Interviewer: Carla Castro

Interviewee: Jesus Jaime-Diaz

April 9, 2013

C: To start off with, what music were you attracted to as a teen?

J: As a teenager, teenager or kid? Can I go kid and teenager, or can I jump back and forth?

C: Yeah, you can do kid and teenager, you can do both.

J: Something I was really attracted to as a kid was, I remember this show, it was called Siempre Domingo, in English it was Always on Sunday and my mom would always watch it, and my earliest memories of that is that she would always, when a good song would start she would dance with me so I'd be there dancing with her on Sundays as my younger brothers and sisters were watching, always be laughing you know. It was something that had a strong significant meaning to me, emotionally, spiritually, and linguistically because through music I was able to preserve my Spanish; but in a sense the kind of music I listened to was mainly Nortena, northern music, accordion, saxophone, usually attributed to Northern Mexico, the states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora, Sinaloa. But us being from Nayarit the west coast of Mexico, Nayarit, and Durango, well Durango's not west coast but its close enough, it's a region, Banda, so the trumpet, the trombone, I love that music. I think in life I had such a difficult upbringing, music was a way to escape, a way to heal, a way to dance, a way to dress, a way to talk. So yeah I love mUSlC.

C: Okay and what about as a teen?

J: As a teenager, definitely, my teenage years more specifically would be probably Banda. During that era was the era of La [ ], the nineties, that was the music I was really drawn to during that particular time.

C: Is there a specific reason you were drawn to that type of music?

J: Everyone was dancing it in the community, and I mean Banda, Banda on the west coast was very symbolic to our region of Mexico, so we loved it. I loved dancing, I loved hopping around, I just loved it.

C: Okay so you think how you grew up influenced what you listened to?

J: Of course, that's pervasive I think, where people settle so ... migrant paths, so where I was from in north eastern Oregon a lot of people from Durango, Zacatecas and they brought that with them. So that's what the radio catered to I think, that particular region, so that's how we came to have an understanding of that music.

C: And do you think that where you grew up influenced the music that you listen to now?

J: Yeah, yeah it does, it stays with you. It becomes part of your identity. Que no?

C: Okay, and what makes that specific music important to you?

J: What makes that music important to me? So specifically? It reminds me of my uncles, my aunts, family get togethers, the community corning together, unity; that's what it does.

C: So you do think it represents your identity?

J: think it does, I'm sure it does.

C: Can you go a little more in depth about that?

J: More in depth about why it represents my identity ... What's my identity right? So my identity being a Mexicano and highly connecting to my roots right? Where my parents come from Durango, Mexico; I'll be redundant on that. When I would go as a kid, that's what we would hear when we would go over there, you know? So it becomes part of your memory bank, and your spirituality and that's who you are; you come to understand that's who you are. I mean we're fluid on who we are, we can take on whatever identity we wan right? No one says you have to have a monolithic identity, pero that was what gave me happiness. As we say in Mexico "me llegado corazon," it would make my heart happy.

C: Do you think that since you have moved and since you've grown older, how has your music preference changed? In what ways? Have they stayed the same?

J: No it's changed, it's evolved but it's still rooted in that. I still really like that music. Even though sadly it falls under hegemony because the music that the radio perpetuates now is to control our communities you know, through drugs, through the narco corrido but even through that music you still find the voices of people the voices of the dispossessed, the oppressed, he marginalized, the impoverished right? So I can still connect to that music but I've been drawn to different types of music, Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, Tejanotrejana. I don't know I'm open to a lot, Country ... I even do country swing, I've done country too! So what happens with particular music is when you're in the community if you're segregated and isolated, you hold onto each other, you listen to common music that you feel is a representation of who you are right? I remember growing up we couldn't kick it with Tejanastrejanos, they didn't like us, we were mojados, really derogatory towards us. Fuck you then, I don't like that kind of music, whatever. Hicks, cowboys, whatever, they were mean to us too; fuck you too. I mean always those lines right, those contrasting lines; but now it's like I've broke out of those shackles right and seen something different. I'm open to different things, and actually I see the commonalities in music and how we connect to music. I see how Banda is also connected to Tejano, some of the instruments, commonality. You know a lot of that stuff Germans brought it; you know Nortena music, the accordion. Wow, it just makes my heart happy.

C: Okay and earlier you said that your mom influenced you a lot as a kid, in your music, and what you listened to. Do you think that when you became a teenager you tried to veer away from your parents' music and what they listened to? Tried to be your own person?

J: I'd say I tried Hip-Hop, now I'm going to be biased as hell, I mean real biased. I tried being a hip-hopster during my time, Chicano rap, Kid Frost, Mellow Man, different kinds of rappers during that era in the nineties, pero it didn't give me that sense of happiness, you know what I was saying, happiness in your heart. I know it sounds cheesy right Carla? But it really is true, it gives you this happiness, this enlightenment. I did in a sense, but not for too long; I think ih through like whatever time I went to high school, 9th or lOth grade and then I was like this doesn' t do it for me.

C: So just after a little while you ventured back to what your parents listened to?

J: Yeah, I used to call myself a cholo vaquero. So I was like a straight thug but I wore my boots and my hat, you know I had that fluid identity kind of; so, a cholo vaquero.

C: So you never thought the music your parents li stened to was too Mexican?

J: Nuh uh, I loved it.

C: You weren't scared to identify with it, that people would judge you?

J: You know there's a memory I have of that and even to this day I struggle with it. I'm the kind of Chicano/Mexican, I would like be bumping my music really loud. Cause like when we went to Mexico, like in la colonias and el ranchitos people would always bump their music real loud so ... you know, you're happy, it gives you ... me llegado Corazon. I realized that when I stop at a light and I have my music up, I turn it down right; subconsciously I turn it down, like they might not like it right; but even so I've always loved that music. I've always loved it and I've never really wanted to move away from it really.

C: Okay so just to clarify this, you weren't scared to listen to a certain type of music? That people would judge you or your peers would judge you?

J: No. They made fun of me, they didn't like it. They called me Chuntaro music; they were bigots, mojo music. I was like I don't know, whatever I like it.

C: What type of music from Oregon ... I don't know what's a big city there?

J: Portland, Salem. In regards to the Mexican community or in general? C: Well I guess, you know how like in L. A. there was Whittier Boulevard, and the type of music there? Was there anything of the type in Oregon?

J: Yeah, you know a lot of the work, agricultural work ... cherries, apples; you know that type of work. A lot of people from California would come up to Oregon, we're right above Califas; and a lot of people would bring that stuff with them. The hip-hop, W hittier Blvd, Low Rider, the oldies; that's another type of music that really influenced my cholo identity as a teenager, oldies. "Angel baby," "tell it like it is".

C: So how far is it from California to Oregon?

J: Where I'm from, it' s about a twelve-hour drive to the Califas border. But people would always come up with agriculture, a lot of people from California actually moved up to Oregon in the early nineties.

C: Did that influence the sound there in Oregon?

J: Yeah, we had that California identity; we were really influenced by that California cholo/chola identity.

C: Okay, since you are such a big fan of Mexican Music, w hat do you feel when they crossover?

J: What do you mean crossover?

C: Like how crossed over? Even though she wasn't really, I guess.

J: That's inflammatory. I'm playing, I'm playing. You know, when you' re a blind nationalist, you think you're supposed to stay a certain way. Only one way; and I think people evolve and that's cool. You know as long as you don't treat your own kind like crap, that's cool. You know, but you have the sovereignty to evolve and that' s beautiful. I mean why not? It's evolution, you go on to learn different ways, see different ways, use different instruments whatever. That's beautiful so I don' t have no problem with that, and a lot of people are doing that these days: they leave Banda and they go on to do something else, or they go into Banda. Whatever works for· them.

C: So you don' t feel like they're .. ..

J: Cultural traders? No, unless they become the oppressors and discriminate against their own kind, then you' re a trader. Then, don' t grant me quarters and I won't grant you any quarters either. W e're all good; but don't treat your own kind, don' t treat anyone like crap. Right? A lot of artists, they have the politics, they have that ideology with them. So if they're going to assimilate and they're going to discard who they are and validate that and treat those people less, then they're no good. Then they are traders. C: So since you've come to San Antonio has there been any specific styles of music that have influenced you? That has grown onto you?

J: . As I was telling you when I was a kid, I didn't like Tejano music just for the fact the way they were with us in Oregon. I mean they had about two generations behind my generation, a lot of them migrated up there in the fifties and sixties, they didn't want no connection with Mexican people, at all. So growing up with Tejanos, they were very prejudiced towards us. They would call us wetbacks, they would call us welfare kids, I mean a lot of dehumanizing stuff so we had a lot of fistfights ... a lot of fistfights. In a small little town, whenever there was a dance on the weekend or something, everybody would try to get in I mean it's a free dance. And when we'd get there, they'd be like no aqui no, aqui no entrada mojados. We don't let wetbacks in here; we had that little weird accent. Oh yeah well let's take it outside fool, and we'd just throw down. Whatever, bottles, bats. I mean that's how you fight discrimination when you don't know how to fight it, you use a lot of violence and it's very detrimental to our community right; but coming down here I was really scared, I'm like I'm not going to make it a week there cause I don't take that shit, you know I don't allow that, I don't stand for that. But you know I came here and people are really cool, really different. I was terrified coming here; I was like aw this is going to be bad, nothing like that. I even tried dancing Tejano music, something I had never tried; but I can't get the Banda hop out, like I hop, you know I haven the Banda and I jump. But you can't, you have to like glide your feet when you're dancing Tejano music and I struggle with it but I think I'm gonna get it down. I've got to get some real slippery Stacy Adams'; you know I'll just moonwalk.

C: So out of all the places you've been here in the U.S. or Mexico, can you compare the music for me? What you think of it? How it shows that certain areas people, how it speaks through their identity?

J: Okay, let's go to Mexico. I said my mom is from Nayarit and my dad is from Durango. My dad is from Durango and it's on the southern tip of Nayarit, you can walk into the border of Nayarit, so we really go to Durango, so I'm mainly going to attribute my Mexican identity to Nayarit, and there it's a lot of Banda, like every Sunday it's ajaripeo or a rodeo; they have like you jump on the cows and on the bulls and they have food and they're drinking beer and it's just community right. You go off after the rodeos over and you're just kicking up dust getting all sweaty and muddy dancing you know? But its fun, it's beautiful; it's beautiful when people come together. And you see a lot of Banda; but you know the reality of that, now looking at it from a critical lens, it's mainly the poor people in that area that listen to Banda. The lower class, the working poor you know, etc. You won't see that in fancy neighborhoods in Nayarit, you know that's different. You hear the jazz, orchestra, whatever you know that's upper class. Looking at those distinctions you can't have a set view of what identity is in that part of Mexico, from what I've seen right. It's different; I'm from the working poor, or the working class so I'm not going to understand what that other group listens to completely right? They have nothing to do with us; me and my connection is with the working poor and the working class. Going back up north to Oregon, now that I look back and I think everyone had their camp and this originalism is very counter-productive. Like Jalisco the , the Banda, and Chihuahua the Nortena; and even then everyone had their own riffs, like they'd thrown their Quinceanera's or weddings, and everyone represented with their music. Very, very divisive sometimes but you know that's the identity of it, and we continue to work at changing that. I hope that answers your pregunta, your question.

C: Okay ... so as you've been in Texas, I know you're probably not as familiar with music ten years ago from hear as you were there, but do you listen to any older music from here, like since you've been here and around certain things?

J: Let me throw this out here, some names at you: Bobby Pulido, , Los Palominos, that's from the nineties era. And Intocable, I went to a concert of lntocable in December here in the Graham Central Station, that was cool. Jaime los Chamacos, this other dude that does this show on the stage when he's dancing with his accordion; I was impressed. I do listen to it, it brought back a lot of bad memories when I was growing up with Tejanos up there, but now to see that the image I saw of Tejas wasn't what it was. Tejas was something really different from what I thought it was going to be. I'm sure there are parts that are but I haven't come across it yet, everyone's been pretty cool here.

C: So what exactly gave you that image?

J: The people from Tejas up there, the way they were towards Mexicans.