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Antonio is the principal of a high school in a downtown immigrant neighborhood. His aim is to avoid the school's closing and the scattering of the students. Along with Antonio's ever-increasing help, Judith the new music teacher, takes on the difficult task of obtaining her student's interest in her subject while helping them become active participants in a common project.
Roy Smeck (1900-1994) sits on a bench in a garden. He's wearing a bow tie, a white on white shirt, and a sweater. First he plays the guitar, which is lying across his lap - it's a steel guitar sound using a slide in his left hand. Next he picks up the ukulele for an up-tempo number. After a few choruses, he stops and adds a mouth organ, playing it while both hands continue to play the uke. He finishes with a piece on a four-string banjo. With all three instruments, he gets percussive as well as melodic effects. Roy smiles a lot but doesn't say or sing a word.
Diego and Gabriela Silang are landed Ilocos natives disaffected with the imposition of the indulto de comercio (a law giving right to Spanish officials to buy rice and tobacco at the price they prefer). The year is 1762 and the British invade Manila, the childless couple is among the landowners denying aid to the Spaniards in thwarting the British. When the Spaniards in retaliation jail Diego, his wife gathers their confederates and leads the uprising herself.
The story revolves around Evaristo who¸ accompanied by his drum¸ dreams of becoming a great figure and imposing his music on the whole world. Evaristo composes cumbias and more cumbias on his ranch and then in jail¸ where adverse situations take him. Meanwhile his delusions begin to come true¸ and without knowing it¸ his name and rhythm become famous.
The growth of small-town juvenile crime starts a movement for the construction of a youth center. The project leaders discuss with town mayor Phineas Wharton Sr. about buying an old warehouse and rebuilding it as the Center. However, Wharton has plans to buy it himself for another project from which he would profit. But the Teen-Agers--Freddie, Dodie, Betty, Lee and Roy--now attending San Juan Junior College, think otherwise.
An uncool high-schooler forms his own group to beat the local hotshots in a battle of the bands.