Edinburg North Mariachi Band featured in Netflix documentary

EDINBURG, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Edinburg North High School Mariachi Band will be featured in an upcoming Netflix documentary, 'Going Varsity in Mariachi.'

The team won the UIL state championship in a tough 21-22 school year.

“That class of students, 21-22, they were new," said Mariachi Teacher, Abel Acuña. "They were right out of COVID, and so we had some students that had never played the instrument before; had never seen me in person. They would just see me as a little square on their computer.”

Acuña says being a part of that film was an experience he will never forget.

He says, however, the team may have the cameras to thank for their victory.

“It got me to know that they could actually put more. I think because they were really wanting to impress the cameras and so that was pretty interesting for the students to have that going.”

From the experience, Acuña and the school received exposure.

“Mariachi education is becoming something bigger, so through UIL picking it up, I think it was sparked to the interest of this movie and people get to see now that mariachi is much more.”

The documentary was directed by Sam Osborn and Alejandra Vasquez and is set to release on Netflix, Aug. 29.