Marimar Guillen was surrounded by music from a young age. Her father and grandfather played the guitar, the former also belonging to a Spanish music group.
And it was a tradition that came into play when the soon-to-be senior at Bob Hope High School chose to study violin.
“There are a lot of songs in the Hispanic culture that play well on the violin,” she says. “And I already knew how to read sheet music.”
Her musical journey began in fifth grade with baritone and tuba. But after transferring to Bob Hope Schools the following year, she switched to saxophone and violin.
And now the 17-year-old musician has played the Spangled Banner at high school graduations for the past two years.
But with her graduation less than a year away, Guillen is focused on her future plans.
“I plan to go to (the University of Texas at Austin) and study criminal justice and hopefully become a private investigator or a detective,” she said. “I always had trouble knowing what I wanted to do in the future, but in my junior year I became interested in the criminal mind.”
Guillen recently attended a two-week camp in Beaumont that included a class on exploring the criminal mind and how it works.
“That’s what really piqued my interest,” she said. “Their mind is very interesting. And I definitely want to help people. That’s one of my biggest goals.”
Helping is one of the main goals of her senior year of high school.
“I hope to do as many school activities as I can,” she said. “I definitely want to do more. I always like to be involved.”
Guillen was involved in volleyball and also reached the second level of black belt in Taekwondo.
But her extracurricular involvement hasn’t taken her focus away from real work.
“I really like math, especially algebra,” she said. “And reading is one of my favorite subjects, too.”
Guillen, born in Galveston and moved to Port Arthur at age 2, has a 14-year-old brother and a 9-year-old sister.
