Amor en Aztlán: Music, Movement, Performance, and Power in the Conjunto Dancehalls of the Texas—Mexico Borderlands by Wayne Alejandro Wolbert A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Laura E. Pérez, Chair Professor David Montejano Professor Paola Bacchetta Summer 2019 © Wayne Alejandro Wolbert 2019 Abstract Amor en Aztlán: Music, Movement, Performance, and Power in the Conjunto Dancehalls of the Texas—Mexico Borderlands by Wayne Alejandro Wolbert Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Laura E. Pérez, Chair This dissertation examines the Texas Mexican musical genre known as conjunto and its concomitant social world. In this work I situate conjunto within a broader context of Mexican American cultural production, Texas Mexican popular music, and the shared histories of the U.S.- Mexico borderlands. As a social history, the dissertation traces the development of the genre and its practitioners across the twentieth century to the present. I examine interactions of power; expressions of identity; and constructions of race, class, and gender through movement (dance), performance (instrumentation and playing), and place (the dancehall or nite club) within and around San Antonio and South Texas. I argue that conjunto is an embodiment of Xicanx thought and knowledge, an everyday act of resistance and reaffirmation. 1 Dedicación This is for my grandmother Dora María García Pérez 1929 - 2017 y para mis hijos i Table of Contents Dedicación i Agradecimientos and Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Amanecer con Acordeón: Music and Memory Chapter One 10 Performativity in the Social World of the Texas Mexican Conjunto: Disonancias, Discursos, y Preguntas Chapter Two 38 Música de la Frontera: Historical Considerations and Theoretical Implications from a Century of Texas Mexican Popular Music Chapter Three 62 “Al estilo taquachito”: Theorizing Movement in Conjunto Dance Chapter Four 82 Looking for Lerma’s: The Geography of Place in San Antonio’s Conjunto Nightclubs Chapter Five 99 “There’s no money playing here”: The Economies of Performance in Texas Mexican Popular Music Chapter Six 109 “Wait a minute, wait a minute, just listen”: The Semantics of Sound in the Making of Texas Mexican Popular Music Conclusion 118 Listening to Aztlán Appendix A 123 Conjunto Venues in San Antonio, 1978-2018 Bibliography 130 ii Agradecimientos and Acknowledgments Our people created something so beautiful in the midst of terrifying oppression. May their music serve to remind us to listen, to dance, and to love. First and foremost, I honor and acknowledge my elders and ancestors, among them generations of conjunto dancers, listeners, and performers. I humbly offer this work as a contribution to our collective understanding and appreciation of their songs and stories, con amor y amistad. There were many times where I feared that I would not complete this dissertation. Behind these pages are days and nights of staring at a computer screen or spinning my mental wheels to no end. Through it all Shahana Alam has been my beacon of support and encouragement, in this as in all things, and I would not have finished without her at my side. Collaborator, conspirator, and compañera por vida, I am and will forever be grateful that you are a part of my life. To my children: The two of you are my pride and joy and there is nothing that I treasure more than being your father. I know now that the word dissertation is a part of your vocabulary, and your songs about Xicanx Studies fill my heart with pride, Xicano pride. May you and your generation continue to find worth, value, meaning, and beauty in your people’s everyday acts of creative expression, resistance, and survival. To my familia: my mother and father, my siblings and sobrinxs, my tixs and primxs, and above all else my Grandma Dora. Whether obvious or not, your influences and experiences run through each and every sentence I have written. Mom and Dad, I thank you especially for all the love and care you afforded me as I pursued my doctorate. These words would not be here were it not for conversations with my Grandma Dora, and I only wish that I could share them with you. Laura E. Pérez, David Montejano, and Paola Bacchetta comprised my committee. I thank the three of you for your critiques and consejos, your detailed readings and piercing preguntas, and especially your patience in helping me complete this. Laura, I am happy to consider you a mentor and friend. From my first graduate seminar at Berkeley on you have been witness as my dissertation took shape. Your comments on my drafts (and especially your advice to cut mercilessly) helped me to surmount some difficult hurdles and bring this work into focus. You have continually guided me throughout this process, and challenged me as I needed it, and I am a better scholar for all of this. David, your groundbreaking history of Texas enabled me to locate the lived experiences of my maternal side and sparked a lifetime’s worth of questions at family gatherings. Without those stories I would have been unable to write this dissertation. I will forever treasure your feedback and insight, and look forward to more conversations about San Antonio’s past. Paola, your unparalleled example of activist scholarship and fearlessness is a well of continual inspiration in my own intellectual endeavors. I appreciate all your openness, warmth, and assistance throughout the preceding years. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To my friends and fellow travelers at UC Berkeley, especially Joshua Troncoso, Annie Fukushima, Alma Granado, and Juan Herrera. Josh, you were an early sounding board as I began to develop this project, and remained one of my closest friends through my writing. Here’s to better times. iii Annie, I am glad to see our friendship continue throughout the years and all of life’s ups and downs. You are the radical activist sister I never had. The doors of our home are always open for you and yours. Alma, I know I can ask you anything and you’ll give me an honest and insightful response, without mincing words. It is this openness that I value, even more than our conversations over pizza and beer. I look forward to the next time our paths cross. Before either of us had decided upon attending Berkeley Juan and I made a pact that we would finish graduate school. I am glad to finally complete my part of the deal. Thank you, Juan, for your motivation and accountability over these years. I want to also express my gratitude to Gabriela Erandi Spears-Rico Jennifer Reimer, Wanda Alarcón, Roberto Reyes, Marisol Silva, Marcelle Maese-Cohen, and the Xicanx Cultural Studies Working Group for keeping me grounded during my time at Berkeley. Collectively, I think I’ve texted and talked to all of you enough to fill a small library. I hope that our conversations in the years to come fill several more tomes. Know that I am continually inspired and in awe of your brilliance. At UC Berkeley, Jahleezah Eskew and Francisca Cázares were indispensable in helping me navigate graduate school, while Raúl Coronado and Latonya Minor assisted with my return and ensured that I would be able to file. I appreciate all of your help. Ray Telles and Pedro Di Pietro demonstrate a pedagogy of compassion and critical consciousness in all that they do. It was my greatest pleasure to work with you during my last year as a graduate assistant, and I continually challenge myself in living up to the example both of you set in the classroom. Thank you. I was fortunate to take a series of seminars with Alfred Arteaga during my time at UC Berkeley and so valued his insights into life and the secrets of the universe, his comments on my creative writing, and his no-nonsense attitude even as he faced the limits of his own mortality. This dissertation is all the better for having known him. My time at the University of Texas at San Antonio prepared me for further graduate study, and it is a credit to the Bilingual-Bicultural Studies Department that I joined so many others in pursuing a Ph.D. I especially wish to recognize Josephine Méndez Negrete, Marie “Keta” Miranda, Ben Olguín, Armando Trujillo, Arturo Vega, Louis Mendoza, Yolanda Leyva, Marcos Cervantes, and Liliana Saldaña. Josie, your encouragement allowed me to see myself as professor-material, and without it I would have never taken such giant, life-changing steps. Thank you. Nora Salas, Ernesto Todd Mireles, Alexandro D. “El Tejarocho” Hernández Gutiérrez, Gloria Vaquera, Susana Segura, Roberto Macias, Patricia Portales, Luis Alonzo, Colin Gunckel, Dan Margolies, Wilson Valentín, Nancy Mirabal, Abel Martinez, Jorge Burwick, Nicole Marsh, and Sean Thomas; you are my friends far and near who have seen me through the various stages of this project. Mil gracias and then some for your kinship and kindness, your comments and critiques, and especially for being a part of my life through the years. Here’s to many more. I am grateful for the many maestros del acordeón I have encountered, especially those who tried teaching me how to play the accordion in the style of music I love so much. I might have been a terrible student but I learned so much more beyond playing an instrument from all of you. Santiago Jiménez, Jr., Bene Medina, José “Dr. Loco” Cuellar, and the late Jesús “Chucho” Perales, all took time to give me lessons on my squeezebox. Gente at The Conjunto Heritage Taller, especially Rodolfo S.