I was very happy to welcome Juan Tejeda to campus this week for a couple of presentations, which combined a lecture about the global situatedness of conjunto music and performance of a variety of styles on the button accordion.

Juan is a professor and founder of the Mexican-American Studies program at Palo Alto College, the founder of the Tejano Conjunto festival en San Antonio 35 years ago, which is the largest and most significant festival for conjunto, and the author of Puro Conjunto.  Most of all, Juan is a force of change, inspiration, and leadership in conjunto culture and Chicano political action in Texas.

I've written about Juan in some detail in my article “Voz de Pueblo Chicano: Sustainability, Teaching, and Intangible Cultural Transfer in Conjunto Music,” in the Journal of American Culture, 2011. His work and vision and his festival are a major focus of my book project on sustainability theory as applied to conjunto music and culture in Texas, which is in process.

It was a real pleasure to have him on campus and to bring awareness of the heritage of conjunto music and Tejano music generally to this corner of the world.

I accompanied Juan's presentation on the bajo sexto, which was an honor and also a lot of fun.




Thanks much to my student Erdelis Nuñez for the pictures (and possibly video of the songs to follow, she promises)

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