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The KUT Longhorn Radio Network Presents: Mexican American Experience Collection

Audio recordings including interviews, music, and informational programs related to the Mexican American community and their concerns in the series "The Mexican American Experience" and "A esta hora conversamos" from the Longhorn Radio Network, 1976-1982.

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PROGRAM INFO

Title:
La MúSica NorteñA - Part 1 Of 3
Program #
1979-45
Theme:
Culture

Series:
Music
Host:
John Wheat
Guest:
John Wheat
Date:
Mar 28, 2024

La Música Norteña - Part 1 of 3

The first in a three part series examining Norteña music, this episode hosted by John Wheat Gibson explores the origins and history of the musical traditions of South Texas and Northern Mexico. Gibson explains that many of the dances associated with Texas music today, including the waltzes and polkas, came to the region with the arrival of Spanish Soldiers and German and Bohemian settlers in the early 1800s. These musical forms gradually spread through the region and began to take on several other musical characteristics, including the presence of a violin or flute. This instruments were part of the orquesta tipica of Northern Mexico and the popular dances of the time.

Gibson explains that this area also had a strong lyrical tradition that combined Mexican lyrical couplets with Spanish romances. Musicians would gather in plazas throughout South Texas to play their music, and it was in these plazas that many popular singers, including Lydia Mendoza, got their start. Gibson plays clips from interviews with several of these singers.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, as people began to move to urban areas, Mexican-American musicians began to adopt the instruments and styles of other genres, including German polkas and accordion music. Musicians like Narciso Martinez and Flaco Jimenez popularized the accordion throughout the region and created their own unique style. By the late 1930s, musicians began to blend their music with the lyrical tradition already in place and this style has come to typify Norteña music.

KEYWORDS

Accordion
Alfonso and Martin Chavaria
Baile de Patio
Bailes
Bajo Sexto
Ballad
Bohemian
Brackenridge Park
Brownsville
Button Accordion
Cancion
Chaparral
Chris Strachwitz
Corrido
Culture
Dan Dickey
Dances
Don Antonio Tanguma
Drum
Duets
Emperor Maximilian
Fandangos
Flute
French Settlers
Germans
Guitarists
Guitarreros
Haymarket Plaza
Hermanos Chavaría
Hohner Company
Indita Mia
Instrumental dance music
La Paloma, Texas
Labios de Coral
Laredo
Lark of the Border
Leisure
Lower Rio Grande Valley
Lupe Martinez
Lydia Mendoza
Lyrical Couplet
Lyrical Traditions
Mendoza Family
Mexicans in Texas
Monterrey
Music
Musica Norteña
Narciso Martinez
OKeh Record Company
Orquesta tipica
Patio dance
Pedro Rocha
Pero Hay que Triste
Plaza del Zacate
Polkas
Radio
Ranchera music
Ranchos
RCA Victor
Record labels
Redowas
Rio Grande Valley
Romance
Rural migration to urban areas
San Antonio
San Antonio Express News
San Benito, Texas
Santiago “Flaco” Jimenez
Santiago “Flaco” Jimenez, Jr.
Schottische
South Texas
Spanish musical influences
Tambourine
Tejano music
Troubadors
Violin
Waltzes
 

Center for Mexican American Studies | Department of History | The Benson Latin American Collection

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