A recent open house event led by the California Arts and Music Program welcomed a number of families to the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum—the sight of the burgeoning music camp program—and informed the small group in English and Spanish about the upcoming classes, cultural events, and fundraising efforts the nonprofit has planned. The invitation-only event was to welcome the small group of kids that were accepted into the organization’s first round of music camps.
The program’s already received plenty of support locally from individuals and businesses, including Chevrolet Home Motors, and has been able to provide several students with instruments at no cost, explained Johnny Magana, the program’s president.
“Through the fundraising, the donations, raffles, and family contributions, we have been able to acquire instruments,” Magana said. “Some kids have been able to network with their families to get an instrument that they already have, and some parents went and bought their kids an instrument.”
The students who couldn’t acquire an instrument otherwise, Magana explained, received one for free. The lessons are also provided at no cost to the students and their parents. Magana is certain that the classes will begin in July, though the group still needs support from community members and businesses in ensuring the funds to pay for music teachers for the program.
Though the California Arts and Music Program is putting its first foot forward with a Mariachi program, the lessons won’t be limited to only Mariachi classes, Magana explained.
“We want to do other programs like country music or African drumming programs because we want to be very inclusive to all nationalities and ethnicities,” he said. “We are going to be able to do this with grassroots support and funding.”
Magana was joined in leading the open house—which included a fundraising raffle—by program Vice Presidents Salvador Barragan and Martha Sanchez. Both Barragan and Sanchez spoke specifically on how music can help young people become better and more disciplined students, learn about their culture, and enjoy support from mentors and peers.
Sanchez, a Righetti High School grad who participated in the school’s Marimba Band and is currently a social worker for Santa Barbara County, explained the importance of performance in a young person’s life.
“This is not just a music program or mariachi program,” she said. “It’s a program that will help them build self-esteem. It’s like a ladder for them to build bonds so they are able to perform and communicate better in front of people.”
Organizers like Barragan hope to offer supportive mentorships to young people in the program, and act as a means of support for local families. This can help close the gap between many local students and a college education, he explained.
“As I was growing up in Santa Maria, I didn’t have much of a support system; I didn’t know anyone who went to college, and it really was that story of immigrant parents who came and did it all by themselves,” he said. “But now that we’ve graduated from college, we don’t want people to do it by themselves; they can have that support.”
The long game for the California Arts and Music Program is Santa Maria’s first youth mariachi band, but in the meantime lessons in guitar, violin, voice, and more have to happen before the kids can pool their newfound skills in an ensemble setting.
The nonprofit still needs support from anyone who can help—from individuals in the community who can donate funds or instruments, to local businesses who can join the effort as well, Barragan explained.
“Right now we are laying the foundation,” he said, “and we want Santa Maria to know that we are building this from the ground up. We strongly believe in music, and we strongly believe in community.”
Contact Arts Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 9-16, 2015.
