Carlos Maldonado attended and graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a bachelor's degree in Music Education in 2000 and earned his Kodaly Certification in 2004. Carlos has promoted mariachi music and education by being instrumental in the conception of the mariachi program at Texas State University in 1997, the professional group Mariachi Suroeste in 1998 and the mariachi program at Hays CISD in 2001. Relying on his years of mariachi education experience, Carlos has been providing his compositions of mariachi repertoire, exercises and song arrangements to educators and musicians across the nation. Carlos is in his 25th year as a music educator and is currently the mariachi director at Chapa Middle School in Hays CISD. He resides in San Marcos Texas with his wife of 23 years Sonia Maldonado, daughter Ava and son Desi.