As I was growing up, I didn’t have the full support of my family when it came to singing. Some of them encouraged me and said I sang beautifully. Others said that I couldn’t sing at all. I was torn. I didn’t know what was true. Born to a family of singers, it felt like I was the outcast. I watched them while they performed or joined singing contests and won. I wanted to sing, but I wasn’t good enough. I was shy, didn’t have confidence, and it was to the point where I would face the wall while singing at our own parties. Unlike other parents who would encourage or even force their kids to sing, I was told to stop. I was fourteen then.
At sixteen before I graduated high school, my teacher asked for a volunteer to sing at our graduation. I raised my hand. She auditioned me in front of the class along with other volunteers. I sang “Through the Years” by Kenny Rogers as our graduation song. After the audition, my teacher asked me “Can you come back next year?” I’m like, “Ma’am, I’m graduating this year! What do you mean come back next year?” Needless to say, I didn’t get to sing at my graduation and my disappointment about myself just grew even bigger. Even through all of that, I knew I still had something in me: my tenacity. I told myself “Marizel, you can do it, just practice, practice, practice and you’ll get there someday.” Although I don’t know how that would improve my voice, I just continued singing one song everyday. Just one song: Wind Beneath My Wings. It took me months to finally reach the high notes and finish the song.
At 21 (yes I’m a late bloomer!), my mom finally decided to get me a voice teacher. My teacher was a “coloratura soprano”. She was very famous in the opera. I lasted 3 weeks. I couldn’t do it. I knew I wasn’t designed to sing like that. I turned “blue” doing the vocal trainings so I quit. However, I continued singing in the privacy of our own home until one day, someone asked me to be a church cantor. My first thought was, “Are you kidding me?” Long story short, I said yes and voila! There I was - singing in front of a congregation in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in San Francisco, CA. Fast forward, a talent scout spotted me while in the church and approached me. He asked if I could be his singing talent. At this point, I knew it wasn’t real. It can’t be true. But then he insisted and before I know it, I was already singing at a concert with other famous talents in the Bay Area. Not too long after that, they have given me a stage name - and that’s how “Marizel” came about. I would perform in social functions in front of local government dignitaries and luminaries. Our family formed Korusleine Vocal Ensemble that became very well-known in the local community being featured on TV, magazines and newspapers.
Today, I’m currently a church cantor in St. Faustina Catholic Church in Fulshear serving the 11am Mass with my husband, JM Mercado as the pianist and our son Christian as the drummer. We have been teaching private music lessons since 2009 after we moved from California to Katy, Texas.
Moral of the story:
We all have our innate talent that God has given us to share with others. As a child, we kind of know already what our talents are. Now, our role as parents is to help our child rediscover and polish these talents. We need to support and guide them so they can use their gifts to the fullest like what God has planned them to be.
In my story, I knew what I wanted to do but I wasn’t quite there yet. I started kind of late in polishing my singing ability. I didn’t lose hope and my parents saw that so they finally helped and supported me. I’m happy now of what I have achieved as a singer. My goal wasn’t to be famous, my goal was to make people happy with my songs - and with that, I’ve reached the pinnacle of what I was made to be.

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