First of all nobody really knows what Tejano is today............When there were groups like the Beto Villas, Isidro Lopez, Colorin Colorado, Mike Ornelas, etc. etc. they were called la orquesta de..........Tejano was not used to describe these bands unless maybe they happened to be in another state.
By the 1960s Sunny and Little Joe changed the landscape and Zarape records from dallas took over alongside sunny's Keyloc Records and every thing changed because these two bands alongside El conjunto Bernal were setting trends and the word Tejano Music caught on like wildfire all over the country
So now Tejano was in and the music, our apparel, the way we spoke, how we carried ourselves made us unique and Tejanos to the max.........Remember it was the Isidro Lopez, and Beto Villas, and Balde Gonzales that set the standard for Lil Joe and Sunny and Alfonso Ramos and Agustin ramirez in the 60s.... Tejanos to the max
Come the 70s and La Familia, the Sunliners, Royal Jesters, Los Fabulosos Cuatro,The mexican Revolution.....Tortilla Factory, Latin Breed, etc. etc. and the feel and the look and the bands were still completly Tejano......Our Music and our Persona identified us.
Today the word Tejano is more exposed than ever because of the Majors coming in when they did and doing their GREAT EXPLOITATION of the artists and the Genre itself............there were som artists that cashed in on the moment getting anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 to sign which many did.
So, Today the word Tejano is out there but what really defines it as far as the Music, musicians, the style, direction, ?????????
What is really Tejano???? surely our recordings, our singers, our bands, our styles, define who we truly are and have been........recordings don't lie. I have heard people say the word Tejano is no longer COOL........Why? whatever brought the genre to such a low status?
I have now been in this business 51 years and I'm still learning, Innovating, and implementing.I know a lot of coconuts that are still embarrased to admit they are latinos........That's how ridiculous a lot of People sound when they said being Tejano is not cool..........
I happen to be one of the originals from this genre and have personally lent a hand in it's development and it's cultivation since my first night on the bandstand with Beto Hernandez & his Orquesta in San Angelo Texas at The Melody Club back in 1958.
I took a personal love for the music and it's endless possibilities. Today 51 years later I am still heavily involved and together with our writers, arrangers, composers, producers, singers, and Staff at Tortilla Records have come up with a sound that is ours alone..........it is unique and we also continue to be original ..........in that we create what we hear and we know it is ours and ours alone............
I look around and see what interacting in La Onda has become and it is sad in ways because there is so much backstabbing, and flaky and phony people, Jealousy runs rampant in la onda and it saddens me becuase I grew up with my my beloved Genre.......I will take all the negatives and turn them into positives with our new American World Music/Urban Tejano....................We are Tortilla Factory..........Confident, Secure, and Positive..
And we are the REAL THING..........WE DEFINE THE MEANING "TEJANO" People have adamantly argued with me before that Tejano Music is not marketable outside it's boundaries..........I have always argued otherwise and will now give it our best shot to the world market.
The people at PBS don't really know what a Tejano is because they didn't do their home-work.
Tony Ham Guerrero/Tejano
