are no standards. The the admin can only go off of vibes or how you made it feel. Right now, that's that's the problem a lot over there in in education and in California. It's hey, uh, you know what, we we love this mariachi program, we have a great numbers, but how do they actually really sound? Like who's paying attention to the standards, right? Are we keeping our teachers and programs accountable? And that's the that's the big difference because here there's so much, you know, you're always under like a microscope, festivals, region, blah, blah, blah. It's always adjudicated, it's always ranked, there's always standards. That's the next step. That is the next step over there. So next year I've been already talking to the president of CMEA, really good guy. He's I feel like there's so much potential over there, and a lot of other people that are backing it. Um, and I'm telling them, yeah, next year, we saw what happened now. It's gonna happen in uh two or three weeks. Next year we need to have judges. Next year we need to have a multi-day festival, we should have workshops, we should do all these things, blah, blah, blah, all these ideas. And I think that's we're starting to finally get the gears turning, little by little, little by little. And once it goes really well next year, the next year will go even better, and then even better. And then we could start implementing things like mariachi solo and ensemble or mariachi, I don't know. There, I mean, it's a world of possibilities. But what I've seen is the students over there, every single time you push them and challenge them, they'll rise to the occasion, you know, just like the ones over here, just like the ones everywhere. I mean, it's it's never the kids' fault, ever, ever, ever, right? It's the environment that they're around. I'm a huge believer in that, you know. The environment is what shapes you and creates you, right? So our whole mission is to give students quality and equity. High quality music education for all young people. And what does quality and equity look like? To me, equity is that the students have the same exact opportunities over there as they would anywhere, including places like South Texas, right? So they should be able to do all the amazing things that these students are doing. They're all equal, all equal. But we just need to give them the right tools, you know? So that means teachers as well, too. We need we need a lot of teachers over there. We need so many teachers. There's like a huge teacher shortage, not even just for music, like just for anything. And they pay well, they pay starting mid-70s. It's they're good jobs, you know, and there's still a shortage,

Equity Goals And Teacher Recruitment

SPEAKER_01 35:54

you know. So if anyone's listening, we need you in California. Come, I'll we will give you a job right away, you know. It's it's good stuff, it's very good stuff that's happening over there. But it's gonna take a while. It's like that's what I talk about. It's re reengineering the culture because people aren't used to that kind of stuff. People aren't used to adjudication. It's very like, oh, it's exploratory, yay, it's very fun. So you're definitely like not only just teaching, you're building. Yeah, it's building. I actually don't even do a lot of teaching, to be honest with you. I do do teaching, but a lot of it is just re-engineering the entire system. It's the very, very macro level, just trying to fix the broken system, you know. Yeah, it's tough. And it's not all bad either. There's so many beautiful things happening there. It's just California. Come on, it's like the most beautiful thing ever, but there are a lot of things that do need fixing.

unknown 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

I'm sure that you faced uh some opposition though, right? Oh, yeah, all the time. All the time.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

Um, yeah, there's a lot of people that would not like to see it become something like Texas. There's a lot of people that believe in their minds, like, oh no, the Texas kids don't learn the right way, or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I've I've heard it all. And the thing that sometimes they might not understand is that whether they believe it or not, this is helping the entire genre of mariachi as a whole, which, if it makes it easier for anybody to understand, that means more money in your pocket when people will buy tickets to go see your concert. You know, that means more, more kids that look up to you, more opportunities for you to give lessons, more opportunities for anything. You know, there's a lot of people that are like, no, we don't want it to be blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, like, who who is the one person to decide, oh, mariachi education should look like this, or it should look like this, or it should look like this. Everyone has their own different thoughts and opinions. But if we can at least start something, you know, I'd rather have something versus nothing, you know? And especially with how much money school districts have, I mean, might as well put it in there and start it in there, you know, because it might be something beautiful. It could be a blend. It doesn't have to be exactly like this state or this state or this state. It could be different, you know. So Yeah. That's that's kind of what we're doing. I'm not gonna stop. It's uh I'm not gonna stop

Expanding Work To Denver And Beyond

SPEAKER_01 38:24

anytime soon.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

I was gonna ask you what's something in Mariachi music that you love to see happen the next 10 years, but you obviously answered my question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

All the questions have been answered in this past eight years. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:35

In terms of something that I would love to see, I would love to see just all the new generations that are forming right now, especially like all the people we see in the universities, start becoming teachers in areas where they need it most, right? Um, I feel like the way I see it, like RGV, it's doing so amazing. And I'll always say, like, it's gonna always do great. It's always gonna do amazing. And the way I describe it to people, I'm like, I'm not really needed in Texas, I feel, right? Like, my everyone has different skill sets, every, every different things they can do. I am not like Alex Serene II is not like needed immediately here because there's so many great teachers. It's it's it's functioning well with or without me. But I feel like I am needed in other areas of the country, you know. So it's not only California either. I've been doing a lot of work in Denver, Denver, Colorado. They have a it's an even bigger problem, actually. It's uh it's really scary. Uh, there's not a lot of arts access, right, over there. So what I've been doing, one of my projects is connecting the nonprofits to the school districts and connecting the universities to the school districts as well. Because guess what? In the public schools, they don't have a whole bunch of music education, you know, and then the nonprofits are struggling financially due to the current climate, you know, lack of arts funding. They're struggling a lot. So I'm like, hey, let's all wisen up. You guys, nonprofits, go partner with the school districts. You guys get money through the school districts. The school districts now have more arts education. It's a win-win. Universities, you guys are starting a Metropolitan State University with uh my good friend uh Dr. Phil and Dr. Lorenzo. They're doing great over there with MSU, and they started the Mariachi degree. It's uh I'm sure you guys have seen the headline, like the Juilliard of Mariachi. It's really cool. There's good stuff happening there. And uh they have this brand new degree plan. And I think it would be a beautiful thing for once they get to the level of a senior, they could student teach in Denver Public Schools, which they can't currently do right now under Mariachi, but I think it would be really cool if it happened, you know, within the next couple of years. So we're doing some work over there in Colorado. There's a lot of places that need work, so my advice is just like going back to the question, what would you like to see in the next 10 years? Explore, expand, go to all the different states, even multiple countries, multiple different continents, you know. Get uh out of your comfort zone. You might start something beautiful, you know. So that would be something that I would like to see just continue to spread all over.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

That's great. And um, tell us about maybe some performance opportunities

Playing With Mariachi Chiko And Rams

SPEAKER_02 41:16

for you. You are you playing anywhere or with anyone?

SPEAKER_01 41:19

So uh I'm playing right now with a group that I love so much, Maria Chico. So good. I play with a lot of them, and a lot of us work at Riverside Arts Academy together. So we're always doing so many gigs. I I love playing with them. They're good people. We rehearse, you know, every Thursday. Um, really good people, and they're all striving to be better. Uh, more breaking news, and I feel like I could say this now already. Uh, yesterday, Jose invited me to join Mariachi Rams. So it's really cool. Yeah, so we're gonna be playing, you know, for the NFL games. Uh, I think there's like a lot of opportunities, you know. I want to say too much, but I think we're gonna go to another continent pretty soon, uh, starting September. So it's gonna be really fun. Hopefully, if everything goes well. But I was really happy that he uh he invited me yesterday. That was really nice of him. So I got you, man. That's my new thing that I'm about to I'm like, oh, that just happened yesterday night. So you guys hear it right here first. I haven't told anybody yet. So it's cool. Good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

Well, thanks for sharing, and thanks for doing this uh recording today. I know that when are you flying out? Fly out tomorrow, tomorrow morning. Thanks for joining us and sharing.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Thank you guys so much. I appreciate both of you. I I've admired you both for quite a while now. I'm just thank you. Thank you for having this space as well. I feel like Bosky Strings, it's not we all know it's not just a violin shop. We know. It's more than that. Expands, it expands beyond just the physical location. It's it's for the community, right? You guys are all over the place, right? You know, you're touching the lives of so many people. You know, it's not a violin shop, it's music education. People get to come here to learn. You know, people get to come here just for community. I love like my favorite thing in the world is just stopping by the shop. Hey everybody, how you guys doing? And just hanging out. You know, it's a good place to hang out, practice, whatever you need to do. And um, yeah, thank you for impacting so many lives. You know, you guys see all the all the lives you've impacted beyond the RD. You know, now California, you know,

Final Thanks And Future Optimism

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Las Vegas, North Texas, all the all the amazing places you guys have impacted. So keep it up. Thank you guys. Good work, good work, and um, yeah, I'm just very optimistic about the future. There's a lot a lot of a lot of really good things happening. No, but yeah, it's gonna be a it's gonna be a fun ride. Fun ride to y'all get it.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Awesome. Well, good to see you again, and thanks for listening, everyone. Thank you, everyone. Thanks, guys. Bye.