TEXAS — Fox Tech ALA CAST Mariachi plays in the heart of San Antonio at Fox Tech High School. David Zamarripa has led the program for over 30 years.

“Knowing that you can go from the West Side to a high school to college and to beyond, and never be ashamed of your culture, never be ashamed of where you come from,” Zamarripa said. 

Zamarripa walked the halls of Fox Tech as a student before graduating in 1995. He played in his middle school’s first ever mariachi program. 

“I went to Irving Middle School, and from there, I went to Fox Tech High School. It was different. I wish we were playing the music we play now, back then,” Zamarripa said. 

He saw when mariachi leapt from a regional event in 2008 to becoming a statewide University Interscholastic League (UIL) event in 2016. Zamarripa served on the inaugural committee at that time. 

“It was a wonderful thing to be part of the beginning,” Zamarripa said. 

Zamarripa said he’s a product of Belle San Miguel Ortiz, also known as the “Madrina (godmother) of Mariachi education.” San Miguel Ortiz started the country’s first mariachi class in 1970 at San Antonio’s Lanier High School. 

Mariachi continues to grow in schools from Forth Worth all the way down to the Rio Grande Valley, from 55 schools competing at the state competition in 2016 to 100 campuses in 2026.

“That’s been going for just over 10 years now, and we’ve seen about a 50% growth in the number of schools that are participating in mariachi statewide,” Bradley Kent, UIL’s music director, said. 

Zamarripa said his award-winning program has over 300 students.

“We expect a lot of greatness of ourselves and from each other,” said Eliza Brinkmann, a student in Fox Tech ALA CAST Mariachi. “Every performance and competition we come back from, we analyze it as a group.”

Student Belen Gonzalez travels 40 minutes to Fox Tech from Poteet, Texas. She said the UIL Mariachi Festival has taken her further than that. 

“You create family within mariachi. That’s my favorite thing. You get to go out and meet all the people from around the state, people from the Valley, from El Paso and all of those places,” Gonzalez said. “You create a lot of connections with a lot of people.”