The crowd went wild when the three Gámez-Cuéllar brothers and their father took the stage on Sunday night.
It was no ordinary concert. Two months ago, the brothers, all musicians, were being held in federal immigration detention centers. Now, dressed in black mariachi suits, they were opening for the country music star Kacey Musgraves in New Braunfels, Texas.
Just before they went on, the family uttered a prayer of thanks. “Thank you, Father, for giving us this great opportunity,” said Antonio Yesayahu Gámez-Cuéllar, 18, as he stood next to his 15-year-old brother, Caleb Gámez-Cuéllar; their 12-year-old brother, Joshua Gámez-Cuéllar; and their father, Luis Antonio Gámez. “We ask you, Father, to protect us and bathe us in your light.”
In early March, the Gámez-Cuéllar family became snarled in President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Their detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents drew widespread and bipartisan outcries that led to most of the family’s release from an immigration facility in Dilley, Texas. The oldest sibling, Antonio, was released from a separate detention center near the border.
Shortly after the family was released, Ms. Musgraves extended an invitation to the brothers on Instagram: “great so come on the road with me.”
Antonio and Caleb, along with their younger brother Joshua, all renowned mariachi players from McAllen, Texas, jumped at the opportunity to open three shows for Ms. Musgraves. The performances on her Middle of Nowhere tour began Sunday and will continue for two more days at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, northeast of San Antonio. The venue is a whitewashed building that resembles a small church and considers itself the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas.
“We were honored to be invited,” their mother, Emma Guadalupe Cuéllar López, said. At the concert, Antonio belted out a Spanish-language rendition of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” to applause and cheers.
Moments earlier, he whistled Michael Jackson’s song “Thriller,” as he helped his younger brother Joshua adjust his bright red moño charro, a mariachi tie. Their father kissed Joshua’s forehead as encouragement.
“It is wild to believe that we went from being in such a dark place to opening a show for one of country’s biggest stars,” Antonio said.
Last June, Representative Monica De La Cruz, Republican of Texas, invited the brothers to perform at the U.S. Capitol with their bandmates and then visit the White House. Antonio was crowned the best mariachi trumpeter in Texas earlier this year.
For the last three years, the family lived a version of the American dream, in a part of the country where mariachi music is central to public education and border culture.
The Gámez-Cuéllar family entered the United States in 2023 at the border crossing in Brownsville, Texas, on an asylum claim and settled in nearby McAllen. Mr. Gámez, the father, said his family had fled San Luis Potosí, Mexico, where cartel members had kidnapped him.
Their immigration status remains in limbo, pending future court dates, he said.
The family members said they had followed the law by attending every court date and had a check-in with ICE officials in January. Initially, they said, they were told to return in June, but then the family received an unexpected call from ICE saying that they needed to check in on Feb. 25. They were swiftly detained.
In interviews before the show, family members described being held in deplorable conditions at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a sprawling jail fashioned out of trailers that serves as the country’s largest family immigration detention site.
Mr. Gámez said he tried not to think about the moment his oldest son was handcuffed and transferred to another detention center near the border, “like if he was a criminal,” he said. “It was very painful.”
“We are happy to be together again, far from there,” Ms. Cuéllar Lopez added.
The detention center in Dilley, where most of the family was held, was shuttered by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2024 and reopened by President Trump last year. The center has since become an often-criticized symbol of the crackdown on immigrant families. It was where Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old boy detained by federal agents in Minnesota, was held with his father until a similar outcry led to their release.
After they performed four songs, the family members returned to their green room and collapsed on the couches. Mr. Gàmez said he was happy with their numbers. “It was a great experience,” he said.
They hope it’s not the last one. On a recent day in April, the Gámez-Cuéllar family said the brothers were focused on the future. Antonio, who is graduating from high school this year, plans to attend the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and join its mariachi team. His brothers intend to keep playing for their school bands.
“Mariachi music will be in our future,” Antonio said.
Edgar Sandoval covers Texas for The Times, with a focus on the Latino community and the border with Mexico. He is based in San Antonio.
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