Dallas

Mariachi group returns to Dallas College

After a 4-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Mariachi Leones returned this year to the Dallas College Mountain View Campus

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You could hear the guitars and violins echo through Building E on the Dallas College Mountain View campus. It meant Mariachi Leones was rehearsing.

"You guys ready?" Music Professor and Mariachi Leones Director Manuel Chavez asked. "All right, go ahead and stand up."

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For Chavez, the setting is familiar. "I feel a connection because I was in their shoes," Chavez said.

He was among the original Mariachi Leones musicians when he was a student at Dallas College almost 2-decades ago. Now he leads the group.

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"To bring mariachi back to life," Chavez explained. "So I brought it in 2018, '19, and '20; 2020, unfortunately, COVID hit us and we couldn't play instruments."

Mariachi Leones is back on campus this year for the first time since the pandemic. Chavez said by the second rehearsal, more than 2 dozen students signed up.

"Everybody showed up! We had a harp, we got trumpets, we had everybody," Chavez said. "There's a need!"

"So we can show people how our culture is," guitarrón player Julianna Vasquez said. "And just how, like, proud we are of it."

"It brings the community together, and that's what I get the most benefit out of the program," Chavez said. "I would describe it as a party, and you hear music in the background."

"You have a moment with a certain song and hearing it again, you're reminded of that moment," guitar player Emmanuel Hernandez said.

For many of the musicians in Mariachi Leones, the music is in their families.

"It hits my heart," Chavez said. "And I love it!"

Mariachi Leones is open to Dallas College students and early college students who are still in high school and taking college classes.

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