It's National Hispanic American Heritage Month.

And if you were at Lexington's Viva MASEKO Festival a few weeks ago, you may have seen a performance from Mariachi Scotto, the mariachi band from Bryan Station High School.

In fact, it's the only public school in the state with a mariachi band program.

And so far, the director says it's a big success.

It's my favorite class and it's my favorite thing to do.

I really like mariachi.

I love it.

I definitely love it.

So many people that you.

Don't see any more versus them doing anything.

Dr. Liggins, our superintendent, is from Texas, and mariachi is huge out in the western part of the country.

And he had great interest in bringing a little bit of that representation of Hispanic culture to the Bluegrass and Bryan Station High School with a large Hispanic population, as well as a Spanish immersion program, was the logical choice for that program.

One, two, three.

One, two, 300.

So mariachi is the folkloric music of Mexico in the same way that here in Kentucky we have bluegrass, which is the folkloric music of the mountains.

Mariachi is the folkloric music of Mexico.

It's so valuable because it's to me, it's three programs in one.

It's language arts because so many of these students don't speak Spanish and they're learning to interpret and perform music in a different language.

It's a theater production where performers were doing different rhythms that don't present in any other type of classical music.

It's a completely different art form that is new to the world of fine art, and it's so valuable for some of these students to be able to take in something new.

It feels very exhilarating.

I love it.

I love my uniform.

I love my violin.

Now, this year that we have uniforms and I get to be part of the group that has a uniform, it's very like, Oh, wow.

We're like, kind of like a mariachi now.

Like, like an actual group of mariachi.

I like playing the songs.

I like hanging out with friends.

It's really exciting to play me songs for other people that haven't even heard of Mariachi before.

The student interest has been pretty strong.

A lot of the orchestra students have never played or heard mariachi music.

A lot of the students who have mariachi in their home culture have never picked up an orchestra or band instrument.

So in our first period of class this year, we have almost exclusively beginners, people who had never touched the instrument before or have never read music.

And now they're all in band.

I think mariachi education is really important because it offers a lot of differentiation.

You have students that are brand new to music coming in and you kind of kind of start them off.

But also once you get into the more advanced songs, the trumpet and the violin parts that are in mariachi music is very advanced, very challenging.

So you're offering kind of both aims.

You can offer these kids that are ready for a challenge, this really advanced music that's fun to perform, fun to play.

On a personal level, it's my mission in life to have mariachi education and mariachi in general.

Included in the conversation as fine art.

The stage is generally set for American classrooms to include Western classical music or Americana John Philip Sousa or Beethoven.

And I'm here as a on a personal level and as an educator to say mariachi la casa belongs in that conversation.

It's hard to emphasize enough the importance of this music within Mexican culture.

And also, unfortunately, there's a back side to that coin, and the portrayal of mariachi can sometimes be turned into parody, and those are a negative things that we do talk about with our students, like the Importance of Wearing are attracted to the churro with pride and elegance because no matter what, no matter where we are performing here in Kentucky, somebody seeing a mariachi for the first time.

And I would like for their first impression to be, wow, how elegant.

Well, how beautiful.

So expressing upon them the importance and the pride of mariachi and charro culture is one of the forefront of the of our class in story, one of the most in.

Bringing mariachi and other world ensemble movements to our district lifts up the students who have heard that at home, who have heard that perhaps in their home country or in different parts of our country, it's wonderful to see them collaborate regardless of where they come from or who they know already or what kind of music they like in this room, in this class.

They're all mariachi musicians.

Talent, indeed.

Mariachi Escoto has several more public performances this year, including three in October.