From Varsity Mariachi to Pharmacy

“Where words fail, music speaks.”

There are perhaps few better people who can attest to these words by Hans Christian Andersen than UIW Feik School of Pharmacy students Isabella Luna and Legacy Taylor.

The two FSOP students share similar journeys. They both grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, were members of their high school’s varsity mariachi ensemble, were accepted to UIW as direct admit pharmacy students, and are now in their second year of pharmacy school at the young age of 20. Oh, and they recently made their Netflix debut in the just-released documentary, Going Varsity in Mariachi.

The documentary follows the entirety of their senior year at Edinburg North High School. From the first day of rehearsal following COVID-19 school shutdowns, to watching them cross the graduation stage, viewers are taken on an intimate journey with Isabella, Legacy, their teammates and their beloved teacher, Mr. Abel Acuña. The film showcases the highs and lows of a year in a public high school music ensemble as its members find their sound again following the pandemic. Ultimately, the troupe makes their way to the UIL State Mariachi contest, where they (spoiler!) earn second place in their division.

Watching them sit side-by-side in their pharmacy courses today, one might never guess that the two can play violin and sing with the best of them. It’s not something that frequently comes up when studying chemistry. But the lessons they learned from being part of their high school mariachi group, and the opportunities it afforded them to reconnect with their culture will stay with them for a lifetime.

“When I went into mariachi, I didn’t know any Spanish,” admitted Isabella. “I felt disconnected from my culture. Then, being in mariachi allowed me to dive headfirst into everything about my Hispanic culture.”

That sense of disconnection is one that Legacy says she was familiar with as well.

“I think a lot of our grandparents were taught when they first came into this country that speaking Spanish wasn’t right,” she explained. “My grandparents were hit in school for speaking Spanish. They didn’t have a good experience, so they taught their kids that in America, we speak English.

“Not speaking any fluent Spanish, I felt very disconnected from my heritage,” she continued. “And to feel connected through the mariachi just feels amazing because you're carrying on the legacy of the people that came before you, and you're honoring their experiences. You're saying it's okay to have that culture and to express that culture and not let anybody else tell you that it’s not appropriate or professional.”

Mariachi Oro, ENHS’s varsity ensemble, was anything but unprofessional. Students in the group committed to a rigorous rehearsal schedule. Their custom-made uniforms were always perfectly pressed. The documentary features a scene in which the ensemble’s violinists are gathered of their own volition in Isabella’s living room, perfecting lyrics, harmonies and even their physical movements.

“Lupe, your instrument coming down needs to be as fast as it is coming up,” Isabella says to a fellow mariachi in the scene. “With me, okay?”

She raises her violin.

“You guys weren’t ready.”

She puts her violin down, then raises it again. Every teammate has their eyes glued on her, waiting for her cue to raise their own.

“You’re lagging,” she says, putting her instrument down again.

She does this several more times until all violins and bows rise and fall in perfect synchrony.

There is no director in sight. Acuña has already instilled the value of hard work in them. The students are voluntarily rehearsing and fine tuning the details in their free time. It’s this drive and self-motivation that Isabella and Legacy say prepared them for their time at UIW.

“Mariachi was where I learned the most,” shared Legacy. “It teaches you leadership skills and how to communicate with others – everything that they tell you that they want from you in a job application. It taught discipline. And you wouldn’t expect that because it’s a musical group, but it’s definitely where I learned to be an adult and become a leader.”

Beyond the rigor, Mariachi Oro was also a family. With Mr. Acuña serving in a patriarchal role, the mariachi room became a second home for the students.

“Mr. Acuña completely changed my life,” said Isabella. “Mariachi was my safe space when I was in high school. Mariachi was everything to me back then, but he also would always push us to do well in our other studies, too. He supported us in anything we wanted to do. He supported me completely when I didn't want to go into music but wanted to learn more about pharmacy.”

“He was my number one mentor in high school,” added Legacy. “I had so many conversations where I cried with him about going to college and what it was going to be like being in a different city, being away from my parents. He set me up with meetings with people in San Antonio so that I wouldn't be worried, and he set me up with meetings with other pharmacists, students that he knew, so that I wouldn't be nervous.”

Still, the move from the Rio Grande Valley to San Antonio was one that took Isabella and Legacy from both their families at home and the one they had in Mariachi Oro. It was a big adjustment, but they relied on each other and the new support system they found at UIW as they made the transition.

The two roomed together for the first couple of years at UIW. With time, their circle at UIW and the Feik School of Pharmacy grew.

“We're studying a lot, and we're at school a lot of the time,” explained Legacy of the friends they’ve made at UIW. “It’s kind of the same as being in a music group where you're practicing all the time and you're hanging around each other in class. They become your forever friends.”

“The TRiO department was definitely my safe space when I moved here,” shared Isabella. “I met a lot of friends there, and I knew I could always go to my advisors if I needed help with anything. And at Feik, a lot of my professors are like that as well. The FSOP Office of Student Affairs, all of them take the time to get to know us and make us feel like they're there if we ever need anything. They were the people that I showed the documentary to. I wanted to share it with them because they're like family today.”

That family – affectionately called the “pharmily” by the school’s community members, have been some of Isabella and Legacy’s biggest cheerleaders since the release of the film on Netflix. After the initial surprise that the classmates they’ve known for years are as musically gifted as they are scientifically, the pharmily showed an outpouring of love and support. Isabella and Legacy are grateful to be able to share a piece of themselves, the artform they love and their culture with their new support system.

“A lot of them have never seen the RGV in that kind of light,” Legacy shared. “It made me happy that people were able to see the valley in this way.”

The positive reception and embracing of their story, their culture and their hometown, is something Isabella got to experience on a national level. Having grown close to the filmmakers, who spent every day of her senior year with her and her classmates, she was invited to join them at film festivals across the country. She sat in audiences in Utah, Missouri, and California, and witnessed the reactions these diverse audiences had to the film. What she experienced has changed her for good and for better.

“It was amazing for me to see how many people were so excited about the mariachi,” she remembered. “In the scene when we all are performing at the end of the film, people were standing up and screaming and everyone was just so excited. It just made me feel so, so happy that people from everywhere cared.”

While audiences around the world are just now discovering the story of Mariachi Oro, the events shown in the documentary took place several years ago. For Isabella and Legacy, much has changed – where they live, where they go to school, and the people they are surrounded by day in and day out. But bonded by the experience of being proud members of ENHS’s varsity mariachi ensemble, you’ll still find them sitting next to each other in every class they take together. It’s their plan to take their next steps after graduation together as well. Both share a goal of returning to the Rio Grande Valley to serve the community and people that raised them. They’ll take everything they learned at UIW – and in mariachi – with them.

“I work in a pharmacy now, and most of our customers will speak Spanish only, and now I'm able to connect to them differently,” reflected Isabella when asked how her mariachi experiences translate to her current career goals. “It’s really special that I'm able to connect to people like that and make people feel known or feel listened to, when maybe they wouldn't with somebody who didn't speak the same language.”

“I love the valley,” Legacy said of her home with a smile. “I’m working towards being able to work with Hispanic populations and target diseases that primarily affect those communities.”

The experience of being in a critically acclaimed documentary is just one chapter in what will be a life filled with even more opportunities, adventures and wins for Isabella and Legacy. But while they will move on to do more, they hope that through the film, their story will continue to inspire others and make their community proud for years to come.

“I hope that Hispanic girls are inspired to pursue music or pursue college or pursue whatever their dreams are,” Isabella said. “I hope that they're seeing characters like me who do different things but are working so hard for their goals. I hope they're inspired to do the same.”