Musica Tejana: The Cultural Economy of Artistic Transformation (University of Houston Series in Mexican American Studies , No 1)

Rating:
Summary: A One of a Kind Look at a Very Special Musical Heritage
Review: If you grew up in South Texas, as I did, then musica Tejana was as pervasive as country and western or rock and roll. In the 1960s you could hear Sunny Ozuna and the Sunliners or Little Joe and the Latinaires. Sunny made it in Top 40 with "Talk to Me" and then returned to his Tejano roots. Little Joe would become La Familia and shape a generation of musicians with songs like "La nubes" and become associated with the rise of Jose Angel Gutierrez and La Raza Unida political movement. Manual Pena gives you the history of various genres of musica Tejana from conjuntos to the late superstar Selena. No other book has managed to cover so much territory and still offer such a coherent view of music and culture.