A Truly Texas Sound: The Origins of Tejano Music (September 1, 2024)

by Scott Sosebee

Texas is a powerhouse when it comes to producing notable musicians in all genres. From Van Cliburn to Geroge Strait, Miranda Lambert to Beyoncé, and Bob Wills to Ornette Coleman, Texas can boast of musical stars of every variety. However, while Texas claims a multitude of performance stars, the music most of those played did not truly have Texas origins (Bob Wills’ “western swing” may be the closest to having Texas roots, but it borrowed its fundamental elements to a blend of jazz, Big Band, country, and bluegrass stylings), except for one genre that was essentially born in Texas. That would be Tejano music, a sound that is vibrant and soulful and that has a deep heritage in “Tex-Mex” border culture.

Tejanos origins date back to the late 19th  and early 20th centuries and, while it has evolved and expanded in many ways past its roots, it remains—at its most structural levels—a unique blend of Mexican folk music, polkas, the Celtic folk sounds of the American frontier that would eventually evolve into what we would come to term country music, as well as American rock-and-roll. It is truly a melding of cultures whose meeting ground was the brush country of South Texas.

German and Czech migrants who came to Texas brought their polka style of music and dance with them to their new home, with the emphasis on the accordion. When those immigrants came in contact with Tejanos in San Antonio and areas south of that city, their stylings fused the traditional Mexican forms of the corrido and mariachis. The result was a hybrid form between the two; Tejanos in South Texas began to incorporate the German polka beat and melody into their songs and also made the accordion a part of their instrumentation. These small Tejano bands, referred to as orquestas,played at small community dances and gatherings all over South Texas for audiences and dancers of both Mexican and European ancestry. It was not just a musical innovation but also a social phenomenon.

Those earliest Tejano arrangements were mostly instrumental, although there were some lyrics added but in a traditional corrido fashion. The music and its adherents were rural in nature, as South Texas was a base for ranching and agriculture. The songs—when they were sung—were the same ones that had survived in an oral tradition for generations in Northern Mexico, just adapted for the new instruments like the accordion, guitar, drum, and often a flute. When recordings became a more pervasive cultural affectation in the 1920s, the RCA corporation made some recordings of these earliest artists as part of their “race music” division—forms such as traditional African American genres such as the Blues, and traditionally Mexican mariachi music, with Lydia Mendoza, the “Lark of the Border,” becoming the earliest star of what would eventually be termed “Tejano” music.

The Tejano sound was developing, but it had a few more developmental additions. The influence of the German polka sound and its primary accordion instrument had also spun off in another format. Narciso Martínez began to use the accordion in his unique sound that combined not only elements of German and Czech music but some of the earliest forms of Anglo-frontier Celtic sounds. His sound would eventually become known as Norteño or conjunto, one of the earliest border styles of music. Artists such as Lydia Mendoza began to add Norteño elements to their compositions, so much so that, by the early 1950s, the two styles essentially merged into one genre with the addition of the two-button accordion and the bajo sexto to traditional Tejano bands.

The sound began to evolve even more in the late 1950s and into the 1960s. Anglo influences grew, and the emphasis switched from the primary Spanish arrangements to the new sound that was truly Tex-Mex. New artists, almost all native Texans, such as Little Joe and La Familia, Luis Ramirez Y Su Latin Express, and the Latin Breed, infused the orquesta sound with conjunto with added influences from R&B, Pop, and Country music to create a truly distinctive sound that became the modern version of what we call “Tejano.” As the 1980s rolled around, this was a new sound, a truly Texas phenomenon led by groups such as Espejismo, who originated in McAllen, Brownsville natives Joe Lopez and Jimmy Gonzalez, and the Tejano “supergroup” Mazz, who added the keyboard to the Tejano genre. Finally, groups such as La Mafia began to put on Rock and Roll style shows that captured a younger generation of Tejano fans, and the aforementioned Little Joe and La Familia began to add elements of soul and “honky-tonk” country to songs that, lyrically, also reflected a growing Chicano consciousness. Former “rocker” Baldemar Huerta—who took the Anglicized name of “Freddy Fender”—rocketed to Country music fame by combining Tejano elements with 1970s “Nashville Sound” arrangements and singing lyrics in both Spanish and English. The same type of musical fusion made southwest Texas native Johnny Rodriguez a star in the 1970s and 1980s.

It would be in the 1990s that Tejano would become a widespread musical phenomenon. It had always enjoyed a definitive popularity among Latinos in Texas and the Southwest, but in the 1990s, Tejano music would go mainstream. The Tejano Music Awards originated in the late 1980s, honoring trend-setting musicians. The group La Mafia became popular not just with the regional audiences but had appeal outside the traditional listeners, as their more than a dozen Tejano Music Awards demonstrate. They also began a national touring schedule, and that opened the door for acts such as Emilio Navaira, Jay Perez, and the person who would become the most celebrated—and tragic—Tejano star of all time: Selena Quintanilla. “Selena,” as she was billed professionally, became well-known with more popular audiences, and her unique fusion of traditional Tejano, country, and rock genres led her to become known as the “Queen of Tejano Music.” She even won a Grammy Award, a first for a Tejano artist. Her tragic murder by the head of her fan club in 1995 when she was only twenty-three shocked the world, but her fame grew even larger when Hollywood made a movie about her life, a film that introduced the world to a young actress, Jennifer Lopez, who would go on to become a superstar.

Today, Tejano music has perhaps waned a bit from the peak of its popularity, but that may be due more to the balkanization of the music industry itself instead of a lack of fan ardor. Tejano music has come a long way from its earliest roots and has become a recognized form in the United States. It is music born in Texas, the only truly original form the state has produced.

The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.