LAS VEGAS (AP) — Axel Rodríguez Olivas nervously steps on stage, carrying a violin. He raises his bow and begins to play, his nerves melting away.
Mariachi music explodes throughout the room as violins, trumpets, the guitarrón, and a stringed instrument called the vihuela launch into an upbeat melody. There they are joined by a warm voice as a tenor begins to sing.
“I think joy is what I feel ultimately,” said Rodríguez Olivas, dressed in an ornate
“traje charro,” the traditional mariachi suit brightly decked out with decorative metal buttons and a wide bow tie.
The 20-year-old musician is set to become the first student to graduate with a minor in mariachi from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, one of the only universities in the country to offer such a niche specialization.
In a city where Latinos comprise more than a third of the population, mariachi music is so popular in schools that there often aren't enough teachers to meet demand. The minor was created to train students to become mariachi educators in the Clark County School District, which boasts of one of the largest mariachi programs in the U.S. with about 6,000 students taking part.
Not just a popular student extracurricular, mariachi culture is a staple and deep-seated form of entertainment across Las Vegas.
“If you go out today, there’s going to be mariachi somewhere on the Strip,” said Stephen Blanco, who oversees the mariachi minor at UNLV and directs Las Vegas High School’s Mariachi Joya.
A form of Mexican folk music, mariachi was born out of joy and pride in Mexico, he said. Its songs tell stories of pain, love, joy and excitement, capable of tugging at the heartstrings of audiences everywhere, he added.
“I think that it’s just something that everyone enjoys," Blanco said. "You don’t even have to be able to speak Spanish or understand it. I think it’s impossible for someone to walk away without a smile on their face.”
As members of the professional group Mariachi Paloma Azteca, Rodríguez Olivas and Blanco perform at birthday parties, weddings and funerals. Recently, at a concert in Las Vegas, the ensemble opened with the quintessential “El Jalisciense," a song celebrating the Mexican state of Jalisco made famous by the Regional Mexican music superstar Vicente Fernández.
Holding her violin and a microphone in one hand, Emily Vargas sang, “Yo me muero donde quiera,” — ”I'll Die Wherever I Please" — as she belted out the story of a woman proudly dying for her country.
There is beauty in the mariachi performance from the way the group plays in unison right down to how the violinists hold their bows, Rodríguez Olivas said, calling it a powerful means of expressing the deepest of emotions through storytelling and music.
Rodríguez Olivas played saxophone in a middle school band, but he grew up watching mariachi performances in school and always found the music exciting and intriguing. When he saw mariachi being offered in his high school, he thought it would be fun to learn a new instrument.
“The rest is history,” he said.
“It connects me to my roots," Rodríguez Olivas said. “My family is from Mexico, so you know it kind of brings that conversation with my parents, other family members and friends as well.”
In high school, he was the student director of Mariachi Joya, an award-winning mariachi from Las Vegas High School that performed for Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration in 2021.
Mariachi Joya is Las Vegas High School's top mariachi ensemble, though there are about 350 students in the program. During practice, Blanco runs the mariachi through their setlist, correcting an out-of-tune student and improving an intonation. A first-place trophy from the 2026 Mariachi Extravaganza Las Vegas sits in front of the classroom.
During a performance, the high school ensemble dresses in bright red suits. The violinists raise their bows and shout “joya” — Spanish for “jewel” — before they launch into an upbeat melody. A mariachi lets out a “grito,” the iconic yell or whistle of excitement, and the audience claps along.
Instructors begin teaching the students early about mariachi repertoire. Ramiro Benavides, director of a middle school mariachi in the district, not only drills his students on how to play their instruments and sing, but also how to bring a theatrical and dramatic flair to their performances.
During one middle school mariachi practice, an instructor encourages a girl to come out of her shell and yell excitedly. She starts off timidly, but when joined by her classmates, her yell becomes more confident.
The mariachi program at Clark County School District has grown significantly since its 2002 inception, and in recent years it’s become increasingly difficult to find enough mariachi teachers, said Jeffrey Williams, the director of CCSD’s Fine and Performing Arts Department.
To fill the gap, Blanco recently launched a 22-credit curriculum for the minor program at UNLV, joining only a few universities in Texas that offer such training. Students learn about mariachi repertoire and how to teach the mariachi genre.
In one class, students study more than 70 mariachi songs over a semester, discussing their lyrics and style and what makes each unique, Blanco said. Students are trained in the traditional mariachi repertoire one would expect to hear regularly — ready to perform and pass on the music to those who will follow after.
When Rodríguez Olivas graduates in three years, he plans to go back to Clark County School District and teach mariachi.
“I want to kind of give back to future generations and give them the same opportunities that I had, and make it as fun as it was for me,” he said.
