Adrián Zamarripa remembers having a major reason for not missing classes at Arlington High School: his choir class.
Now a vocalist with La Energía Norteña, a Dallas-based Regional Mexican band, Zamarripa credits his choir class as the moment he found his true calling.
"Perhaps the only reason I graduated was because I took that class," said the 28-year old musician. "I liked singing, but a lot of the things we were taught have helped me to this day."
La Energía Norteña is a group of 19- to 28-year-olds originally from San Luis Potosí, but all of them live in the Dallas area. After a four-year career, the group has been now nominated for a Latin Grammy as Best Norteño Album for Cruzando territorio, their third album.
Like Zamarripa, for Moisés Cuevas Jr., the group's second voice and bassist, music is his passion -- something he inherited from his parents. -- at the choir and Grand Prairie High School's mariachi band
Moisés Cuevas Sr. knew his son was talented, and while he himself had tried to make it in music and was aware of the hardships of the music business, he supported his son and took him to the garage where Zamarripa's group used to practice.
"He didn't like me to watch him practicing," he recalled. He even suggested his father doing the singing himself.
'No, dad. You should be singing along with Adrián.' But, gradually, he lost [his shyness]," said the father, who took his then 15-year-old son to practice after school at Grand Prairie High, where Moisés Jr. was in choir and the school's mariachi band.
The boys' talent didn't go unnoticed by their families, and while they thought it would be difficult for them to have a professional singing career, they supported them.
"We never kept him from going or asked him what he was doing. Instead, we encouraged him," recalls Felipa Briseño de Zamarripa, Adrián's mother, about those early days when her son practiced with the band after working as a receptionist in a hotel.
From weddings and quinceañeras to the big scene
From their beginnings in 2008, La Energía Norteña's music genre has been romantic norteño, with accordion and saxophone -- a music style very popular in states of Chihuahua and San Luis Potosí in Mexico.
"We started locally playing in weddings and quinceañeras. And, in fact, we still play at private parties," said the vocalist, who's group won a 2011 local contest which opened the door to their first studio production.
Zamarripa's and Cuevas' families recall those first events they played and how excited they returned home, telling them about the audience's reactions and showing them videos taken by fans.
"Watching his emotion [on stage] and the people waiting for them to come out, it's something I feel very proud about. You feel good about it and you can't believe your eyes," said Zamarripa's mother, about the first time she saw her son singing on a stage.
Besides its founders, Adrián and Moisés, today the group is formed by Alexis Muñiz (sixth bass), Mike López (drums), Israel Oviedo (saxophone) and Manuel Borrego (accordion).
The recording company, Azteca Music Group, liked the quality of La Energía Norteña's music, as well as the charm they displayed on stage.
"Te Recordaré" (I Will Remember You) was one of their first hits, and Zamarripa and Cuevas recalls how they were overwhelmed with emotion the first time they listened to themselves in the radio.
"With 'The Recordaré,' we used to turn the volume up full-blown," said Cuevas about the excitement of the song, currently with more than million and a half views on YouTube.
Their parents were also moved by listening their sons on the radio.
Zamarripa's mother vividly recalls how one day, as she was leaving the taco restaurant she owns in Fort Worth, her son's voice blasted from a van nearby. She was so overjoyed she had to restrain herself from telling the vehicle's occupants that the one singing was her son.
Another person who was especially surprised when the group launched their first album, Pensando en tí (Thinking of You), was Dina Menter, the choir director at Arlington High School.
Adrián showed up to give her a copy of their first CD.
"She started crying", said Adrián about Menger's reaction. She was surprised, because not a single former student had made such a gesture before.
Latin Grammy
Now, as they promote their fourth album, El Rompecabezas (The Jigzaw Puzzle) and with performances in the U.S. and Mexico, La Energía Norteña has won a place within Mexican regional music -- not a small feat.
In 2013, the group made an unplugged presentation that streamed live, bringing together more than 100,000 visitors.
Their families have enjoyed watching them on interviews in popular Hispanic TV shows, like the now defunct Sábado Gigante on Univision.
The groups' Latin Grammy nomination has been a big surprise and a source of pride for the band, families and the recording company.
"The simple fact of being nominated has been a dream for us," Zamarripa said. "We thought it was some five or 10 years away, because it's something that's hard to achieve. But with hard work and full-time commitment, we can see it is possible and it encourages us to keep going."
For Azteca Music Group, La Energía Norteña's development is something they feel proud about.
"As a company, we have grown up along with this young group. We signed them in 2011, and we were born as a company the same year. [Their nomination] is a testament that we are doing things right," said Humberto Novoa the president of Azteca Music Group.
Cuevas' mother, Raquel Cuevas, was at the supermarket when she got a call from her son telling her he had important news to share with her.
"I thought he was going to tell me that his wife was pregnant again," Cuevas said, laughing. "And he said, 'We are nominated for the Latin Grammy.' I felt like I was about to scream right there at the store."
Cuevas confessed he cried, too, and the group's vocalist remembers the emotion they felt once they gathered after they got the news.
"We were all jumping all over the place, we hugged and started praying and thanking God," Zamarripa said.
Despite their success, their humility and down-to-earth demeanor is something the recording company as well as Moisés Cuevas' father emphasizes about the band.
"I tell him (Moisés Jr.) never to forget his roots. 'You come from a poor family, and forgetting that is the worst mistake a performer can make,' " said Cuevas Sr., who currently works as a delivery man and cleans carpets for a living.
These days, the group continues to promote El Rompecabezas, and is already preparing for the awards ceremony, Nov. 19 in Las Vegas. Their families will watch it together in Dallas.
"It's a dream come true, and that's when you see that your hard work paid off," Cuevas said. "We are very excited and we hope to bring the Grammy... or I should say, we will bring that Grammy with us."
Lorena Flores is an editor for Al Día Dallas. Follow her on Twitter @loreeflores.
