GCAC From the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas to East L.A., to the barrios of Chicago and beyond, people are listening to the heartfelt, accordion-driven sounds of conjunto. Its popularity has spread far and wide since then, but South Texas is still, without a doubt, the home of conjunto music. It should thus come as no surprise that the largest, most renowned conjunto festival in the nation is the Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio, which was founded in 1982 and has become a centerpiece of the cultural life of San Antonio. Every May it draws thousands of people from near and far, who come to join in the fiesta, catch their favorite conjunto artists, and polca and cumbia the night away.
Nothing can replace being at the festival.
They include essays by prominent scholars, articles by journalists and music critics, and interviews with legendary performers, along with autobiographical accounts, short stories, and poetry. They address a range of subjects in conjunto music, including its history and evolution, its instruments, its social context and functions, questions of style, and the life experiences of a number of conjunto music's leading exponents. The diversity of this collection gives it a unique character and wide appeal. It should interest conjunto fans and folk-music enthusiasts as well as students and scholars. Like the music itself, this book can be enjoyed in a variety of ways-as a survey of the genre, a college reader, or a resource for research.