Going Varsity in Mariachi

Directed By Alejandra Vasquez

In the competitive world of high school mariachi, the musicians from the South Texas borderlands reign supreme.

  • ABOUT
  • BIO

Under the guidance of coach Abel Acuña, the teenage captains of Edinburg North High School’s acclaimed team must turn a shoestring budget and diverse crew of inexperienced musicians into state champions.

Alejandra Vasquez is a Mexican-American director and producer. Her directorial feature-length debut GOING VARSITY IN MARIACHI premiered at Sundance 2023 and it won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award for the U.S. Documentary Competition. Alejandra’s short works include “Folk Frontera,” a surrealist film about the exchange of culture and music in the borderlands of Far West Texas that had a broadcast premiere in the PBS special The Latino Experience, won the SXSW Jury Award for Texas Shorts, and is taught in San Diego public schools. Her latest short about the boom-and-bust oil cycles in her rural Texas hometown, “When It’s Good, It’s Good,” a co-production with Latino Public Broadcasting, screened at New Orleans Film Festival and BAMcinemaFest. She cut her teeth on the producing side as part of the teams behind the acclaimed features MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (2018), US KIDS (2020), and PLAN C (2023).

Her work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Field of Vision, SFFILM, ITVS, the International Women’s Media Foundation, and more. Fellowships and residencies include the Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, Film Independent Docuseries Intensive, the IF/Then Editing Lab, and the Catapult Research Program. Alejandra lives in Los Angeles where she is developing her next feature about the green card lottery.