Conjunto
By David Robeldo

Some say Conjunto was born when a German ship filled with accordions wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico. Colorful accordions spilled into South Texas, digging roots for a musical genre that would flower throughout the Rio Grande Valley and become synonymous with its culture.

By 1940, Conjunto was in rich bloom, with dance halls sprouting in Weslaco (Vera’s Paladium), Brownsville (Neto’s Ballroom) and of course San Benito — where the famous La Villita served as a very early version of the Dodge Arena. For 30 years, Conjunto was king. Fans walked down dirt roads to hear the home-grown sounds of Valerio Longoria, Eva Ybarra, Oscar Hernandez, Cha Cha Jimenez, and other musical geniuses whose heritage lives where it was born.

Though conjunto bowed its head to the modern Tejano sounds — which incorporated electric keyboards in the 1970s disco heyday — Conjunto never quit. In 2001, the La Villita hall in downtown San Benito re-opened, continuing weekend dances that draw locals by the hundreds.

HOMEGROWN MUSICAL COOKIN’

The Narciso Martinez Conjunto Festival is one reason the genre is still alive and strong in San Benito. For 17 years, the fest, a project of the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, has given the pioneers a thriving venue for the sounds characterized by a rustic 12-string bajo sexto bass, acoustic guitar, jazz-like drum set, and of course the button accordion.

The fest is a place where new conjunto talent has kept the tradition alive, passing the cultural torch through generations..

The first year of the festival — 1991 — Narciso Martinez himself inaugurated the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center. Martinez, raised just outside San Benito, is credited with birthing the sound that would grow hand-in-hand with the Mexican-American population of the Rio Grande Valley.

 

HOW IT STARTED

Martinez was born on October 29, 1911, in Reynosa. His parents immigrated to the United States that year and settled in La Paloma, a ranch town between Brownsville and San Benito. The family moved frequently to follow farm work, and Martínez received little schooling, according to various historical accounts.

As a child, he soaked in the sounds of orquestas típicas, groups of Northern Mexico composed of violin, flute, bass, and guitar. But drawn to the accordionists who thrived in the Rio Grande Valley, Martínez took up the accordion in 1928 and began to play at dances. Near the same time, he moved to Bishop, Texas and emulated the accordion-playing techniques of the immigrant Czechs and Germans.

He bought his first new accordion, a Hohner, in 1930, and in ’35 he switched from the one-row button accordion to the more versatile two-row version.

Pairing with Santiago Almeida, a talented bajo sexto player, the two forged the accordion and bajo sexto as the basic instruments of the conjunto, with Martinez emphasizing the accordion’s right-side melody and leaving the left-side bass notes to the bajo sexto player.

All other conjunto accordionists would adopt to this change, or so goes the story recorded in the Texas Almanac.

WHAT THE MUSIC MEANS

Martinez died just one year after he inaugurated the arts center. But conjunto continues to thrive on the same grounds that year after year bring old and young alike to a culturally accurate festival.

“As a sociologist, you have to ask what this music means,” said Rogelio Nuñez, a civil rights professional and co-founder of the Conjunto Festival and NMCAC.

“Sure, the music is appealing to the ears. The accordion is fun, and the music is playful, but beyond that, conjunto has a distinct meaning to this region,” Nuñez said.

Born in San Benito, Nuñez said he was steered away from the conjunto dance halls by a guarding mother. But, off to college at Texas A&I in Kingsville, he soon started collecting records by Conjunto Bernal and other greats. Studies in sociology then gave Nuñez the idea that preserving the conjunto heritage was a worthy calling.

Now, San Benito, a smallish South Texas town also credited as the birthplace of Freddy Fender (who incidentally isn’t credited as a conjunto artist), serves as the region’s conjunto capital, home as well to the South Texas Conjunto Association and the Conjunto Museum.

FREDDY GETS THE WATER TOWER

Maybe it’s too bad that Freddy Fender is painted on the San Benito water tower, a sky-high depiction of a chubby artist with preferred slots in jukeboxes everywhere. Freddy, though a child of San Benito, belongs to the world. He belongs to the music industry and to Top 40 musical charts.

Conjunto, however, belongs to San Benito.

Juan Antonio Tapia, an accordionist from the same La Paloma area that Narciso Martinez is from, said that conjunto’s future lies in youth that continue to learn the genre’s techniques and traditions.

In Edcouch, music teacher Benny Layton was the first to teach conjunto in the public schools.

And in Brownsville, Tapia, one of a growing number of conjunto educators, also teaches public school students the musical art. Though conjunto almost seemed to vanish for a while, and Tejano artists gained national attention and big-time recording contracts, conjunto stayed alive through a local tradition that is thriving, plus a new breed of documentary artists like Hector Galan and Nuñez, and teachers like Layton and Tapia..

“There’s a strong demand for conjunto,” Tapia said.

“Just wait for the next generation,” the accordionist with more than 30 records to his credit said in an interview.

In recent years, Tejano, in contrast, has seen a steady decline — first with the near disappearance of the Tejano Music Awards in San Antonio and the exponential number of radio stations dropping Tejano to add other Latino music formats.

Conjunto, however, seemed to be gaining strength last year when Pharr radio station KVJY 840 AM adopted a Conjunto format.

The station is now off the air.

BABY-BLUE TUXEDOES ARE GONE

Exactly what might be happening in the Rio Grande Valley’s conjunto scene is difficult to pin down.Though the Conjunto radio station is closed, dances still see a crowd — although most in attendance are over 50 years old.

This September at the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center, the NMCF will bring more than 5,000 people, young and old, to the quaint public park setting of the festival. Generations will dance the sliding two-step style of conjunto, as fajitas and trompo tacos are served..

It was never the intention of the Conjunto Fest to launch a musical style like reggaeton, norteño or other Latino musical genres that have managed to take over the airwaves and fill schedules for entire TV stations like Mun2. Such trendy musical styles have come and gone, like the platform shoes and baby-blue tuxedoes Tejano musicians sported on countless record album covers. Conjunto music still moves along, right down the same streets it was born on. And its fans make their way to the music each September, meandering home down the same dusty paths of the town’s Taquaches.

See page 26 for details on this year’s NMCF.

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