Genre: Tex-Mex

SPECIAL PROJECTS BY THE ARHOOLIE FOUNDATION

Don Santiago Jiménez Interview

Santiago Jiménez, Sr. learned to play accordion watching his father, Patricio Jiménez, who was the only accordion player Santiago recalls playing at dances around town in San Antonio, where he grew up. He talks to Chris Strachwitz about learning to play at age 10, and buying his first two-row accordion from a pawn shop in 1935. He would later become known for his consistent use of the two-row button accordion.

Remembering Manuel Peña (1942 – 2019)

The Arhoolie Foundation’s good friend and colleague Dr. Manuel Heriberto Peña passed away on March 9th, 2019. Here’s a remembrance from Arhoolie Foundation’s president Chris Strachwitz....

Strachwitz Frontera Collection Catalog

This is a catalog of all of the recordings in the Frontera Collection, currently over 175,000 songs from 78s, 45s, LPs, Cassettes, original master tapes and...

Isidro Lopez Interview

Isidro López, “El Indio,” was born in Bishop, Texas, in 1933. He began playing tenor saxophone when he entered Miller High School in nearby Corpus Christi, an instrument he also played during the one year he attended A & I College in Kingsville.

Balde Gonzalez Interview

Baldemar (Balde) González was born on May 30, 1928, in Beeville, Texas. Sightless since birth, he attended the school for the blind in Austin, Texas, where he learned to play piano, clarinet and saxophone.

Tony “Ham” Guerrero Interview

Trumpet player for Little Joe y la Familia and one of the founding members of Tortilla Factory talks with Manuel Peña about “what happened to the orquesta tejana.”

Cameron Randle Interview – Tejano

Former Vice-President and General Manager of the Texas branch of Arista Records talks with Manuel Peña about the Tejano Music Industry.

Little Joe Hernandez Interview 1991

Little Joe Hernández, from Temple, Texas, was born in 1940 and began his career as a musician in the late fifties, trying to break into the surging rock-and-roll market.

Tejano Musician Andres Berlanga

“I started playing guitar, I didn’t know nothing about guitar, I was hard labor man working on construction and all that then I come to think, this man can do it I guess I can do it too and I tried it and I tried it and I got on it.”