The Mariachi Miracle started out like the whole youth mariachi movement in America did, hinging on the idea of scholarships as a means of bringing Hispanic Americans forward. But I had no idea when I started this project how much deeper and richer the story would turn out to be.

Without knowing it at the time, the seeds for this project were placed on my first day of studies at the University of Arizona in 1971. Almost immediately I noticed that while Tucson, Arizona had a great number of Mexican American folks my age, very few by proportion were actually in classes or on campus with me. It struck me as very odd.

Years later, when I joined the staff of the Tucson Citizen daily newspaper as an arts and culture writer in 1987, this memory came back to me. Something was changing. I still lived in the University neighborhood and now I was seeing many more young Mexican Americans in college both at UA and at Pima College.

That first year at the paper I covered the Tucson International Mariachi Conference – an event I’d been attending since its origins in 1963. I recall being so very impressed by the quality of the musicianship at very young ages, and how poised and confident these young musicians were.

As my 22 years with the Citizen unfolded I would have many more encounters wit the mariachi world, and write voluminously about the exciting programs for youth mariachis and folklórico dancers springing up all over the city. Linda Ronstadt’s recordings “Canciones de Mi Padre” and “Mas Canciones” had created a vast groundswell of interest in mariachi music, and a wave of pride in the Mexican American community as well.

Tucson Unified School District, Sunnyside School District and others in the community seized on that burst of interest and created the first curriculum-based mariachi music programs in their school systems. I would later learn that these programs would lead to drastically lower dropout rates, greater attendance, decreased drug and gang activity, higher graduation rates and higher college matriculation rates. That was one of the driving factors behind the rising numbers of young Mexican Americans on campus that I had been observing.

Well, that, and a concept hatched by the board of Tucson’s first youth mariachi – Los Changuitos Feos – that the group should charge for its performances, invest the money and create college scholarships for its graduates. That idea caught on with both the programs in the schools and those run as private organizations. Clearly it was working.

So when I started work on the documentary The Mariachi Miracle, the idea of those scholarships was central to what I thought the film would be. And in many ways it still is. But what I could never have imagined when I started was the intended and unintended outcomes associated with that profound concept, and the ways in which the evolution of the youth mariachi movement dovetailed with and catalyzed significant change for the broader Hispanic community, locally and throughout the United States.

The sources I have interviewed so far and those who remain to be talked to have helped me see this movement as a driver of change on social, political, educational, economic and artistic fronts. And even that broad scope of impact can’t begin to get arms around the nuances and juicy side tales that continue to unfold as I gather information of the film and book.

I was passionate about youth mariachis when I started this, and long before in my days as a writer with the Tucson Citizen. But the experience of immersing myself into the times, hearing stories of triumph over adversity and seeing the accomplishments of generations of former youth mariachis has amplified my passion above and beyond anything I could imagine.

And so I created this website as a means of sharing with people some of the stories I’m hearing along the way as we progress toward the target date of wrapping filming in mid October, working on post production of the film and the creation of the book between then and mid March, and presenting a sneak preview of the film at the start of the Tucson International Mariachi Conference in April, 2017.

More details are in the works and will be shared as they materialize. And you can check out some of the topics I’ll be sharing stories, video and photos from by clicking here. And for the broad outline of work still to be done, click this link.

I invite you to join me on this journey, to add your name to the mailing list for updates on the project’s progress, and to check back often to learn more about the stellar impact of youth mariachi and folklórico dance programs in Tucson and beyond.

Always I invite your input and thoughts. Many of you reading this have stories or know folks who do that have real bearing on this project. I look forward to hearing from you and making this an even greater gathering of information.