Veterans Memorial Early College High School has been open since Fall of 2010 with approximately 58 students in the Estudiantina program. During this past three years Estudiantina has grown to approximately 208 students.
The program consists of three beginner classes, three intermediate, and one varsity group. Estudiantina Centinela is a varsity performance group which involves twenty-nine students. The students that are in Centinela play instruments such as bass, guitar, mandolin, and percussion. This group participates in all UIL competitions and performances throughout the school district.
The history of the Estudiantina is as follows: In 1212, during the reign of Alfonso VIII, the Stadium General was founded in Palencia - an instruction that would give rise to what we now know as universities. These "general studies" and their successors were attended by young people, including sopistas, the forerunners of the present-day tunos.
The Sopistas were poor students, who made the most of their musical talent, cheerfulness while strolling through the towns, visiting streets, squares and convents and entertaining people in return for a bowl of soup and a few coins to help them pay for their studies. At night they played beneath balconies, serenading the women they had their eyes on. They were called sopistas not only because of the real soup their efforts were rewarded with, but also because it was often said that they lived de la sopa boba-a colloquial expression that is more or less equivalent to A"sponging". They always had their wooded spoon and fork at the ready to dive in whenever the occasion arose, and this wooded cutlery has become a topical symbol of tuna groups.
The program consists of three beginner classes, three intermediate, and one varsity group. Estudiantina Centinela is a varsity performance group which involves twenty-nine students. The students that are in Centinela play instruments such as bass, guitar, mandolin, and percussion. This group participates in all UIL competitions and performances throughout the school district.
The history of the Estudiantina is as follows: In 1212, during the reign of Alfonso VIII, the Stadium General was founded in Palencia - an instruction that would give rise to what we now know as universities. These "general studies" and their successors were attended by young people, including sopistas, the forerunners of the present-day tunos.
The Sopistas were poor students, who made the most of their musical talent, cheerfulness while strolling through the towns, visiting streets, squares and convents and entertaining people in return for a bowl of soup and a few coins to help them pay for their studies. At night they played beneath balconies, serenading the women they had their eyes on. They were called sopistas not only because of the real soup their efforts were rewarded with, but also because it was often said that they lived de la sopa boba-a colloquial expression that is more or less equivalent to A"sponging". They always had their wooded spoon and fork at the ready to dive in whenever the occasion arose, and this wooded cutlery has become a topical symbol of tuna groups.