Accordion Dreams - Latino USA Episode 424

Sometimes people in Texas marvel at how few others have heard the Tejano Conjunto music that they are so passionate about.

That soon may be changing thanks to a new documentary film airing this August on public television.

Filmmaker Hector Galan has spent nearly 20 years documenting Latino stories for public television, including such PBS works as The Hunt for Pancho Villa, The Forgotten Americans, Chicano, the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, and Songs of the Homeland.

His latest film, Accordion Dreams, documents the history of this instrument and the role it plays in the development of Texas' most prominent working-class music throughout most of the 20th century.

Hector Galan joins us now from Latino USA Studios at KUT in Austin.

So why Conjunto this time, Hector?

Well, I think Conjunto is an extraordinary music.

It's an exciting music. It's part of our American culture because it is an American music, born here in the United States. But a lot of people don't know that.

And so I'm hoping that through this documentary, people will learn and embrace the music as much as we have here in Texas.

So for all the people who really don't understand how it is that Mexicanos and Mexican-Americans in the Southwest ended up playing accordions of all things, give us that history.

Well, you know, it's a little cloudy, the history in terms of the actual accordion when it came to the United States. If you look at studies in Mexico, for instance, they claim that it came to Texas around New Braunfels area first.

Other scholars feel or state that the accordion came to Monterrey in Mexico first.

So there's that people really don't know where the German button accordion first arrived. But the fact is, it's the German button accordion, the diatonic accordion that has maintained.

The first accordions that came were, of course, the one row sort of primitive accordions. And people were playing oompas and polkas and a lot of this lively music that the people embraced and slowly became incorporating that music into their own.

Conjunto or Tejano music, for a long time was kind of seen by younger generations as like old folky music, you know, the stuff that your papas would listen to, but not necessarily something that you as a teenager would listen to.

And what I found fascinating was to see these kids in your documentary who are playing the accordion, a la Jimi Hendrix. [laughter]

That's right. It was pretty amazing. So what happened that there's suddenly been this refound or this renewed love for this music among younger Latinos?

Well, I think basically the history of Conjunto music is, especially here in Texas, sort of reflects the history of America.

You know, there was a time when Tejanos, Mexicanos were segregated, you know, in the state.

And for a lot of generations, say in the 40s and 50s and 60s, that music became something associated with something that you were running away from, meaning accordion-based Conjunto music.

For a lot of people who were assimilating into the United States, it represented something that they wanted to get away from.

I think now that we're in, you know, the 2000s, the young people are rediscovering, the music has always been there. It has never died. For a while, people thought it was going to be forgotten. Unfortunately, it has died in some other communities where accordion was real strong.

But it's these young people, the Tejanos, that have re-embraced this sort of as a cultural symbol of music, of an original music. It's sort of an identity that they're re-embracing. And now they're taking it to different limits and they're keeping it and maintaining it.

And it's interesting because they'll listen to accordion music, but then they'll also listen to, you know, American pop or rap and sometimes incorporate it into the accordion music.

Now, when I interviewed Valerio Longoria in your film, Accordion Dreams, you call him the great innovator of Conjunto music. What struck me, and this was in 1985, but what struck me about him was that he was so humble.

And the notion of Conjunto music really being a roots music, a working class music, a real pueblo music.

And I'm wondering, is there a concern as Conjunto music becomes more popular and more commercialized that somehow it might become diluted and lose those roots?

Well, that's always the big question because I think since it is Spanish language-based music, people a lot of times say, well, is it ever going to go mainstream? And I think that's one of the key questions that people had with Tejano music when it was exploding, say in '95, 96, '97.

My feeling is that if it does go mainstream, then of course it loses its uniqueness and its beauty. Fortunately, I was able to meet some of these young people in Accordion Dreams.

It's young people like those are maintaining the traditions of Valerio Longoria started. Some of the pioneers that created new forms of playing the accordion are innovators like Paulino Bernal and some of these great accordion players. They are maintaining those traditions.

Now, yes, they do experiment and dabble in different areas, but that key music is still there. And that's what gives me hope that it will stay and it will be what it is.

Well, thanks very much for speaking with us. We've been talking with filmmaker, Hector Galan of Galan Productions. His latest documentary, Accordion Dreams, is scheduled to air nationally August 30th on PBS.

Muchas gracias, Hector. Gracias.

[accordion]

And for this week, this has been Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture.

Thanks for listening. Gracias por escucharnos.