Tex-Mex music

UNESCO Courier, March, 1991 by Manuel Pena

The music of -Mexicans expresses tensions of a community that remains deeply attached to its cultural roots while aspiring to be part of American society

THE American southwest-the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California-was once a part of Mexico. And, despite the lapse of almost 150 years since the United States annexed the territory, the Mexican-Americans of the southwest still maintain a staunch allegiance to Mexican culture, notably where music is concerned. This is particularly marked among the people of New Mexico, while the Mexican-Americans of Los Angeles lay claim to a more recent but vigorous musical tradition. Yet among Americans of Mexican descent, only in Texas do we find such deep and robust folk traditions as those embodied in musica tejana, or "Tex-Mex" music. In fact, the Texas-Mexicans have developed two distinctive musical traditions, each with its preferred instruments and style, whose influence extends far beyond the Texas borders: the conjunto (also known as musica nortena) and the orquesta tejana, or simply orquesta.

Although only the conjunto is truly indigenous to the Texas-Mexicans, both forms of music possess vigorous and original features. And if popular success can be taken as a criterion of quality, then the wide diffusion of both the conjunto and the orquesta throughout the American southwest and beyond testifies to the musical genius of the Texas-Mexicans.

Why have the Texas musicians been the leading innovators among Mexican-Americans of the southwest, and what are the factors that contribute to the cultural significance enjoyed by the "Tex-Mex" tradition? The answer lies in the nature of the contact between Anglo-Americans (Anglos) and Mexican-Americans. In short, the cultural and innovative vigour of the conjunto and the orquesta derives from the special role each has fulfilled in defining and mediating the intercultural conflict that has existed between these two communities in Texas.

There is no doubt that the Texas-Mexicans bore the brunt of the Anglos' arrival, but they did not yield easily to Anglo domination. In the ensuing climate of intercultural resistance and animosity, forms of expression that defined and contrasted the two groups flourished-for example, the various stereotypes that each continues to hold about the other.

The development of the conjunto and the orquesta cannot be explained without reference to this culturally charged atmosphere, but it would be an oversimplification to ascribe their vigour solely to that conflict. Since the beginning of the century another factor has complicated the issue-the opposition in Texas-Mexican society between two distinct socio-economic groups, the working class and an upwardly-mobile group striving for middle-class status.

The conjunto, soul of popular culture

The rapid evolution of the conjunto into a mature, standardized style between 1935 and 1960 can be linked to the cultural strategies of the tejanos-the mass of working-class people employed in unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in ranching, agribusiness, and retail services. A musical style forged by a class which faced discrimination not only from an oppressive Anglo community, but from an unsympathetic if small) Texas-Mexican middle class, the conjunto is historically rooted in the working-class consciousness. In their preference for a unique folk style which they themselves created, the tejano workers have voiced their most profound cultural and aesthetic identity, embodied in their choice of instruments, genres and styles (all of them of Mexican character), and the appropriate context for their performance.

Of course, long before the modern conjunto ensemble of diatonic button accordion, twelvestring guitar, electric bass and drums had become standardized, the accordion had become a favourite instrument among the workers on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border. Cheap German models, with their single row of melody buttons, were easily obtainable for the dances of the tejanos and nortenos (the people of northern Mexico).

But the popularity of the accordion did not go unchallenged. The Anglos, and later the upwardly-mobile Texas-Mexicans, were quick to condemn conjunto music. For example, in 1880 the San Antonio Express commented disparagingly on the fandangos where the tejanos danced, usually to accordion music: "These fandangos are becoming so frequent they arc a great curse to the country. The respectable class of Mexicans do not attend them."

Despite such condemnations, by both Anglos and the "respectable class of Mexicans", the accordion and its dances flourished, acquiring a powerful presence that has endured to this day. Particularly during the generally prosperous postwar years (1946-1960), the modern conjunto experienced a rapid maturation and wide dispersal in Texas and beyond. In the hands of such notable talents as Narciso Martinez, Valerio Longoria, Tony de la Rosa, Paulino Bernal, Ramon Ayala, Flaco Jimenez and Estaban Jordin, the conjunto has maintained an unchallenged supremacy among working-class Texas-Mexicans.