Each week, “Pop Quiz” features an interview with a member of Greater Houston’s education community. To suggest someone we should interview with an interesting story to tell, email us at education@houstonlanding.org.
Meet the interviewees
When Houston ISD high schoolers Zayden Longoria, Giselle Zambrano and Esmeralda Rodriguez heard the news that their Mariachi group had earned top honors at their regional competition Saturday, it seemed like the moment could not get more magical.
The whole squad, clad in marigold-colored suits, erupted into cheers, hugs and tearful applause when the director of the group, Daisy Zambrano, read them their scores, according to a video recording provided to the Houston Landing. With perfect marks from three separate judges, their team — Mariachi Bicentenario from HISD’s Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center — punched its ticket to the state competition for the first time in at least three years.
Yet the scene would soon become even more remarkable.
Tired and hungry from their big day, the ensemble stopped into a Whataburger on the way home. A few minutes later, a bus carrying another Mariachi team from the same competition, Mariachi Estrella De Mi Tierra from Klein Collins High School, also pulled up to the restaurant. Before the two squads parted ways, their leaders conferred and decided to offer an impromptu serenade to their fellow restaurant-goers.
They selected a classic mariachi tune, La Negra, and darted back to their buses to retrieve their instruments. Dozens of high school musicians filled a portion of the restaurant, some standing on booth chairs. Together, the two teams played violins, vihuelas and flutes in unison as Whataburger diners and staff alike whooped and recorded the moment on their phones.
A clip made its way to TikTok and quickly began to go viral. By Thursday afternoon, the video had racked up over 2 million views and tens of thousands of comments and shares.
To get the inside scoop on the special moment, the Houston Landing spoke with Zayden, 18, who is a group leader and plays several instruments; Giselle, 17, who plays vihuela, a Mexican five-stringed guitar; and Esmeralda, 17, who plays violin. Each broke down the experience from their vantage point.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length. Interviewees’ responses have been grouped by topic area.
I understand you guys were coming off a big win at the (regional) competition. How long had you been training for that and how much work went into it?
Esmeralda: For me, I felt really proud of my group. I love my group. Yeah, I’m really proud of us.
Giselle: It’s like, when you’re getting the results, you’re very nervous. You don’t know what’s coming your way. But once you hear you have (the top score), you just feel like this rush of energy go through you. I don’t know. We all jumped. We were all happy. There’s a video. … We hug each other. It was a great moment.
What happened next? How did it turn into playing in the restaurant?
Giselle: On the bus, we’re all like, let’s go to Texas Roadhouse. But then we’re like, no (the wait is too long). We’ll just go another day. So, we just want to stick to our tradition. Last year we went to Whataburger, but there wasn’t another group there, so we didn’t (play music there) last year. But this year, it was different. We got there and not even five, 10 minutes later, the other group showed up. And we’re all just really happy to be there. It just felt like a community in a Whataburger. It was a different feeling. And, yeah, everyone finished eating, and we’re like, “What now? Do we just go home?” And our directors are like, “Why don’t y’all go and get your instruments?” And it just happened, we just started playing.
What did it feel like to be playing in that Whataburger?
Zayden: It was honestly amazing. Because I personally know them, some of the kids (on Klein Collins High’s team), from the mariachi camp held at (the University of Houston), and so it was honestly great to see. Me personally, I was honestly very excited whenever they told us we were going to play a song. I got the chance to play trumpet. … There were so many of us. There were two groups — well, technically four, because both of the schools took their (junior varsity) and advanced groups. So it was anybody who really knew the song. And it was honestly like we were all supporting each other. It felt like a community.
Esmeralda: It felt memorable because I feel like it’s a once in a life experience. I’ve never really played in a restaurant. And with another group it was really memorable to me and really special because my friends from Klein were also there.
Giselle: It’s cool, because you could see all the Whataburger employees, they were all recording us, and the customers and our directors. It was great.
Whose idea was it to start playing?
Zayden: I think it was agreed amongst the directors.
Giselle: One of the directors, they just cued us, and we just all came in together.
How’d you pick the song?
Zayden: Well, La Negra is a typical mariachi song, and it was like a general song. So we made sure that everybody knew it.
I would think it might be hard to do that with people you hadn’t played or practiced with before.
Zayden: Yeah. But honestly, it all flowed, because we all had that same spirit and energy. And as you can see in the video, we were all very eager and excited coming from the win (at the competition).
When they took a video, I don’t know if you expected it to go viral like it did. But when it did take off, what was your reaction to seeing that happen?
Giselle: We have a group chat with the mariachi (team). One of our directors, he sent a screenshot and was like, “Oh, y’all are going viral.” We all go look at the TikTok and it’s already at like 500,000 views. Throughout the whole school day, it just kept going up and up. … We look at the comments once in a while because there’s a lot of positive comments and it’s good to read those.
Zayden: I was kind of moved. It’s so heartwarming, especially going through the comments, seeing all of the people who were so supportive. And other Mexicans who realize, this culture, it’s being spread to not only just Latinos, but in our group, and the other group from the other high school, they had non-Hispanic students. So it was honestly great to see the culture being spread. That was a lot of the results that we got from the comments. So it was heartwarming to see.
You guys reached a circle way beyond that restaurant, way beyond Houston. Tons of people, it seems, were moved by that video.
Giselle: Yeah it was great. I saw it on Facebook and I saw it on Instagram and TikTok. It was really cool.
Anything else I haven’t asked that would help a reader understand that moment or what it meant to you?
Zayden: The mariachi setting is … mostly seen as for older men. And seeing high schoolers do it, it’s just so heartwarming. So I would just say it was a great way to connect our community with our culture.
Asher Lehrer-Small covers Houston ISD for the Landing. Find him @by_ash_ls on Instagram and @small_asher on X, or reach him directly at asher@houstonlanding.org.
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