An Iowa high school's growing Latino population made way for its first mariachi band
A rural Iowa high school's mariachi program allows the growing Latino student population to share their culture with the broader community.
Iowa high school senior Miranda Estrada is a star student, a trumpet player and a drum major for the school’s marching band. She's also part of an extracurricular group that, 20 years ago, would have seemed unusual to find in a small Iowa town: A mariachi group called Reyes del Oeste.
“I grew up listening to mariachi, and it has always been a huge part of my life,” said Estrada, a first-generation student whose parents came to the United States from Mexico 18 years ago. “To me, Reyes del Oeste is like family.”
For Estrada and her peers, mariachi is more than just an extracurricular. At her high school in Denison, Latinos made up 68% of the student body in the 2022-2023 school year. That number is reflective of the city at large, whose Latino community has been growing for years and finally feels represented in the halls of Denison High School.
Miranda Estrada sings with the Denison High School mariachi band at a football game in Iowa.NBC NewsRuben Newell, the school's band director, said changing demographics in the student body forced him to consider how he could create a program that would better meet their needs.
“When I first started here in 2009, it was really obvious. I’d walk in the hallway and look at the student body, and then I’d get in front of the band in the band room and there was a disconnect,” said Newell, who is not Latino. “It definitely didn’t look the same.”
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