Set in West Texas and inspired by real stories shaped by immigration, energy work, and music, the film explores themes of Texas identity, grit, and cultural connection. The evening will benefit the Ralph Lowe Energy Institute at TCU and will conclude with a live musical performance featuring artists from the film.

A special highlight for the TCU community is the involvement of legendary Horned Frog Hunter Enis, former TCU football star, professional athlete, and highly successful energy executive, who appears in the film as himself. His West Texas story is central to the film’s message and reflects the leadership, resilience, and entrepreneurial spirit that TCU alumni are known for.

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As traditional folk music originating in the southwest Mexican state of Jalisco, mariachi has helped define the country and culture for a century and a half. The term mariachi refers to the ensemble and individual performer as well as to the resonate music itself. Full-size mariachi group consists of at least a dozen performers; and the style ranges from polkas, waltzes and marches to serenades and mournful ballads, often about love, death, heroes, and betrayal.

Now, for the back story…

This is a story about passion; musically, culturally, and personally. It begins with an article written by Lisa Martin for an issue of The TCU Magazine. Quoting from this article: “Laura Singletary, associate professor and program coordinator for instrumental music education, was in the FWISD’s North Side High School audience cheering that night. A 20-year veteran of teaching band and orchestra in middle and high schools, she now serves as the TCU division chair of Music Education. Through years of interaction, Singletary had learned that the mariachi program teaches students performance skills along with history and culture. The opportunity to perform as individuals within the larger context of a group creates outsized student engagement. When it comes to mariachi, there is a stylistic element that has to be learned in sort of an apprenticeship style, Singletary said, adding that some compare mariachi teaching to learning jazz, where notation is only an approximation.”

More recently, several of Singletary’s TCU students encouraged her to form a mariachi group on campus. It began as a student organization before becoming an accredited course. As one of her former students (a first-generation student who recently graduated with a degree in music education) noted; “the group helps students celebrate their heritage through song.”

The story continues through conversations with Estee Hernandez, Assistant Director, Leadership & Experiential Learning, as she carefully explained that music in general, and mariachi, in specific, is an experiential sensory endeavor. (I heard….) It requires that the human body successfully interacts with a mechanical device to produce a series of pattered tones, matched in such a way with the ear, that the result, confirmed by others, is considered “music.” Beyond that, such sounds are then received by an audience in such a way that the result is a sensation that is stored in memory as an identified emotion. This musical “language” can only be taught and learned through extended successive approximation (practice) that usually takes years to perfect. The result of which is a bonding of the participants that is often life-changing. (She said…) The effort involved in this practice is so powerful as to often be life-changing.

….And concludes, with a personal invitation from Wendy Imelda Martinez and Ramon Nino, adjunct professors of music at TCU to join in celebrating the joy of mariachi music at TCU and become part of its extended family.

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