Santiago Jimenez, Jr.
Santiago Jimenez, Jr. was born in San Antonio,Texas on April 8,1944. He grew
up in a family of musicians that included his father, Santiago Jimenez, Sr.,
and brother Flaco. All of the Jimenez men worked and rose to fame as conjunto
musicians. Conjunto music is a form of Tex-Mex, or “norteño”
(northern) music, characterized by a driving rythym provided by an accordion.
Conjunto and the accordion are to the Texas and Mexico border country as bluegrass
and the banjo are to the Southern Appalachians. Both music styles evolved over
a number of years and with influences from a number of cultures. The accordion
was brought to the Southwest by German and Czech immigrants. The European musicians
played polkas and waltzes. By the late nineteenth century, Mexican Americans
had adopted the accordion, then combined its sounds with other instruments,
namely the guitar-like bajo sexto, to form the conjunto style.
Conjunto music is often played by working class Hispanic people, and more than
one scholar has noted that the music is a cultural unifier for Spanish-speaking
Americans. As one writer put it, “Santiago Jimenez, Jr. is a living memory
of a time when the Mexican-American people of South Texas were making their
presence known amid social oppression, forced assimilation, and economic difficulty.
The music represents the experience of a people and is celebrated for having
helped shape a society that remains strong in its identity and cultural presence.”
As an acclaimed, Grammy-nominated musician, Jimenez has found success while
keeping a folk tradition alive.
1. Look in your newspaper for stories about immigrants, Mexican or otherwise, to the United States. Why are these people coming to the United States? What challenges do they face in emigrating to a new society? What cultural ideas (customs of music performance, and ideas of its meaning, for instance) might they bring with them?
2. Taking into consideration the development of the conjunto style as a convergence between European polkas and Mexican, guitar-centered folk songs, try to imagine how other forms of music in the world have developed. Search the newspaper for information about musicians, and then come up with an hypothesis about how certain groups or individuals came to play their preferred form of music. If you combined two or more of your favorite types of music what might it sound like? What would you call this genre of music you have created?
3. Listen to Santiago Jimenez, Jr.’s version of “You Are My Sunshine,” in which he uses both English and Spanish lyrics. Increasingly, Spanish words and phrases are used in everyday English. For example, many non-Spanish speaking Americans use the word “Adios” when saying goodbye. Look in your newspaper for Spanish words. Within what context are the words used?