Profe Olmstead polls students on their favorite song during Locura de Marzo, a nationwide bracket-style music competition in Spanish-language classrooms.

If your student comes home this month humming a new Spanish-language song or passionately arguing why one track should have beaten another, you can thank Locura de Marzo and their World Languages teachers.
Locura de Marzo is a bracket-style music competition that Spanish classrooms across the country and around the world participate in each spring. Think March Madness, but instead of basketball, students are listening to and voting on their favorite Spanish-language songs. At CFHS, teachers in virtually every Spanish class have embraced the competition, using it to infuse Hispanic music and culture into the entire month of March.
Profe Jessica Altenburg, the Spanish teacher who brought Locura de Marzo to CFHS four years ago, says the competition has become a beloved tradition across the department.
“It creates this connection between students all over the place who are learning Spanish," she says. "It’s a different set of songs every year, and we always have students coming and asking, ‘Are we gonna do Locura de Marzo again?’” 


Profe Somoza works with students as they create lyric posters inspired by this year’s Locura de Marzo songs.

How It Works
Students have been getting to know the 16 competing songs since late February, and the head-to-head battles and voting are now underway. Each day, two songs face off. Students listen in class and vote for their favorite to advance. One vote per student, per battle. Songs are eliminated round by round until a champion is crowned. A colorful tournament bracket is posted in the hallway and updated daily so students can follow the action between classes. Students can also scan QR codes on the display to access the full playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.

The bracket posted in the World Languages hallway shows this year’s 16 songs, which include tracks by Grupo Frontera, Daddy Yankee, Elvis Crespo, The Warning, and more.

Most, if not all, Spanish teachers participate with their classes each year, so students gain a sense of continuity from one level to the next. The competition spans Spanish 1 all the way through upper-level courses.
Orange Grove Middle School has also started participating in recent years, which means many incoming CFHS freshmen arrive already familiar with the tradition and excited to continue it.

More Than Just Listening
What makes Locura de Marzo special at CFHS is how teachers are weaving it into real learning. Students fill out prediction brackets just like March Madness, create lyric posters, complete artist scavenger hunts to learn about the musicians behind the songs, and engage in cultural discussions about the music. In Spanish 2, students complete a speaking assessment built around the competition, having conversations about the songs entirely in Spanish. Some classes go all in, while others use it as a fun way to start or end class each day, and both approaches spark excitement about Hispanic culture and language.

Profe Ryan helps students choose a song from the competition and creatively represent the lyrics, song, and artist through original artwork.


“Music is such a universal thing. It’s something that really speaks to us as humans, as people, and it creates connections and big opinions.” 
— Profe Jessica Altenburg

A Reflection of Something Bigger
Profe Altenburg sees the competition as a reflection of a broader cultural shift. Spanish-language music has moved into the mainstream in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago, and she wants her students to appreciate the significance of that moment.
“We just had our Super Bowl performance done completely in Spanish," she says. "That’s unheard of. For this year's Super Bowl artist, who’s also the number one artist in the world, to be a Spanish-language artist who does not produce music in English at all — it shows this incredible development that we’ve had culturally.”
That cultural momentum makes Locura de Marzo feel especially timely. Students aren’t just learning about music from a textbook. They’re engaging with a living, thriving art form and making personal connections to artists and traditions from across the Spanish-speaking world.


Two CFHS students show off their two interlocking lyric posters for “Luna Llena” by Elvis Crespo.

A Program Unlike Any Other
Profe Altenburg also points out that CFHS offers an unusually deep Spanish program. Students have three upper-level courses beyond Spanish 4 to choose from, something she says she has never seen at any other school. That depth is no accident. CFSD's commitment to world language proficiency begins in kindergarten, where students begin developing skills from their very first year of school. The result is a pipeline of students who arrive at CFHS with years of language experience and a genuine connection to the cultures behind the languages they are learning.
“There is really a sense of collaboration and community within the levels," she explains. "We’re always trying to bring in things that make it fun for kids — and fun for us.” 
That spirit of collaboration extends across the Spanish teaching team, which develops shared materials and assessments around Locura de Marzo, creating a department-wide experience that bonds both teachers and students.
So if your Falcon starts debating the merits of Latin pop vs. reggaeton at the dinner table, just know — that’s language learning in action. ¡Vamos!