Mariachi Los Gavilanes was formed in 1978 before most of the
current members were even born. The mariachi "Azul Y Blanco" of W.
H. Adamson High School was formed by its band director, the late
Moises E. Molina, and has been used as a stepping stone for members of
Los Gavilanes. In its long history members of the group have either been
grduates or are current students of Adamson High School. Mr. Molina
envisioned the group not only as a band that would play at school
functions and perhaps in the community, but also as a way of improving
the self images of the Hispanic students in the school, and as a tool used
towards combating the exploding drop-out rate. Under Mr. Molina the
gruop achieved success beyond his original intention, performing
throughout Texas, in California, and at the Tucson Mariachi Festival.
Upon Mr. Molinas untimely death in 1994, he was replaced by his
former student Maestro Felix A.Garay. ('93) Under Mr. Garay's
direction the group has continued to travel and perform throughout the
Southwest. In 1996 members of Azul Y Blanco were Overwhelmed by
the requests for performances that they and the director broke away
from the school and created an independant group called Los Gavilanes.
While staying in school and maintaining all of the performance requests
for the school group, Mariachi Los Gavilanes continued to perform
weekly and establish themselves throught the DFW area. Among their
many honors was their invitation to be the sole mariachi to perform for
president-elect Vicente Fox on his first visit to Dallas. Today's Gavilanes
are six graduates of Adamson High School. Apart from the director, the
longest runnimg member of the group is guitarist Edward Reyes who
graduated along with the director in 93. In 1995 Vihuelist/Vocalist Juan
Vasquez ('96) and Trumpeter Casey Garcia ('99) joined the group. In
1999 Guitarronist, and long time fixture,
Jose "Pepe" Carranza joined the group totalling the number of vocalists
to 3. Completing the group is returning member violinist Luis
Rodriguez. Many of our former members have already used their
musical talent to pay their ways through college and are leaders in the
Hispanic community in both music and non-musical fields.
written by, Delia Everman
