While it may seem niche to those outside of Texas, high school mariachi competitions are quite prolific in the Lonestar State. The teams give students a creative outlet, as well as an opportunity to pursue scholarships in college music. One such school, Edinburgh North High School and their Mariachi Oro band provide the subject for Sam Osborn and Alejandra Vasquez’s lively “Going Varsity in Mariachi.” A moving portrait of the band’s quest to win State in 2022, as well as a dive into the personal lives of the coach, Abel Acuña, and students, ‘Going Varsity’ is just the right amount of saccharine.
Tracking a year in the lives of Acuña and his musicians, the film acts as a primer for both Mariachi music and the birth of competitive high school bands. It also doubles as a portrait of Acuña himself, as he works with advanced and beginner musicians, maintaining a practicality and discipline to the entire proceedings but also showing empathy to the struggling students. As he recounts his own experience as a struggling mariachi, who worked his way through college to become a teacher, it becomes clear that coaching the band allows him to explore both his passion for teaching and music.
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We are also exposed to the students. Bella Luna, who is a senior and the team captain. While she is a skilled musician, it’s also her first year in a leadership role. There’s also Abby Garcia, a violinist who dreams of studying Mariachi at Texas State. And, finally, there’s Drake, a likable and goofy kid who has just started playing the Guitarron. His struggles to master the Guitarron, and show up the practice, provide a throughline for the film as we move from competition to competition.
‘Going Varsity’ also zooms out to explore the culture of the Rio Grande area, showcasing the diverse experiences of the students and how mariachi brings them together. As these things go, ‘Going Varsity’ may not be groundbreaking in how it presents this narrative, but it nevertheless makes up for this with a cast of fascinating characters and an empathy to their desires and drive to succeed.
We follow the band throughout the year as they struggle to cohere at early competitions, unable to keep shared time. All the while, Acuña coaches them through this, noting that even though they have a documentary being made about them, they need to improve if they hope to make it.
Not surprisingly, the film culminates with Mariachi Oro’s State performance. Presented in full, it’s nothing less than a showstopper. Osborn and Vasquez wisely linger on both the performance, which highlights each individual section, and the baited anticipation as they announce the winners, creating something akin to “Friday Night Lights” for the Mariachi crowd. No spoilers here, but it’s an unexpected and cathartic ending for a group whose hard work is felt throughout the runtime.
Osborn and Vasquez have not only trained their lens to a particularly compelling subject but also foregrounded the people at the center of the band. In the end, it’s less about if they placed in the competition or not. Instead, it’s about the ways Acuña motivated his students, bringing out the best in them. It’s a testament to his job as a teacher and a heartwarming film about the ways that competition and music can bring people together. [A-]
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