CORPUS CHRISTI The sound of button accordions and 12-string bajo sexto guitars will resonate from the Richard M. Borchard Regional Fairgrounds today to honor veterans and raise money for youngsters interested in conjunto music.
The Veterans Band of Corpus Christi will start the ninth annual "El Veterano" Conjunto Music Festival at noon with its medley of military hymns. Performances from 11 conjunto bands follow through 11 p.m.
"It's very happy music," said Linda Escobar, organizer and longtime conjunto/Tejano musician. "It's a beautiful, family-oriented event honoring veterans for my father, who asked me to remember them before he died."
Eligio Roque Escobar, of Ben Bolt, served in the Army during the occupation of Japan after World War II. He died in 1994 after a nearly 30-year conjunto music career in which he recorded more than 250 songs. One of his most recognized, "El Veterano," connected with Mexican-American veterans. Escobar's commitment to the Texas-Mexican conjunto music of his family roots in Escobares, a small town on the Rio Grande in Starr County, began in 1962 as he convalesced following a debilitating car accident.
The vivacious conjunto sound, which melds dance music of the workers of northern Mexico with European accordion and polka, first emerged in the early 20th century in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. While the style traditionally presents accordion, bajo sexto, acoustic stand-up or electric guitar, drums have been used more recently. The mix of instrumental sounds -- rancheras, corridors, polkas, schottisches, boleros, cumbias and recently rock and pop -- mingle with quick vocal verses.
Past festival proceeds have provided instruments and music lessons for 27 children, and this year two Corpus Christi girls and a Robstown boy will get diatonic button accordions and a bass guitar, Escobar said. Each also will receive a $500 scholarship.
"We're trying to keep our music going in our youth," she said.
Sisters Stephanie Mauricio, 12, and April Marie Mauricio, 15, are being taught the conjunto style by their father, and after Escobar listened to them perform she wanted Stephanie to have an accordion and April Marie a bajo sexto and bass guitars. Cesar Martinez, 15, will receive both an accordion and music lessons.
Former recipients have grown into their own conjunto bands.
Lazaro Perez, a football player for Texas A&M University-Kingsville, brings his band, Lazaro Perez y Su Conjunto, to this year's lineup. Another former recipient, Robert Casillas, has played in New York's Times Square and at the White House.
Admission is $10 and ages 12 and younger are free. Barbecue plates for $5 will help fund the Eligio Escobar Scholarship Fund
