SAN ANTONIO — Friday and Saturday mark the culmination of months of rehearsing for high school mariachi groups across Texas.
Several San Antonio schools are among the 70 schools performing at the Second annual Mariachi UIL State Competition.
The Southwest High School mariachi band is one of them. Each student having different reasons for joining the band.
Senior, Javier Delarosa told us, "My sister, she basically kind of introduced me into. It's been in our culture and family as well but my sister was the one that actually came here and did it herself."
Senior, Marylynn Alvarado added, "My brother was in mariachi all throughout high school and middle school so he really inspired me to also pursue mariachi in high school."
Their instructor and Mariachi Facilitator, Eddie Perales, couldn't be more proud. He said, "This is my youngest group so far we are going to go compete and I'm very excited for them they've worked really hard, so hopefully tomorrow we will find out how they actually did."
Southwest High School isn't the only high school participating from Southwest ISD this weekend. Southwest Legacy High School will be there too.
Daniel Cantu, the school's mariachi director told us, "The kids have been working extremely hard I'm really proud of them. Every year has its challenges, but we've pushed through and they've pushed through. They put in a lot of time countless hours so I'm really proud of them."
He's excited to make it to state as are the members of the band. Senior, Arlye Deluna told us, "I'm very excited I think this is our third year going to state so it's a really big accomplishment because we've only been open for three years."
Junior, Damion Guillen added, "This is my first time going and I think it's going to be a great experience for us, and I'm just excited to see how well we are going to do and hopefully get that first division."
Each group hoping to strum the right strings, blow to the right beat and hit the right notes to be number one.