Texas A&M’s marching band performs at Kyle Field. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Stuart Seeger

A TikTok of a Texas A&M alum who claims he faked his way through four years of playing an instrument as part of the school’s Corps of Cadets has gone viral.

First-generation college student Gerardo Juarez, who now works as a staff attorney at St. Mary’s University’s Center for Legal and Social Justice in San Antonio, said in the clip that he accidentally moved into dorms reserved for Aggie band members as a freshman because it was the cheapest housing option.

“A month before classes started, I got a band orientation email,” he wrote in his TikTok. “I had only played band in the 6th grade, but it was kind of late to find alternative housing, so I just showed up.”

Juarez alleges that the directors of the SEC program — ranked as one of the nation’s most prestigious collegiate marching bands by higher-ed blog College Transitions — never bothered to ask him for an audition.

“They told me ‘someone will come get you throughout the next week,” Juarez wrote in the comments section of his TikTok. “Band practice and [Fall Orientation Week] started. No one ever came to get me to audition.”

So, he pretended to play an instrument and traveled the country for four years as a member of Texas A&M’s Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band — or so the story goes.

Juarez’s fake-it-till-you-make-it story has grabbed nearly 300,000 likes and 20,000 shares since he posted it Dec. 9.

While the attorney didn’t immediately respond to the Current’s request to discuss his video and reveal, for example, what instrument he played, some TikTok commenters questioned the veracity of the tale.

“How did you get an instrument?” user @Britt24601 asked, while @mariasutterfield asked suggested that Juarez should post photos as evidence.

As of press time, Juarez hasn’t responded to those inquiries via his TikTok account.

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This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...