San Antonio remains integral to conjunto and Tejano’s legacy, even as the genres evolve

San Antonio is a city that very much puts its Mexican American cultural blend on full display – visually, yes, but also sonically.

Perhaps nowhere is that more apparent than in two particular genres that are themselves unique Texas products that the city has made major contributions to: conjunto and Tejano music.

Hector Saldaña is the Texas Music curator at the Wittliff Collections of Texas State University and something of a fixture of the San Antonio music scene, himself. He’s also written extensively on the city’s musical foundation.

He joined the Standard to talk about the Alamo City’s ties to the music. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: I wanna just sort of open things up for folks who may not really understand what conjunto music is – what it’s about, what it sounds like. Tell us a little bit about what it is and how someone would recognize it.

Hector Saldaña: Well, conjunto music is music that is Mexican American music. It’s American music that was very much influenced by German music and Czech music.

Here in San Antonio, we know the sounds instantly. It’s the sound of the button accordion and the bajo sexto, the Mexican twelve-string guitar, which adds the rhythm and also the little passing notes that we’re familiar with.

It’s a lot of polkas, waltzes. It began as instrumental music primarily. And then over the time, you know, vocals were added, drums, and so it evolved. But this is music that was foundational in San Antonio and South Texas, formed in the late 1920a and early 1930s.

I’ve often heard that Santiago Jiménez, Sr. was really key in the development of this.

Yes. Don Santiago as he was known, Flaco Jiménez’s father. He’s one of the founders and creators of conjunto music, along with people like Valerio Longoria, Narciso Martínez… There’s a lot of people that contributed, but he was one of the early, early pioneers of that music.

I was thinking, you know, when you mentioned Flaco Jiménez – recently passed away. What an incredible talent. I think a lot of people think of him in association with the Texas Tornados back in the day, that sort of thing.

Say a little bit more about his impact on popularizing conjunto.

Well Flaco Jiménez and San Antonio are synonymous. I mean, he was the great ambassador of San Antonio and San Antonio music, conjunto music, not only through the Texas Tornados, but in his own right.

You know, he was a six-time Grammy winner, Lifetime Grammy Award recipient, NEA recipient. I mean, you know, a great musician.

I would describe him as a pure, pure musician. I mean, I knew him very well, watched him in the recording studio, made records with him, but he was one of these people… It’s like when you watch an incredible lead guitarist that can just play instantly, does not need to rehearse it, just hears the music. It was something to watch.

I was gonna ask, ’cause I feel like this is hard for me to distinguish, right? Like I mentioned conjunto and Tejano as two separate genres, but what really makes Tejano any different? Is it because it comes from Texas?

Well, Tejano music is the maybe the more pop and dance-oriented. Look, conjunto music, the way that I think of it, is closer to the blues, like the Delta blues. It’s a more earthy accompaniment to folk.

And then Tejano music was much more electrified. We added the amps, the synthesizers and you had the swooping melodies and people like Emilio Navaira and Selena are so associated with it.

You know, it was interesting because I don’t know if you saw that documentary on Selena that came out recently, but I believe there’s a point at which she and her band crossed the border and the locals just aren’t really getting it, right? Does that speak to sort of what the difference is between a conjunto and Tejano is?

Yes. I mean, conjunto, it’s just more raw music, I would say. Folk music, a little earthier, almost like the blues.

Tejano was very pop, very American-influenced actually. There used to be these huge, what they used to call the “super bailes” here that would attract tens of thousands of people. And so it’s very dance.

In Mexico, maybe it’s Mexican pop is more, perhaps, romantic and maybe a little bit maybe considered sophisticated in a certain way and Tejano’s pop.

Well now let me ask you about something because I remember maybe a little bit more than a few years after Selena’s passing, there was a lot of concern that Tejano music might be fading. A lot of the radio shows seem to be disappearing from the airwaves. You used to see stores everywhere that sold Tejano music.

What is the state of Tejano music now?

I think Tejano music now is probably closer to the way that we think of Cajun and Zydeco music – very regional, still beloved. Rather than seeing it at a humongous nightclub and supported by lots of radio stations, you’re gonna see it at a church fair or at a specific concert or on the River Walk or a lot of the San Antonio festivals will still have Tejano music.

Emilio Navaira’s brother, Raulito – who was the big dancing partner with Emilio Navaira – his daughter, Destiny, is an incredible singer. And I just saw her at a church festival and I was thinking, you know, you instantly recognize the sound and you’re almost nostalgic for it because it just takes you back.

I guess that speaks to a larger concern that I have about both of these forms, but Tejano in particular, I guess, and that is that if you don’t have a culture that’s hearing it all the time, if you’re not pushing it forward, you’re not expecting that music to come out of anywhere else. If it’s gonna happen, if it’s gonna grow, if we’re gonna see it continue on into the future, you’re gonna have to have the talent here.

Yeah, and you still do. I mean, you have organizations like the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center that support it with festivals and still have these legacy artists performing. And you have people like Max Baca and the Texmaniacs who are Grammy winners still performing conjunto music.

With regard to Tejano, I would say it’s like a lot of pop music. It really, more, it evolved. You know, other forms like banda music and electronic music and reggaeton sort of became more popular with the youth, the younger set.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.