Skip to main content
Log in

Blurring boundaries in Rosedale Park: The importance of the Tejano Conjunto festival on the transnational dissemination of traditional Texas-Mexican accordion music

Difusión de fronteras en Rosedale Park: La importancia del Tejano Conjunto Festival en la diseminación transnacional de la música de acordeón tradicional texana americana

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Latino Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The contemporary transnational dissemination of Texas-Mexican accordion music has corresponded closely with the rise in prominence of the Tejano Conjunto Festival, sponsored by the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio and, since 1982, held annually at Rosedale Park. In modern popular culture, the ease of transnational mobilization—here characterized by global participation in a local music festival—effectively blurs traditional boundaries of class, ethnicity, language, and location. However, this notion of inclusivity masks problematic and long-lasting hegemonies. Simultaneously, it shifts the historiographic narrative of conjunto as cultural resistance (within a tightly constrained notion of Texas-Mexican culture).

Resúmen

Ha habido una estrecha correspondencia entre la diseminación transnacional contemporánea de la música tex-mex con acordeón y el auge del Tejano Conjunto Festival, un evento auspiciado por el Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center en San Antonio que desde 1982 se celebra anualmente en Rosedale Park. En la cultura popular moderna, la facilidad de la movilización transnacional—en este caso caracterizada por la participación global en un festival de música local—eficazmente difumina las fronteras tradicionales de clase, etnicidad, idioma y localización. Sin embargo, este elemento de inclusión esconde hegemonías problemáticas y perdurables. Al mismo tiempo, también cambia la narrativa historiográfica de conjunto como resistencia cultural (dentro de una noción estrecha y restringida de la cultura texana americana).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. For further information on Texas-Mexican conjunto, see the seminal study by Peña (1985), as well as his two later, related works (1999a, b). In addition, Tejeda and Valdez (2001) have compiled a series of writings from the program magazine of the Tejano Conjunto Festival, called Tonantzin, which further detail the traditional genre. Ragland’s (2009) book on the similar norteño tradition of northern Mexico and later chapter on conjunto (2012) also serve as valuable resources for the historic form, while my own recent essays provide additional details of continuing, contemporary practices (Bauer 2014, 2015, 2016).

  2. Harnish provides a nice description of progressive conjunto, particularly as compared with “traditional” practices, explaining that, “Progressive conjunto bands retain accordion and, usually, bajo sexto, but generally add keyboards and wind instruments and enhance their sound with greater professionalism and virtuosity” (2009, p. 204). This article also presents a beneficial analysis of the contemporary conjunto scene in Ohio.

  3. This particular theme (“Derecho, Cromático, Orquestal, Estrambótico y Sintetizado”) is from 1991, although similar styles were also celebrated in 1992, 1993, 2002, 2010, and others. The norteño style (c.f. Ragland 2009) was specifically represented in 1988, 1992, and 1999, with a special symposium on the relationship between norteño and conjunto with Manuel Peña and others in 1997, while Cajun/Zydeco groups were introduced in 1989—including a final, cross-cultural jam with conjunto musicians like Nick Villarreal, Mingo Saldívar, and Steve Jordan—and 1992.

  4. For further details concerning the recent proliferation of international conjunto musicians, see Bauer (2014, 2016).

  5. All YouTube comments have been reproduced in their original form, including all spelling and grammar decisions.

  6. Comment on video, 2012 Tejano Conjunto Festival Boni Mauricio and His Daughter Alexia Performing, http://youtu.be/ZKhL37HVxwQ, uploaded 6 August 2012.

  7. Comment on video, Max Baca and Dwayne Verheyden—Una Lagrima (2012 Tejano Conjunto Festival), http://youtu.be/XL3VvV4joGQ, uploaded 29 May 2012.

  8. Ibid.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Comment on video, Max Baca, Dwayne Verheyden, Lorenzo Martinez—Jamming after the Tejano Conjunto Festival, http://youtu.be/IwSoaBaART8, uploaded 25 September 2011.

  11. Ibid.

  12. Comment on video, Dwayne Verheyden & Flaco Jimenez Tejano Conjunto Festival 2013 May Texas (2), http://youtu.be/vhb17jR087k, uploaded 27 May 2013.

  13. In Time Passages (1990), Lipsitz describes a “family of resemblance,” in which seemingly disparate cultural groups draw from parallel life experiences to cultivate a cohesive understanding from individual elements. For a deeper analysis of the international attraction to conjunto music due to this common, although geographically diverse, background, see Bauer (2015).

  14. Comment on video, 2011 Tejano Conjunto Festival, San Antonio, TX (2), http://youtu.be/6-j0ETieSAs, uploaded 20 May 2011.

  15. Conjunto J (Japan) at The Tejano Conjunto Festival 2011, http://youtu.be/Vz3q18iYH70, uploaded 15 May 2011.

  16. Rather vulgar Spanish slang, ¿como chingados, que no? translates roughly to “what the f***, right?” or perhaps, “Damn!”.

References

  • Adams, J.K. 2010. Conjunto Culture: Celebration and Racialization in the German-Texan “Borderlands”. GeoJournal 75: 303–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, E.E. 2014. The Participation of Flaco Jiménez on Ry Cooder’s Chicken Skin Music: Cross-Cultural Collaboration and the (Inter)national Discovery of Texas-Mexican Accordion Music. Rock Music Studies 1 (2): 148–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, E.E. 2015. Cross-cultural, “Oompah-Rock” Identities: Stylistic Unification and Common Background in the Music of Rowwen Hèze and Los Lobos. In Het dorp en de wereld: dertig jaar Rowwen Hèze, ed. Barbara Beckers and Leonie Cornips, 172–179. Nijmegen, Netherlands: Vantilt Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, E.E. 2016. Beyond the Border: Meaning and Authenticity in the Adoption of Texas-Mexican Conjunto Music by International Artists. Latin American Music Review 37 (1): 34–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Benson, J. 1989. Conjunto Junction//Accordion Music Keeps San Antonio Hopping. St. Petersburg Times, 7 May.

  • Berríos-Miranda, M. 2003. “Con sabor a Puerto Rico”: The Reception and Influence of Puerto Rican Salsa in Venezuela. In Musical Migrations: Transnationalism and Cultural Hybridity in Latin/o America, ed. Frances R. Aparicio and Cándida F. Jáquez, 47–67. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Burr, R. 1996. Attendance Rises at Tejano Conjunto Festival. San Antonio Express-News, 15 May.

  • Burr, R. 1997. Planners Say Changes in Conjunto Festival Draw Mixed Reviews. San Antonio Express-News, 17 May.

  • Corona, I., and A.L. Madrid. 2008. Introduction: The Postnational Turn in Music Scholarship and Music Marketing. In Postnational Musical Identities: Cultural Production, Distribution, and Consumption in a Globalized Scenario, ed. Ignacio Corona and Alejandro L. Madrid, 3–22. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • English, J.F. 2011. Festivals and the Geography of Culture: African Cinema in the “World Space” of Its Public. In Festival and the Cultural Public Sphere, ed. Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli, and Gerard Delanty, 63–78. Routledge, London: Routledge Advances in Sociology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garza, T. 1996. Birds of Varied Feathers Flock to Conjunto Festival despite Clouds. San Antonio Express-News, 9 May.

  • Giorgi, L., and M. Sassatelli. 2011. Introduction. In Festival and the Cultural Public Sphere, ed. Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli, and Gerard Delanty, 1–11. London: Routledge Advances in Sociology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, M. 1996. Drawing Power of Arts Not Well Illustrated. San Antonio Express-News, 24 March.

  • Guerra, C. 1996. Music Promos May Be Off Key in San Antonio. San Antonio Express-News, 24 June.

  • Harnish, D. 2009. Tejano Music in the Urbanizing Midwest: The Musical Story of Conjunto Master Jesse Ponce. Journal of the Society for American Music 3 (2): 195–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunger, K. 2003. Conjunto Festival Fun Tempered by Heat, Musician’s Collapse—Event Continues Today. A Chance of Rain Should Cool Off Fans. San Antonio Express-News, 11 May.

  • Hutchinson, S. 2006. Merengue Típico in Santiago and New York: Transnational Regionalism in a Neo-Traditional Dominican Music. Ethnomusicology 50 (1): 37–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipsitz, G. 1990. Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luévanos, C. 2001. The Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio: Eight years of change (1990). In Puro Conjunto: An Album in Words and Pictures, ed. Juan Tejeda and Avelardo Valdez, 107–111. Austin/San Antonio, TX: CMAS Books/Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAuliffe, B. 1993. Deep in the Heart of Texas—San Antonio Tuned in as Conjunto Capital of the World. Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities, 9 May.

  • McLeese, D. 1991. A Blend of Tradition and Innovation—Festival Collects Best of Conjunto. Austin American-Statesman, 16 May.

  • Peña, M. 1985. The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peña, M. 1999a. The Mexican American Orquesta: Music, Culture, and the Dialectic of Conflict. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peña, M. 1999b. Música Tejana: The Cultural Economy of Artistic Transformation. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragland, C. 2009. Música Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ragland, C. 2012. Tejano and Proud: Regional Accordion Traditions of South Texas and the Border Region. In The Accordion in the Americas: Klezmer, Polka, Tango, Zydeco, and More!, ed. Helena Simonett, 87–111. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G. 2007. The Festivalization of Society or the Socialization of Festivals? The Case of Catalunya. In Cultural Tourism: Global and Local Perspectives, ed. Greg Richards, 257–280. New York: Haworth Hospitality Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sassatelli, M. 2011. Urban Festivals and the Cultural Public Sphere: Cosmopolitanism between Ethics and Aesthetics. In Festival and the Cultural Public Sphere, ed. Liana Giorgi, Monica Sassatelli, and Gerard Delanty, 12–28. London: Routledge Advances in Sociology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tejeda, J., and A. Valdez, eds. 2001. Puro Conjunto: An Album in Words and Pictures. Austin/San Antonio, TX: CMAS Books/Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vargas, D.R. 2008. Borderland Bolerista: The Licentious Lyricism of Chelo Silva. Feminist Studies 34 (1/2): 173–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vargas, D.R. 2012. Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to David Gonzalez and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center for providing access to information and materials related to the Tejano Conjunto Festival, as well as to Juan Tejeda and the many musicians and conjunto fans from around the world who graciously agreed to share their experiences with me.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erin Bauer.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bauer, E. Blurring boundaries in Rosedale Park: The importance of the Tejano Conjunto festival on the transnational dissemination of traditional Texas-Mexican accordion music. Lat Stud 17, 164–186 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-019-00182-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-019-00182-2

Keywords

Palabras clave

Navigation