Francisco Loera has been a Lecturer at UTPA/UTRGV for over twenty years in the Departments of Modern languages and Music, teaching Language and Literature, the History of Mexican Folk Music, and Mariachi ensemble. He has been the co-director of Mariachi  Aztlán during his time at the University, leading the mariachi to earn the reputation as the most outstanding university mariachi program in the nation.

 The Mariachi has traveled throughout Mexico representing the United States and throughout America as musical ambassadors representing the beauty of the Hispanic music and cultural traditions.  For more than 15 years, in San Antonio, Texas, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Mariachi Aztlán has been selected as the “Outstanding College or University Mariachi” in nationwide competition several years in a row.  For several years, the Mariachi Aztlán won “Grand Champion” of the Mariachi Spectacular Competition. In 2014 and 2016, the Mariachi Aztlán was invited as guest clinicians for the Mariachi Spectacular Workshop and performed at international mariachi conferences in San Diego, Tucson and Chicago in 2015 and 2016. The Mariachi Aztlán has won first place in the “Best in Texas” Mariachi Invitational at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, in Houston, Texas numerous times.

Highlight performances include an invitation from the White House to perform at a signing ceremony of an Executive Order commemorating the renewal and enhancement of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, performing for President Barack Obama in 2010.  In collaboration with the Houston Grand Opera, Mariachi Aztlán premiered the stage production of Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, the world’s first “Mariachi-Opera” in 2010.

Other concerts include appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center, and a performance of the mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2013. Other performances include an encore concert with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2014 and concerts at the 2015, 2016 San Diego Mariachi Festival, the Tucson International Mariachi Conference in 2015, and the Chicago Heritage Mariachi Conferences in 2015 and 2016.

The Mariachi Aztlán premiered the new mariachi opera El Pasado Nunca Se Termina with the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2015 and proudly released a new CD, Mi Nombre es México to commemorate the 25^th Anniversary of the UTPA/UTRGV Mariachi Program.