The current MENC Mariachi Advisory Committee is:
National Chair
Mack Ruíz
mkr1@cfl.rr.com
Mack Ruíz attended the University of Arizona receiving a B.A. from the College of Education. He became a teacher of Spanish, Bilingual Education and ESL, and English as a Second Language at Tucson High School and formed and instructed Tucson's first high school mariachi program within the Tucson Unified School District.
Mack has been a lifetime member of Mariachi Cobre, which was formed in 1971, became part of Walt Disney World Entertainment in 1982, and still performs at Epcot in Florida. He has taught at mariachi conferences throughout the United States and is currently a mariachi conference educational coordinator for The Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference.
With Mariachi Cobre, Mack has collaborated with such international artists as Linda Ronstadt, Vikki Carr, Doc Severinsen, Lola Beltran, Lucha Villa, Guadalupe Pineda, Aida Cuevas, Pedro Fernandez, Pepe Aguilar, Beatriz Adriana, Ana Gabriel, Alison Kraus, and performed with the symphony orchestras of San Antonio, San Jose, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Minnesota, Nashville, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Columbus, Evansville, Guadalajara, Jacksonville, Long Beach, Modesto, Monterey, Utah, New Mexico, and Tucson.
National Chair-Past
William Gradante PhD
william.gradante1@fwisd.org
Bill Gradante, or “Doctor G,” as he is known by his students, colleagues, and just about everybody else in Fort Worth’s “North Side” Mexican-American community, was born and raised in the multi-ethnic community known as the “South End” of Hartford, Connecticut. He earned his B.A. in Music at Middlebury College in Vermont, where he graduated magna cum laud and was a Phi Beta Kappa scholar. More importantly, however, an unexpected visit there by ethnomusicologist Ronald Smith turned the future “Doctor G’s” eyes southward. Gradante had been captivated by Hispanic music since hearing the early music of Carlos Santana and the copla, guaguancó, and bambuco music performed by his Colombian, Costa Rican, and Puerto Rican guitar-playing high school buddies. Thus, Gradante emerged from a Winter Term course taught by Smith with the revelation: “You can make a career out of actually studying this stuff?”
He was hooked. He spend six months doing ethnomusicological research in a small town in the southern Colombian Andes, resulting in a 300-page B.A. thesis that nobody at Middlebury knew what to do with-- except Ron Smith. Next stop was graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin, where Gradante had the unbelievable good fortune to study with some of the most respected folklorists and ethnomusicologists of their day: Folklorist Richard Bauman and linguistic anthropologist Joel Sherzer (together honing the cutting edge of the school of “performance folkloristics”), ethnomusicologists Gerard Béhague, Marcia Herndon, Norma McLeod, and Steven Feld, and the “Dean of Latin American Folklorists,” the venerable Américo Paredes, who introduced Gradante to mariachi music. Three more research trips to Colombia and ten years in the stacks at the Institute of Latin American Studies produced both an 850-page doctoral dissertation on Colombian folk musical improvisation and a lifelong love affair with mariachi music.
Gradante has spent the last twenty-seven years teaching mariachi classes at J.P. Elder Middle School and North Side High School, while spending weekends as a professional mariachi. He has published academic articles on the music of José Alfredo Jiménez, Colombian folk music, and low rider culture. The recognition by MENC of mariachi music as a “legitimate” field of music education both brings things full circle and charts the course for new directions of study. “¡Echenle con ganas, muchachos!”
Representatives
John Contreras
Contrerasjohnc@hotmail.com
John C. Contreras Studied vocal performance at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona and attended the Los Angeles School of Music. He studied voice with famed vocalist of Mariachi Vargas, Heriberto Molina . He performed with Mariachi Tlaquepaque of Los Angeles, Mariachi Perla of Chicago, Mariachi Azteca del Sol and Mariachi Luz de Luna of Tucson. He recorded and toured the United States and Europe with the popular musical group Calexico. John has instructed at the Tucson and Las Cruces International conferences and currently serves on the Workshop Advisory and Directional Board for the Tucson International Conference. John is currently a teacher with the Tucson Unified School District and has directed Tucson’s prestigious Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo Magnet High School for the past eight years.
Dr. Eric J. López
ericlopezphd@msn.com
Dr. Eric J. López received his B.A. in History from Texas A & M University and his Ed.S. and Ph.D. in School Psychology from The University of Iowa. He is a Full Professor and currently serves as Interim Department Head for the Department of Special Education/Communication Disorders at New Mexico State University (NMSU). He has directed the Educational Diagnostician Program and is faculty for the School Psychology and specialization/concentration in Bilingual/Multicultural Special Education Programs at NMSU. Dr. López is also the first Stan Fulton Endowed Chair for the Improvement of Border and Rural Schools, Co-Chairing the Alliance for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and serving as Principle Investigator for the Southern New Mexico ENLACE (Engaging Latino Communities in Education) Program at NMSU. Dr. López has consulted at the local, state, national and international levels. His research interests include the areas of multicultural assessment, consultation and interventions.
Wendy Martinez
wendygirl_1984@yahoo.com
Wendy Imelda Martinez is a Ronald E. McNair scholar and graduate of New Mexico State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education. She also attended La Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez where she studied for a music performance degree. She is a music teacher in the Ysleta Texas Independent School District at Hillcrest Middle school. Wendy has performed internationally with the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de la UACJ, Orquesta Sinfónica de Ciudad Juárez and the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra. She performs with Mariachi Tapatio of El Paso and is currently Artistic Director of Mariachi Espuelas de Plata, a non-profit community youth group in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Wendy coordinates Mariachi outreach programs for Alma d' Arte Charter High School in Las Cruces and Gadsden Middle School in Anthony, TX.
Alberto Ranjel
Bertman0581@AOL.com
Alberto Ranjel received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Arizona, majoring in Vocal Performance. He received his Secondary Teaching Certification in Music and English for the state of Arizona. Alberto was an Artist-in-Residence at Salpointe Catholic High School, Tucson, Arizona and director of Mariachi Monarca de Salpointe. Rangel is an on-going instructor at the Las Cruces International Mariachi Conference and the Tucson International Mariachi Conference. He is currently a faculty member at Tucson High Magnet School where he teaches mariachi, music theory, guitar and choir. He instructs the famed youth mariachi group, Los Changuitos Feos of Tucson, Arizona. He is completing his Masters in Education degree with an emphasis in K-12 principalship from Northern Arizona University.
José Torres
Torre18@houstonisd.org
José R. Torres is Director of the Mariachi Studies Program at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. He was a faculty member in the department of music at the University of Texas San Antonio for six years, where he taught lecture courses on Latin American music, mariachi studies and conducted the university mariachi ensembles: "Los Paisanos" and women's mariachi "Las Charritas". He founded the UTSA Summer Mariachi Institute, a program providing teacher development training and master classes for high school teachers and students. He has taught mariachi in public school systems throughout Texas including the San Antonio, Somerset, San Angelo, and Southwest school districts. In the area of academic research, Mr. Torres' interests focus on Latin America and its cultural history, folk and popular music traditions. His specialization is Mexico and the history and performance practices of the mariachi tradition. He was a graduate research fellow at the Smithsonian Institution Latino Music Oral History Program at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. and did extensive research on the role of music in cultural identity. Mr. Torres has presented numerous workshops and lectures on the history and development of the mariachi tradition and applicable teaching techniques. Professionally speaking, he has collaborated and studied with some of the mariachi industry's top practicioners including Campanas de America, Los Camperos de Natí Cano, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, and Mariachi Cobre. Mr. Torres is a composer/producer/arranger and has directed the production of numerous CD recordings and written music for various professional mariachi ensembles. Mr. Torres participates as a clinician and adjudicator for mariachi conferences and festivals throughout the southwestern United States.