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Raza, Accordions, and Rock!

Raza, Accordions, & Rock is monthly show hosted on the Dublab website and to spotlight the many untold stories hidden within the grooves of the Strachwitz Frontera Collection.  This series will highlight the importance of the collection by carefully curating twelve monthly 2-hour shows using the music that is archived and sourced from the Strachwitz Frontera Collection. The music played in this series will focus on the intersection of the African-American diaspora, American Pop Culture, and the Mexican-American experience thru the musical lens.  We’ll examine how R&B, Soul, and Rock existed in the musical history of recorded music sung in Spanish or English and or a combination of both.

RECENT SHOWS

2/26/2023: First Dublab Show!

3/26/2023: Dance Crazes

Chris and Antonio

ABOUT JUAN ANTONIO

Juan Antonio Cuéllar Frontera Collection Curator, a role he recently transition into from being the Head Digitizing Engineer for The Strachwitz Frontera Collection, the largest collection of Mexican and Mexican American recordings in the world. Since 2002 he has personally listened to and digitized over 130,000 songs.

Born in Los Caños, Aguascalientes, Juan Antonio immigrated along with his family to Northern California to start a new life. A musician since childhood and avid record collector, he played the trumpet and the valve trombone. From 2002-2015 he played and toured with San Francisco bilingual punk band La Plebe, called “one of the Bay Area’s most exciting independent bands” by El Tecolote1 and voted “Best Poder to the People” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Juan Antonio has completed the final stages of digitizing the collection in February of 2022. After 21 years of absorbing the vast historical and cultural knowledge contained in this one-of-a-kind archive, he is excited to share his expertise and passion and spotlight artists and songs that have laid dormant and out of the publics eyes and ears.


ABOUT Dublab

dublab is a non-profit radio station founded in Los Angeles in 1999. For more than two decades, dublab has been one of the defining voices of online radio as a medium. The Guardian newspaper named us “The world’s best online radio station.

Through our radio broadcast, myriad public events and celebrated cultural projects, dublab has fostered a community in our hometown and now around the world that places creativity, enrichment, diversity, inclusivity and equality as valued priorities. Keeping music as the organization’s main focus, the dublab community continues to grow and use its voice to bring positive change. Affiliate stations in Japan, Barcelona, Germany and Brazil expand our reach and form communities with shared values.


Statement on the passing of Chris Strachwitz

Arhoolie Records Founder
July 1, 1931 – May 5, 2023

We celebrate the life of our founder, friend, and great record man Chris Strachwitz. He died peacefully at home in Marin County, CA, surrounded in his last days by dear friends and family. Over his 91 years, Chris captured the music that represents the best “down home music” the world has to offer.

He was at the forefront of nearly all the roots revivals over the last 60 years including blues, zydeco, Cajun, Norteño and Tejano music. His drive to document traditional music helped introduce the nation to our diverse musical heritage. He had the foresight to save music that might have otherwise been lost to obscurity and played a role in strengthening cultural traditions through his records, films, and most recently the Arhoolie Foundation. He cared for those around him, fought for royalties and recognition for Arhoolie artists, and provided counsel to countless musicians, writers, film makers, and academics.

Plans for a public celebration of his life will be announced in the coming weeks. Today we’re thinking of all that Chris brought to our lives and the lives of the musicians and fans with whom he shared his passion.