BRYAN, Texas — If you’ve heard Mariachi in Bryan-College Station, there is a good chance you saw Tradicional Mosqueda Mariachi.
Before 1985 there was not a group in Brazos County that played traditional Mexican music. For decades, the family has performed across the state as well as for large special events.
“We have gone all the way down to San Juan which is way down in Texas," says Jamie Mosqueda, a Tradicional Mosqueda Mariachi band member. "And north like around Dallas area and also, Lufkin and basically East Texas which Nacogdoches and Marshall and of course of Bryan-College Station, that's is where we really have more of a clientele.”
When the family formed the mariachi band over 30 years ago, Mosqueda was just a teenager and says it was a way for his family to stay connected to their roots.
“When we first started it, we just got together and sang because we first got here [Bryan] that was our way of a comfort zone. The music was our comfort zone, because we songs of our motherland," said Mosqueda.
“They have continued the culture from, you know, our grandparents and our former generations so very proud that they have instilled not just within the family of our new generations, but also within the community," says Hoffman. "You know, that says that was once what I thought kind of lost for a while it has revived.”
Tradicional Mosqueda has had a strong presence in the Bryan-College Station community and school system. Mosqueda is a teacher at Johnson Elementary in Bryan and has taken his passion for Mariachi and music and used it inside his classroom.
"it's an awesome tool to use with students, especially if they learn in a different language," said Mosqueda. "I think music, it's a powerful tool to use, because they're articulate the language, they're learning vocabulary. And if you make it fun for them, they learn a song first of all, and then they go and share it with other friends or family members and they take this on with them at all times."
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage this month, the band says what better way to introduce children to the culture and heritage, than through music.
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