CAMPUS: Music students react to arrest of former mariachi professor

By Marissa Contreras
Editor-in-Chief
Published Wednesday, April 16, 2025

A once beloved campus professor now faces charges after allegedly distributing child pornography on the dark web, according to FBI and court records.

Back on Dec. 1, Carlos Jobany Castaneda Lechuga, 36, a former Texas A&M International University mariachi professor, had his home raided by the FBI, after receiving a tip about child pornography being distributed online with children as young as 6.

The FBI received a tip about what appeared to be an older adult, who they identified as Lechuga, with different minor children in three separate videos that were distributed on The Exchange website.

The U.S. Department of Justice reported it on justice.gov on Dec. 10, 2024, in its article “Laredo professor charged with distribution and production of child pornography.” He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Christopher dos Santos.

While many students were shocked by the news, many began searching for answers from TAMIU. According to court documents, Castaneda—as he was known at TAMIU—holds a criminal history in two different states: Arizona and California.

In California, he has two driving-under-the-influence cases. In 2012, he was charged with lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14; however, the charge shows up as “released/detention only.”

This led many to wonder how this information did not appear on his background check while applying for TAMIU. Although TAMIU has been quiet about the situation, many students have vocalized their concerns regarding the mariachi director and professor.

“I feel very disgusted with his actions and, at the same time, I feel shocked because he was a professor I was with almost everyday,” senior music education major Christian Mendoza said.

Mendoza took a score-reading course taught by Castaneda.

“He had lived a double life,” Mendoza said. “I don’t know how he did it.”

He also witnessed the FBI raid of Castaneda’s office in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts.

“I remember I was dropping off an instrument to my professor,” he recalled. “It was the classroom right next to his office, and I saw it.”

Junior music education major Rose Marie Cruz also took the score-reading class and was a member of TAMIU’s Mariachi Internacional for three semesters.

“I don’t want to say they were brushing it under the rug, but I do feel they were silent about it,” Cruz said. “I don’t understand how he had criminal charges before and he still got hired.

“Cases around Laredo have been slowly rising, especially within the past few years. A band director will get caught; it’s usually K-12, especially in high school directors and now we have one in college. It really gives people in music a really bad rep.”

Both students found out about Castaneda’s case through a Facebook post and both felt the difference in atmospheres between students in the FPA.

“When we first found out, the entire building was awkward,” Cruz recalled. “No one really wanted to speak. We would try not to acknowledge it.”

Castaneda, who had a strong impact on many students, now leaves them with the memory of sadness and wanting answers—not only from him, but also from TAMIU, for his alleged actions.

As of early April, no other charges or claims have been made against Castaneda. He remains in an Arizona prison awaiting his trial and sentencing, scheduled for May 19.

According to the justice.gov website article, “If convicted, Lechuga faces up to 30 years in federal prison for production of child pornography as well as a maximum of 20 years for each count of distributing it. All charges also carry a possible penalty [of] a $250,000 maximum fine.”

He was caught as part of Project Safe Childhood, an ongoing Justice Department initiative launched in 2006 to counter child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The Bridge reached out to several campus professors but none chose to comment on the matter.