Pharr From Heaven

My second article for The Monitor.

2012-02-23T00:05:00.000-06:00

My second article for The Monitor was published on February 19th, and it dealt with the life of Simon Reyes. You can read the article here on The Monitor's website. I couldn't have written this article without the great help and kindness shown to me by Rudy Reyes. All the help, information and photos from Rudy is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This is a listing that Rudy provided me with of the songs that Simon Reyes recorded.

1. Broken Hearted Fool (Simon Reyes)

2. I'm A Hog For You Baby (Simon Reyes)

3. Make Believe (Simon Reyes)

4. Happy Song (Simon Reyes)

5. My Baby Hurts Me (Simon Reyes)

6. Mistake Number Three (Simon Reyes)

7. People Laugh (Simon Reyes)

8. Caminito, Caminito (Simon Reyes)

9. Walking in the Rain (Simon Reyes)

10. I'm Gonna Love You Anyway (Simon Reyes)

11. Mama, Mama (Spanish) (Simon Reyes)

12. Mama, Mama (English) (Simon Reyes)

13. What Now My Love (cover)

14. Amor De La Calle (Simon Reyes)

15. The Pregnant Cow (Simon Reyes)

16. El Coyote (cover)

17. La Barca (cover)

18. Tejano Enamorado (cover)

19. La Bola Negra (cover)

20. Just By Touching Your Hand (Simon Reyes)

Here are the two songs that Simon Reyes is most associated with. Enjoy the music!

Nodrog's Documents (Entry 3)

2012-02-22T23:42:00.001-06:00

This totally slipped my mind, I meant to post this in 2011 but I totally forgot about it. This is the third part of a series that began here and was followed up here. This is the last document I have of Nodrog and Outer Dimensional Forces group in Weslaco, TX. This has some illustrations and it is fascinating to read if you're interested in this unique character in Valley history.

odf3

R. Bruce Tharpe is suing the National Wrestling Alliance.

2012-02-21T02:21:00.006-06:00

R. Bruce Tharpe with former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk

There is something that I've always found interesting about R. Bruce Tharpe. Here's a guy that is one of the most well known lawyers of the Rio Grande Valley. He has ads airing on TV and I'm sure he gets plenty of business. So it's surprising to me that he has enough time to run a professional wrestling organization.

It was even more amazing in the early 2000's where he juggled being an attorney, a pro wrestling promoter, a TV show host, a TV announcer, and even being a part-time pro wrestler! There was even a point where he was in the main event storyline that featured brujeria and him winning the tag team championships! He's even an avid aficionado that would write in letters to Dave Meltzer's underground Wrestling Observer Newsletter and talk passionately online about how he preferred the in-ring "workrate" of ECW over WWF and WCW in the late 1990's.

One of his attorney ads.

He's had a long career in professional wrestling, you can find some of his stories, photos and memories over at his website, RBTharpe.com. For those not familiar with South Texas' IWF, this is a highlight video of his promotion in the early 2000's, it's set to Queen's "We Are The Champions".

The man pretending to have a gun and who grabs another man by the testicles to the delight of everyone is the great Golden King. This chubby Rio Grande Valley grappler has great schtick and bumps to the mat harder than most of the youngsters down here. Whatever happened to him, the self-proclaimed "Idolo de Brownsville"?

Now you have a brief idea of who R. Bruce Tharpe is and of his background. The real reason for this post, is to talk about an interesting story that is happening with R. Bruce Tharpe and the National Wrestling Alliance. Tharpe, who is based out of Brownsville, is accusing this once powerful organization of fraudulent business practices! Mainly of insurance fraud, this news broke at the end of January.

There is some interesting speculation. PWInsider offered the following quote when the news broke:

"As far as why this lawsuit was filed as opposed to handling the matters internally between partners, one source believed it was Tharpe's very public attempt at a coup to force out Trobich and others and gain control of the NWA, in whatever form it still exists in 2012, and run the organization. The same source noted that Tharpe had attempted to get other members to side with him against Trobich and when that didn't happen, they were added to his lawsuit."

Again, we don't know if that is true or not, it's just some speculation from a source of PWInsider. But Tharpe is denying that this is some sort of power play. He has released a statement about all this, which can be found at the Examiner.com. Here is Tharpe's statement:

"When I first became a member of the NWA in October 2011 I did so for all the right reasons and with honorable intentions. Less than three months later I discovered that the NWA was being led by some very unscrupulous people.

I discovered that the Executive Director was an attorney who had numerous grievances filed against him and had admitted in writing that he had lied to the North Carolina State Bar Association in connection with a disciplinary proceeding against him. This attorney had his law license suspended and was placed on probation. These are not allegations made by me, they are contained in documents that are a matter of public record.

As an attorney myself, it sickens me to cross paths with attorneys like the one currently at the helm of the NWA; a person whose misdeeds and untruths tarnish the reputations of honest attorneys like myself. Then I discovered that one of the members of the NWA Board of Directors had numerous arrest on his record for crimes of moral turpitude, and worse; crimes like Sexual Assault, Possession and Sales of Illegal Drugs, Grand Larceny, Forgery, etc.

When I brought these prior arrests to the attention of the Executive Director, he refused to take any action. Are these the types of people that you would want in charge of the NWA? I later determined that other members of the Board were unethical, unscrupulous individuals as well. That is when I started questioning the validity of the insurance policy that purports to protect NWA members from premises liability claims filed at wrestling events that they promote.

When myself and others began to question the validity of the insurance, we were threatened with $1000 fines and other disciplinary action in an attempt to intimidate us. This is when I decided to file the lawsuit in an effort to find out the truth regarding the insurance policy and we are currently conducting discovery regarding this issue.

The truth is that in the last six years, under the direction of the current Executive Director and Board of Directors, the NWA has gone nowhere and has little respect in the wrestling world. The NWA has many members who produce their own local television, using substandard talent, that does nothing but devalue the brand. The NWA does not have a written business plan, nor does it operate as profit generating business. How can any business operate without a written, well thought-out business plan? I am determined to change that.

We have offered the existing Executive Director and Board the opportunity to resign with dignity, and to allow a new regime to take over and take the NWA in a new and better direction. They have chosen to decline our offer and fight this lawsuit, in which they have much to hide. Through this litigation, they will be publicly exposed.

I come from a wrestling family who was closely connected to the original National Wrestling Alliance. My father was a longtime employee of Eddie Graham in the Florida territory and I worked in the Championship Wrestling from Florida Office myself. I hasten to say that if my father, and Sam Muchnick himself were alive today, they would be horrified to see what has become of this once great organization.

I refuse to idly stand by and allow incompetent and unethical businessmen destroy the NWA and that is what part of this lawsuit is about. The other part is to discover the truth about what misdeeds have occurred, and to hold those responsible accountable.

It would be easy for someone to turn the other way and ignore what is going on in the NWA, but it takes courage for people to stand up for what is right.

I am determined to clean up the NWA and do my best to restore its once great image. If it takes a lawsuit to do that, so be it. I strongly believe that the public will eventually see that my intentions are honorable, and that this lawsuit is far from being a "power play." This lawsuit most definitely has merit, and sooner or later, the truth about the individuals currently in control of the NWA will be revealed."

You know this is serious business when the names Eddie Graham and Sam Muchnick are mentioned so passionately. I can't remember the last time the pro wrestling world paid attention and took notice of a story that came out of the Rio Grande Valley. If Mr. Tharpe does indeed take over the NWA, will the Valley area be able to attract a much larger pool of independent pro wrestling talent from across the United States and Mexico? Will Tharpe do a better job at running the NWA than the current management? Will we one day see The Golden King win the NWA Championship and pretend to shoot people with his make believe gun?

Robert Runyon

2012-02-16T12:34:00.001-06:00

Recently, I've been exploring the work of Robert Runyon thanks to The Library of Congress. His South Texas photographs are really wonderful, here are some of my favorites.

Armadillo!

Possum!

Iguana!

Women washing clothes.

Las nubes.

This iguana looks so awesome.

Fair.

Brownsville Street Shot.

Another Brownsville Street Shot.

A sheriff convention here in South Texas.

Harlingen lighthouse.

Joe Guerrero of the Rio Grande Snake Farm!

Now these next four photographs are of U.S. Officials getting rid of alcohol in Brownsville, TX at the start of prohibition.

My first article for The Monitor

2012-02-03T15:49:00.001-06:00

Photo Credit - Monikapolitan

I had the pleasure of writing an article for The Monitor that was published on January 29th, 2012. If you missed it, you can read the article here. It's a piece on the legendary bajo sexto player of Los Donneños - Ramiro Cavazos. I met up with Cavazos in January at his music shop in South McAllen and had a good little chat with him about his career. His buddy Juanito was there for the conversation too and added a lot of good information about the career of Mr. Cavazos. Very classy and humble individual, Cavazos is a total class act.

I thought I would share some videos that would add to what Cavazos has done in his long storied career.

Ramiro Cavazos told me that he has come out in five films with Piporro. This is one of those films that features a great musical number with Piporro and Los Donneños. The name of the film is "Dos corazones y un cielo" (1959):

Ramiro Cavazos and Conjunto Tamaulipas performing Canción mixteca in "Chulas Fronteras" (1976). This documentary on conjunto and norteño music was selected to be in the United States National Film Registry. On the commentary track, Chris Strachwitz credits Ramiro Cavazos with being the person that helped Strachwitz get a hold of a lot of the musicians featured in this film.

Ramiro Cavazos with his young grandson Alan Cavazos playing "Los Coconitos" at RyN Music Store. They have a new CD coming out soon, make sure to check it out at RyN Music Store on South 23rd in McAllen.

I want to wish an early happy birthday to Ramiro Cavazos, he will be turning 85 years old on February 16th, 2012. I hope he has a great time with his close family and friends.

Frankie Caballero y Bobby Pulido

2012-01-10T13:45:00.001-06:00

Everyone knows that Bobby Pulido's father is Roberto Pulido. But what a lot of people don't know is who Bobby's mother is. She is Diana Montes, and she happens to be the sister of Mario Montes Jr. of the great Donna, TX band Romance. She also happens to be the daughter of Mario Montes Sr. from Los Donnenos. Bobby Pulido was born in Edinburg, TX and is an alumni of Edinburg High School.

This is Pulido's hit song from his debut album Desvelado in 1995 and he is performing it at the Tejano Music Awards. One of the reasons why I'm posting this is that this video features one of the best accordionists that South Texas ever produced, Frankie Caballero of Donna, TX. To those not familiar with Caballero, he's played with Grupo Mazz, Jessy Serrata, Los Chachos de Chacha Jimenez, Jay Perez, Daniel Sanchez, Ram Herrera and of course, Bobby Pulido. When Caballero was a young kid in East Donna, he would sometimes play songs on his accordion for a neighbor that would give him a quarter or two per song. Over the decades, he has developed into being one of the most versatile accordion players today. He has incredible skills and my favorite thing about Desvelado is the accordion runs Caballero goes through. The world needs more videos of Frankie Caballero playing the accordion!

Michael Cole admits he's from McAllen, TX on television.

2012-01-10T10:42:00.002-06:00

Photo Credit - WWE

Jerry Lawler beating up Michael Cole

I remember years ago reading in Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Michael Cole was living in McAllen, TX because he had married a woman from the Rio Grande Valley. That became a trivia note of mine since the idea of WWE announcer Michael Cole living in McAllen seemed pretty amusing to me. I remember even Jim Ross confirming it saying that Cole lost electricity in his McAllen home for a few days due to Hurricane Dolly in the Summer of 2008.

But even though Meltzer and Ross confirmed it, it still seemed odd since I never heard of anyone seeing Cole around in McAllen. So a few months ago, I was at the McAllen Artwalk and I was at an art gallery that was displaying religious art. I was there with a friend when out of nowhere, a khaki short and polo t-shirt wearing Michael Cole showed up to examine this religious art. I was rather perplexed by what I was seeing!

So now, this past week, WWE has these new gimmicks for the original Mistico (de Juarez) and Haku's son. They are stereotypical Mexican thugs that talk in slang and ride in on a low-rider bicycle. When the match starts, Michael Cole proceeds to give a low-rider bicycle history lesson. Booker T immediately accuses Cole of looking up all that information the night before on Google, but Cole replies back that he knows this culture because he's from McAllen, Texas.

Rhythms of the World - The Texas Tornados

2011-12-21T12:39:00.001-06:00

Water-towers often offer a glimpse into the cities in which they reside in, so they are always a neat visual to look out for when traveling across the Rio Grande Valley. Usually these water-towers have the image of the local high school sports team logo, maybe a welcoming quote, or of some type of city accomplishment. One can make the argument that the South Texas water-tower that stands out the most is San Benito's 125 foot tower. The tower is emblazoned with the words "Hometown of Freddy Fender" and his iconic image.

Years before he was "Freddy Fender", Baldemar Huerta made his name in the Hispanic areas of Texas by recording Spanish covers of pop songs that spanned several different genres. Most of these songs were recored on Valley labels like Ideal Records out of San Benito and Falcon Records out of McAllen. Many years removed from that time period, he become a country star thanks to his 1976 hits "Wasted Days and "Wasted Nights" and "Before the Next Teardrop Falls". As great as he was in those years, his period as a member of The Texas Tornados super-group is my favorite period of his.

In 1989, he joined fellow friends and musicians Flaco Jimenez, Doug Sahm, and Augie Meyers to create the initial group of The Texas Tornados. San Antonio's Flaco Jimenez, the son of the great Don Santiago Jimenez, is one of the greatest diatonic button accordion players of all time and a legend in Conjunto music. Doug Sahm (one of San Antonio's greatest musicians) and Augie Meyers are from the great faux-British band The Sir Douglas Quintet. They released their first album in 1990, the same year in which they made television appearances on Austin City Limits and Late Night with David Letterman. In 1991 they released their second album titled "Zone of Our Own".

In 1992, the BBC series Rhythms of the World came down to San Antonio to record two episodes on "Tex-Mex" music. The first episode they filmed was an event that was headlined by Valerio Longoria and Esteban Jordan. It was a pretty spectacular concert, the high point being Jordan's version of "Georgia on my Mind". The second episode, which aired a week later on BBC, was headlined by The Texas Tornados.

There is nothing quite like a live performance of The Texas Tornados. One of the most surprising things is that they bust out their version of 96 Tears, the famous hit tune from Michigan garage band Question Mark & The Mysterians. It's great to see them performing some of their old hits, the best one being a Texas Tornados-version of the Sir Douglas Quintet classic "She's About a Mover". Enjoy the episode.

List of songs performed by "The Texas Tornados" on Rhythms of the World:

1.Who Were You Thinking Of?
2. Hey Baby (Que Paso?)
3. Laredo Rose
4. Soy De San Luis
5. Only One
6. Mendocino
7. Wasted Days and Wasted Nights
8. Is Anybody Going to San Antonio
9. She's About A Mover
10. 96 Tears

Vintage TV Footage - Entry # 5

2011-11-27T21:09:00.000-06:00

This guy on YouTube uploaded this KRGV teaser. He has an interesting "About Me" that caught my eye:

Analog TV-DX seen by me from Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Orlando FL, and from the Outer Banks of NC (2 separate vacation weeks), from about 1988-1995. Also some top-notch TV-DX seen by a fellow TV-Dxer in St. Petersburg FL (who almost never reported loggings to clubs and bulletins) in roughly the same time frame. I am pretty much a hermit these days, so I am not revealing my name, nor do I desire contact. (Old WTFDA members will probably be able to figure it out based on the DX locations and time frame.) You will also find here slideshows of vintage 70's and 80's TV-DX still photos, and a few audio-only TV-DX clips.

If you are scratching your head and saying "WTF" about these videos: "For those who understand, no explanation is necessary; for those who don't, no explanation will suffice." Dates and distances for these loggings are lost to the ages. The clips are the result of lo-res rips of a 2nd-generation VHS dub, so I apologize for any quality issues.

I always love reading about peculiar hobbies people have. My hobby of searching for Valley stories and trying to watch every major MMA event in history might sound insane to some.

The reason why I'm posting this isn't just because of it's a vintage clip of Valley news. It's because of the coincidental nature of it. I wrote about it in my Vintage TV Footage - Entry # 2 post. For those too lazy to click on that link, basically the coincidence lies in Peter Torgerson reading a news item about someone from the Valley winning the lottery, something he would end up doing himself. Many years after this video clip, he would go on to win a $37 million Texas lottery jackpot (that he ended up splitting in half with a pal).

Thoughts on UWF I

2011-11-27T20:34:00.002-06:00

Roger Huerta and War Machine at UWF I

Last night at the Pharr Events Center, the new South Texas based MMA promotion made its debut. I was in attendance last night and made the following observations on the event as it unfolded:

Both my friend Leo from Bang-Biscuit and I observed that those ring girls had to be strippers. Apparently Phil Baroni was really into them on the commentary.
The first two fights of the night, which involved Alfredo Castro vs Adan De La Garza and Victor Hernandez vs Christopher Brooks were pretty dull and lame fights. That's not the fault of the promotion, sometimes guys just don't match up as well as they thought. But it was not the type of way you would want to start off an evening of fights.
Finally, Arsenal BJJ's Carlos Diego Ferreira came in to put on an awesome performance against Greg Jackson MMA's Clinton Roberts. If you dig the grappling arts, this fight was for you. Diego got multiple dominant positions and submission attempts. In the second frame, he finally tossed Roberts to the mat and took the back to sink in the rear naked choke. The highlight of the evening so far.
One of the improvements that UWF I had over STFC is that it has a much superior cage, it looks much more professional and it is bigger as well. One can also see through the cage much easier. However, there were some negative aspects to their production. The play by play man and color commentator did not have monitors with them, and they were calling the action from a stick microphone as oppose to a headset. From what I heard, there were times during the GFL broadcast where Baroni couldn't see what was happening from his vantage point. Poor Baroni, I hope they made the ring girls give him lap dances. Also, having the cage announcer mention the promoters name and asking everyone to thank him right before the main event was incredibly tacky and cheap.
Scott Cleve vs Derek Campos was the fourth fight, and it was also a bit lackluster. Cleve won via decision.
D.J. Fuentes vs Nick Gonzalez was the fifth fight, and luckily for the paying customer, they delivered. Nick won the first round by landing more significant strikes, which included heavy shots to the body and some shots to the head that rocked Fuentes. The second round started with Fuentes coming close to finishing the fight, as he hurt Nick against the cage and caused a lot of damage to Nick's face. But Nick is not a quitter, he kept firing back, and still landed hard body shots and leg kicks. The final frame included an exciting exchange of strikes and takedowns, until the ringside physician stopped the fight due to the damage on Gonzalez's face, thus awarding the fight to D.J. Fuentes.
The sixth fight was former UFC world middleweight champion Dave Menne vs Eric Davilla. I was at a Huerta-Menne seminar in Edinburg on July 2010. Menne was training with a lot of local fighters, and was tapping them out with ease. It was basically him being too clever on the ground and finding the right openings to catch an arm or a leg. It was slick stuff. So it was not surprising to see him easily tap out Eric Davila with a guillotine choke in less than two minutes. Also, it was endearing seeing Baroni telling Menne that he was rooting for him to win when he interviewed him afterwards. But then, Menne got on the mic calling out Oscar Enriquez for only paying him 1/4 on what they had agreed on, asking for the originally agreed payment or else he had a list of demands. I've heard of promoters fucking over talent a lot of times, so I hope Menne gets his money. As they say on the streets of Pharr, "no mames, dale su dinero!".
So it was finally main event time, and while I had a lot of thoughts going on in my head while watching it, it was a fun exciting fight at the very least. Huerta was trying a lot of kicks, but War Machine was able to take Roger Huerta down rather easily. The fight went back and forth, with both guys having the advantage at several points throughout the fight. I'm wondering how good Huerta's conditioning actually was since he looked tired at the end of the first round. Even in fights that Huerta has lost to in the last four years, I don't think he looked as tired as he did last night. The finish happened in the third round when War Machine transitioned from a kimura to an armbar, which Huerta escaped. But in that scramble, he broke his rib. So even though Huerta had secured side control after escaping the armbar, War Machine was able to come back and get the mount. He started pounding on Huerta until the referee stopped the fight. It took Huerta a long time to get back up. It was in UWF's best interest that Huerta would win this fight but now that he lost in such a way, I wonder how successful their future will be.

Border Perspective II

2011-11-03T19:01:00.000-05:00

I was lucky enough to be asked to be a guest on the Border Perspective podcast again. I want to thank them again for having me over. Here is the link of my appearance.

Border Perspective

A Brief History of McAllen (Part 2)

2011-11-03T18:56:00.000-05:00

These are the Explore McAllen videos that cover McAllen from the 1960s to today. Some more neat factual information mixed in with quality images of the development of McAllen. They have a peculiar claim where they say that The Plaza Mall would later become "the most productive shopping mall in the United States". I'm not really sure what that means or if there is any legitimate evidence to back that claim up. If there is, I would like to see it. Enjoy the videos, thanks Explore McAllen again.

A Brief History of McAllen (Part 1)

2011-10-22T16:05:00.000-05:00

This past week, I discovered these interesting videos from Explore McAllen. Each of these five videos is a couple of minutes long, they briefly cover some details on what happened during a decades timeframe in McAllen, TX. They are introduced and narrated by former local journalistic figures, which was a great idea. These videos are filled with great vintage photographs of McAllen, and cover key points in the history of McAllen. These are the first five videos on the first five decades of McAllen, I will post an entry tomorrow with the other five videos.

Andy Paris: Bubblegum King

2011-10-21T22:20:00.000-05:00

Andrew Paris in McAllen

Photo Credit: LIFE

I stumbled upon this since I heard about Andy Paris being a big deal in McAllen in the 1940's. I was curious since the name was foreign to me, so I googled him up. Much to my surprise, I found this neat film trailer.

This rave review from MySA gives some most of the backstory:

Andy Paris didn’t invent bubblegum.

But the debonair South Texas businessman made it popular the way Henry Ford made the Model-T ubiquitous – by mass producing it. In Paris’ case, after World War II in McAllen.

Suddenly bubblegum – chewing gum mixed with latex from Mexico -- was widely available, cheap (one-penny) and fun. In post-rationing America, the timing was perfect.It made Paris, the son of Greek immigrants, an unlikely millionaire.

This looks like such a fun and enjoyable documentary, I want to see it soon.

Regional Dictionary of Chicano Slang

2011-10-17T17:11:00.000-05:00

This is neat, this book is a product of the Rio Grande Valley. In the early 1970's, Dr. Librado Keno Vasquez was a professor at the local Valley college known as Colegio Jacinto Treviño. A lot of different people contributed to this book, as Dr. Vasquez urged his students to help him by providing slang terms for his Chicano slang dictionary project. Some of the students that were in his class that helped contribute to this book were my tio Ponciano, my dad Felix, and my mom Delia.

I've been wondering about this book for a while, and I finally was able to find a used copy on Amazon. It's really quite cool to see all this slang I've heard all my life in a book like this. Also, it's a time capsule of the 1970's era and its interesting to read some antiquated terms of that time period. So if anyone you know is coming from out of town to visit the Valley, this would be a good book to prepare them for our unique dialect.

Reconnecting the Rio Grande Valley

2011-10-13T21:49:00.000-05:00

This is a nice find that deals with the lower Rio Grande Valley and its natural environment. This piece of informative text accompanies the video:

This short film was created in five days by the winners of the 2011 NANPA college scholarship - a group of students from five countries and twelve states. The US Fish and Wildlife Service provided supplementary images of ocelots, and the US Geological Survey provided satellite imagery for the project. All other footage and photographs were taken by the students, during the North American Nature Photography Association's Annual Summit.

It's a good educational piece about the wildlife of South Texas. It goes over some information about the endangered ocelots, the enormous amount of butterflies that live here in the Valley (someone should seriously make an avant garde Valley butterfly documentary) and how unique of a place this is (a place that gets taken for granted). Also this features some neat images of the our South Texas wildlife and environment.

Thanks to the group of students that helped create this short film.

Nodrog's Documents (Entry 2)

2011-10-13T18:45:00.001-05:00

A follow up to a previous Nodrog post. This is the second document I received, it deals with Nodrog and the Outer Dimensional Forces group from Weslaco, TX. So check it out if you're fascinated by this unique group from Weslaco.

odf2

Frankie Caballero

2011-09-26T19:10:00.001-05:00

Frankie Caballero is from Donna, TX, the home to many of South Texas' finest musicians like Pedro Ayala, Pedro Ayala Jr., Ramon Ayala (the legendary bajo sexto player), Los Donneños, Mario Montes Jr., Danny Yanez and countless others. He grew up in a large family in East Donna (on Ridley Street to be exact), the son of an accordion player named Adolfo Caballero. Presently, his son (Frankie Jr.) is also a fellow musician and plays gigs across the Valley. Here are a few videos I would love to share with the readers of Pharr From Heaven, so they can get a glimpsed of his virtuoso talent.

First off, this is a professionally shot video for a television program named Capital Grupera con furia. It has Frankie Caballero performing with Jimmy Gonzalez y El Grupo Mazz (a Grammy-Award winning band from South Texas). He is performing "Las Polkitas del Tigre", which is a potpourri (also known as a medley). For those not familiar with the terminology, that means it is a musical arrangement of various individual songs. The songs in this potpourri include "Genaro Tamez", "Lo Tengo Decidido", "La del Moño Colorado", "La Piedrera", and "Amarrate el Sincho". As people would say down here, se avienta el guey!

I'm a big fan of unique accordion work, I love hearing Blues and Jazz licks on the three row, diatonic button accordion. This video seems to have been shot from a cell phone camera, but don't let that keep you away from watching this video. Caballero plays some absolutely fantastic blues on his accordion, creating an original sound. Awesome stuff.

Finally, here is Caballero improvising and jamming out, basically showcasing what he is capable of on the accordion. Beautiful skills, him busting out Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" on the three row, diatonic button accordion is the epitome of badass.

Nieuwe Helden meets Ramiro Cavazos

2011-09-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

This is really cool and awesome to see. Kok de Koning and Remco Posthumus are from the Netherlands, and they form a band called Nieuwe Helden. They are huge fans of both Norteno and Conjunto music, and both those styles have influenced them greatly. It's very interesting to see musicians from North-West Europe observe something that grew from our area and form their musical style around it. Almost coming full circle as we took what the Europeans were doing in Texas ages ago and made it our own genre. Here they are performing Polka Potpourri, and it sounds great:

Well about a year ago, Kok de Koning and Remco Posthumus made a trip to the Rio Grande Valley and got the opportunity to meet with Ramiro Cavazos. For those not familiar with Cavazos, he is the legendary bajo sexto player from the iconic Valley band Los Donneños. He is also a member of the Conjunto Hall of Fame and recorded many fantastic musicians on his old RyN Discos record label. He currently owns a music shop in McAllen, a place where the local TV program "Acordeones de Tejas" has filmed at. Here is Koning and Posthumus jamming out with our local legend at his music shop:

These two guys really hold Ramiro Cavazos in such high esteem (Kok said it was a "great honour" to play with him) and they are clearly having a blast here. Aesthetically, we have similar tastes so if they make another trip to the Valley, I would really love to see them perform live.

La Historia de Esteban Jordan (Entry 4)

2011-08-21T23:22:00.002-05:00

For decades, The Johnny Canales Show was one of the best platforms for Tejano and Conjunto musicians to showcase their skills. Eventually, after being on the air for three different decades, the program starting being more Norteño based, which was very upsetting to many Tejano and Conjunto fans. This is something that was controversial earlier in the aughts, and something that still continues to be a controversial topic as evident by this recent article by The Monitor's Crystal Olvera. That's a topic that could be explored in a much more austere and extensive manner, but I don't have the writing chops to do it.

So, back to the topic at hand, these are two great clips from The Johnny Canales Show that feature Esteban Jordan doing his thing. These clip emanate from the year 1986, the same year when Jordan appeared in David Byrne's (Talking Heads) cult classic True Stories. The first song is "Donde Andara" (aka "Donde Estaras"), I believe this song was first released by the Corpus Christi-based Freddie Records label in the 1970's:

Jordan has an impressive list of memorable polkas to his resume, and this polka is one of his most famous ones, "Polkaplex":

When discussing Jordan with David Bennett, Johnny Canales said the following: "I said it on my show last week: Steve Jordan is the greatest accordion player we've seen in our time, and that's no bull."

Broken Hearted Lady

2011-08-18T14:58:00.000-05:00

Earlier this summer, I picked up this compilation set of the McAllen, Texas music scene of the late 1960's. It features a variety of different acts, but the main act that anchors this set is Christopher and the Souls. This group became well known in the Valley after a famous eBay auction and an article by The Monitor. That article talks a bit about their song, "Broken Hearted Lady", which I uploaded on my YouTube account here (which I acquired thanks to this neat compilation):

Here is an interview they did right before they were set to perform at SXSW 2010.

Spinner - Christopher and The Souls Interview

If you want to read more about this band, check out this great page about Christopher and The Souls over at Garage Hangover.

La Historia de Esteban Jordan (Entry 3)

2011-07-18T19:06:00.002-05:00

I wanted to do a quick follow up to yesterdays Valley of Tears post since it concerns the protest song that Jordan played during the film. The song is called "La Marcha del Campesino":

In this radio interview, he talks about how he feels that the music industry has stifled the creativity of musicians. It also features Jordan's version of "La Camelia" (a legendary narcocorrido) that I'm sure you will dig. He goes on to discuss "La Marcha del Campesino" song, and about how literal the song is. It's also really cool to hear Jordan answer the question, "Can you define your music for me?".

Onda Latina - Profile of Esteban Jordan by Linda Fregoso (4/18/1981)

Valley of Tears

2011-07-17T23:06:00.000-05:00

Photo Credit - Raul Cabrera

This is an interesting documentary capturing a certain time in South Texas history. This was shot and directed by Hart Perry, who was fresh off of winning an Academy Award for the cinematography of the classic Harlan County, USA. While this isn't on the level of that Academy Award winning film (that film is a masterpiece, no shame in not being as good as that), the 1970's footage of South Texas that Hart Perry shot is invaluable and this documentary offers us some interesting questions to ponder.

We see a couple of protest songs, one a passionate performance from the great Esteban Jordan (which I'll cover in a future entry). But the one that really catches our eye is the first one, which is a corrido by Maria Guadiana. Here are the lyrics:

El dia cuatro de Abril
Ano de setenta y nueve
Toda la gente disia
Viva la union campesina
La huelga de la cebolla
Tambien viva Jesus Moya

Juanita Valdez les dijo
muchachos no tengan miedo
Nada nos puede pasar
Con estos empleados malditos
Solo estamos defendiando
Derechos del campesino

Pueblito de Raymondville
Tu quedaras en la historia
Como vamos a olvidar
Esto fue en semana Santa
Cuando el chiripe por miedo
Trajo empleados de otro parte

It's broken down into three chapters: Part One - "a different type of law...", Part Two - "one of the biggest issues was the school...", and Part Three - "Nothing's changed". The first part focuses on Raymondville's 1979 onion strike and on the Texas Farmworkers Union. Jesus Moya and Juanita Valdez shine in this first chapter as natural born leaders, with Moya constantly doing his best to lead the way. In interviews far removed from that strike, Valdez remains incredibly optimistic and positive over what transpired in Raymondville. The second frame is concentrated on the school district, and the final chapter is aptly titled "Nothing's changed". The other major character of the film is Juan Guerra, and we observe his highs and lows throughout the final frame of the film. A whole documentary could have been made on him, as he is still in the news. It would take an HBO series and a crew of high caliber writers to tell Juan Guerra's story effectively.

It's an emotional glimpse at the Raymondville community and the racial tension that existed, and escalated during the onion strike. It's also sad to see how hard the city had fallen over the course of the film. Although I would say that this film and the issues it explores do seem a bit more complex than a 79 minute film could cover. Nevertheless, the 1970s footage of Raymondville and the protests during the strike still feel vibrant in 2011. This is something you really want to watch if you have any interest in Rio Grande Valley history.

Watch more free documentaries

Los Cuatitos Cantu

2011-07-16T17:47:00.001-05:00

This is Ramon Cantu, one half of South Texas' "Los Cuatitos Cantu" duet, a well known band that performed for a few decades. As is evident by this video performance on the legendary The Johnny Canales Show, he was a dwarf. But he wasn't just any ordinary dwarf, he was pretty talented at the squeezebox, had a good voice, and was also the lucky recipient of an extra finger. Yes, he had six fingers instead of five, and he ended up becoming an excellent accordion player (maybe thanks to that extra finger?).

Apparently, the other Cantu brother was also a six-fingered dwarf who could rock it on the squeezebox as well as Ramon. Sadly, I think by this point (I'm assuming this video is from the 1980's), the other Cantu brother had already passed away. One of the stories told of that time period was that this duet was so well known in the Rio Grande Valley, that people would innocently joke that when they saw two people who were really close together (like best friends, brothers, etc), they would say - "Ay van los Cuatitos Cantu". Here's a neat photo of this sweet duo.

Ernesto Guerra

2011-07-03T04:47:00.005-05:00

Photo Credit: nickchain

On May 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting Ernesto Guerra outside Cine El Rey in downtown McAllen, TX. Unfortunately he was overlooked by the young "hip" crowd as he performed some slick polkas on his two row diatonic accordion. Every once in a while, he would have to take a break to smoke a cigarette and I can sense that his hands were in significant pain due to arthritis. I ended up having a fun conversation with him, but I really regret not getting his contact information. He reminisced about his fellow peers and about the time he bought his first accordion as a young man in the 1950's. He described the accordion as being quite similar to the one he was playing with that late Spring night and talked about how it cost him 30 some dollars at a local McAllen store. So he's someone that has been rocking polkas on the accordion for over seven decades!

He has played and toured with bands under the names of Los Alegres del Valle and Conjunto Del Valle. He has also recorded music for various record labels like Del Valle, Valen, Bego, and El Pato. To accordion aficionados, his polkas like "La Psycodelica", "El Pata de palo", "Flicka" and "King Kong" are fondly remembered as great works by Guerra. But sadly, some of his music has remained pretty obscure and difficult to find. I did luck out when I tracked down and got a hold of this Ernesto Guerra 45 from a gentlemen in Illinois. Both sides have some cool Guerra rancheras and this record happened to be in perfect condition (which is amazing since it has to be close to 50 years old).

Here he is playing one of his original polka compositions with Ramiro Cavazos, one of the members of the legendary South Texas band Los Donneños. Excellent video showing Guerra's maestro accordion work.

Here he is playing "Linda Dolores", one of his classic polkas at a get together with his friends. Beautiful polka.