Know Flaco Jiménez, Titan of Tex-Mex, how to overcome La Migra in a humor spirit
The accordion leads to the theater, and his eyes stare as if he was in euphoria, and his fingers come out of the opening notes tune. It is a long courage, one, poisoning that the audience in front of him can only two steps through the crowded dance hall.
He and his partner in singing outperform a sad story that apparently collides with the rhythms of it. An undocumented immigrant arrived in San Antonio from Larado to marry his girlfriend, Shinisha. But the lights on his car do not work and have no driving license, so the police officers throw it in prison. Upon its release, the protagonist of the song finds a worse fate than deportation: his girlfriend now holds the dating of the white man who makes the driver’s licenses.
“These Gabachos are afflicted”, the singer-musician sighs in the Spanish language in his closing line. “I lost my car and took Shansha.”
The above scene is “Chulaas FrontraS”, a 1976 documentary on life on the borders, the United States, Mexico, and the deviation driven by the accordion, which was the soundtrack of the region. The song “Un Mojado Sin Licencia-“Relaxed without a license. “The musician is the legend of Tex-Mex Flaco Jiménez, who died last week at the age of 86.
He was born in San Antonio, the son and grandson of the accordion became famous as a face for Tex-MEX music and as a favorite session whenever Gods Rock and Country needed some border lands. Next to everyone from Rolling Stones appeared to Bob Dylan, Buck Owens and Dwayet Yoskam in “Beckerfield Streets” to Willie Nelson to obtain an exciting version of “blue eyes that cry in the rain”. With Doug Siham, Augai Maires and his colleague Tijano Chengon Freddy Fender, Jiminies has formed Texas Tornadoes, which explodes Oeuvre in each third -class barbecue from Texas Hill to southern California.
Jiménez Titan was American music, which is something he understood. One of the important things they missed, however, was his policy.
He unleashed Henner Akordion not only at concerts but to obtain the advantages ranging from scholarships for students to a successful campaign for the Los Angeles David B. Fenke to the Lawyers Committee, a non -profit institution formed during the era of civil rights to combat structural racism in the American legal system. Jiménez and Texas Tornadoes performed in the opening ball Bill Clinton 1992; “Chulaas FrontraS”, seized Jiménez as a major leader in donating donation by John Treviano Junior, who will continue to become the first member of the US Mexican Council in Austin.
It is a testimony on the heart of Jiménez and the spirit of humor that the song he performed for “Un Mojado Sin Licencia”, which is still one of my favorite manifestations in films, is ideal that all Latin musicians must aspire to during this long deportation summer.
The title is not polite, but it reflects the times: some immigrants are not documented in the 1970s Serious It is not an honor badge (to this day, this is what my father proudly calls even though he became an American citizen decades ago). Jiménez’s mastery of Squeeezebox, his fingers are up and down in the ranks of the button notes for each individual such as a reporter on the deadline, complicated and counted like any guitar guitar or PRINCE.
But what was more exciting about the performance of Jiminies is how he refused to lose himself in front of the lamentation of illegal immigration, which is what many people do in a understandable way. “Un Mojado Sin Licencia”, which was originally recorded by Jiménez in 1964, is not a Draig but a rebellion against American foreigners.
The photographer picks up his glossy golden teeth while Jiminiz smiles for three exciting three minutes. It is happy because it should be: The American government can steal the Mexicans from a better life, “Un Mojado Sin Licencia” implicitly argues, but it really ended when we are happy.
“Un Mojado Sin Licencia” in the same vein as other Mexican classics about illegal immigration such as “Los Mandados” from Vicente Fernández “,”El Corrido de Los MojadosWritten by Los Al -Ajis de Tiran andEl Moro“Through the rocks en Español Dinosaurs EL TRI. There is no regret for immigrants who are not documented in any of these paths, only proud of their flexibility and joy in how No Megra You cannot really defeat them. In “Los Mandados”, Fernández sings how No Megra It exceeds the migrant that sustains them briefly; “El Corrido de Los Mojados” clearly asks the Americans, “if it is Existing Was she disappearing/who would depend on him? ”
The most challenge is “El Muro”, which begins as a metal anthem more but reveals that her hero not only came to the United States, but also used the luxurious border wall as a toilet (trust me, it looks more entertaining in Mexico City for the leading singer Alex Laura). These songs click on the bottom well that the Mexicans for the gallows. Their authors knew what the satirists knew from Charlie Chaplin to Stephen Colbert: When you throw the tyranny life on you, you have to make fun of and respond.
There are great songs on illegal immigration, from Bossa Nova, hated at La Santa Cecilia “El Hielo (ICE)“To Woody Guthrie’s” DePortee (the wreckage of the plane in Los Gatos) “, which everyone recorded from byrds to Dolly Parton to Jiménez when he was a member of Los Super Seven. This is the rest of the teeth is the rest of the day.
I saw “Chulaas FrontraS” as a university student fighting anti -immigrant fools in Orange County and loved the movie immediately, especially “Un Mojado Sin Licencia”. Many of my fellow travelers at that time felt that the parties even for a song were betraying the revolution. Fortunately, this is not thinking among the pro -immigrant activists these days, and who merged music and dancing in their strategy as much as lawsuits and patrols in the neighborhoods.
The sidewalks have turned outside the Metropolitan detention center in the center of Los Angeles, where hundreds of migrants are detained in better conditions for a dilapidated dog’s pound, to a temporary concert hall that hosted classic Arab musicians and Los Journal del Norte, the home band in the National Organization Network. Below highway 5, the OC Rapid response network maintains regular donations in the bars around the center of Santa Anna, which displays everything from the Rochet Quartet to DJ Spinning Compass. While some music festivals were canceled or postponed for fear of Migra The raids, and the others went as a plan to win the ice.
Musicians like Pepe Aguilar, who fell a complete cover for “Corrido de Juanito” from Caliber 50, rushing a few weeks ago, to meet this moment with concerts and pledges to support non -profit organizations. This is a great thing, but I urge them to keep “Un Mojado Sin Licencia” on an episode because they wander in words or beats. There is enough sadness in the battle against No Megra. Be like Falao: Make us laugh. Make us dance. We were prevented from slipping into the abyss. Give us hope.