The acclaimed Latin band Orkesta Mendoza has performed in theaters and auditoriums all over the world but rarely in school cafeterias. More than 320 Fort Braden elementary and middle school students were treated to a live concert by the Tucson-based musicians as part of an educational outreach program offered by Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University.

The band was founded in 2009 by Sergio Mendoza who said “we’ve done maybe two of these kinds of shows before. It’s something we don’t do very much. It’s fun and it was a good group of kids. They made it really easy on us.”

Bandmate Sean Rogers agreed and added “the set we played is the same music we play for adults. Those kids are smart and they know if you’re dumbing it down for them. We just go up there and be ourselves and talk to them and play the music that we play for anyone. I think they get that.”

June Moberly, the school’s ESOL Coordinator, believes they did. ESOL stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages and Moberly works closely with many Fort Braden students to help develop their vocabulary while encouraging them to maintain their native language at home as much as possible. “We have a significant number of students who are Hispanic. It’s about 25 percent of our student body so we were super excited to host a Latin band. I was pumped,” Moberly said.

The students were too and eighth-grader Desmond Nelson enjoyed the change of pace. “We definitely don’t see this every day. They introduced these new types of songs like Mariachi and a bunch of other types.”

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