Mariachi music program celebrates 15 years in Anaheim

“Generations.”

Crystal Hernández used the word often reflecting on what it meant to lead a local, family-run mariachi program through its 15th year.

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The Mariachi Nationals & Summer Institute, an educational program dedicated to preserving mariachi and in partnership with the Anaheim Elementary School District, celebrated that anniversary this week.

The program is an initiative of the Mariachi Heritage Society, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching the traditional music in grade schools throughout the Los Angeles and Orange counties, including a recent expansion into the Anaheim Unified High School District. 

José Hernández, Crystal Hernández’s father and a Grammy-nominated mariachi icon, founded the organization in 1991. He’s also pivotal to the summer institute program’s success, teaching this year alongside his 26-year-old daughter.

“I grew up watching my dad teach these workshops and classes, and just also passing down this culture and music and this tradition to the next generation,” Crystal Hernández said.

“And that’s exactly what we’re doing here.”

More than 175 mariachi musicians of all ages from around the United States gathered at Benito Juarez Elementary School in Anaheim this week to learn how to play instruments and sing.

The summer camp culminates in the annual Mariachi Nationals where vocalists and ensembles compete for the opportunity to perform at the OC Fair on Sunday, Aug. 2, alongside Mariachi Sol de México, a group that’s nabbed several Grammy nominations.

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For 10 years now, Pedro Fegroso, 17, of Westminster, has attended the mariachi summer institute.

“I remember my first memory on the first day. We got to see all the instructors with their instruments standing on the stage. And then they played the songs that we were going to learn at the camp,” the incoming high school senior said.

“It was just a crazy feeling because they’re all top-tier professional musicians that have been at this their whole life. And then to hear José Hernández for the first time, play the trumpet,” he said. “I was completely shocked.”

That memory stuck — and the admiration only grew — as Fegroso resolved to learn the trumpet and to sing as his appreciation for mariachi music became more serious.

“It’s really connected me to my community, the Hispanic community,” Fegroso said, adding that singing in Spanish has helped his grasp of the language and “got me closer to my grandparents since they’re from  Mexico and they only speak Spanish.”

“Mariachi is like part of my life now, I think,” he said. “I’ve made it  important to keep this part of my culture alive.”

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