City of Brownsville resolution to recognize conjunto music
Aug. 15—Only have a minute? Listen instead
BROWNSVILLE — City Commissioner Roy De Los Santos will introduce a resolution at the Brownsville City Commission's Tuesday, Aug. 15, meeting to recognize the South Texas Conjunto Association for 25 years of advocacy on behalf of conjunto music.
Lupe Saenz Jr. established STCA in 1998 as a 501c3 nonprofit organization to "preserve, educate, entertain and promote our unique Mexican American Cultural Conjunto Music," information provided by the association states.
The first Conjunto of the Year Awards took place in 1999 in Mercedes and subsequently in Brownsville in 2000 and 2001.
"The association was primarily created because little or no conjunto music was being played on the radio in the Rio Grande Valley. Leading Spanish radio stations were switching almost completely to Mexican norteño music formats, so the STCA was organized to help the area conjuntos and musicians to collectively demand radio stations to play our conjunto music," the information states.
In 1999, with help from the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville and Monsignor Pedro Briseño, STCA started a weekly weekend radio program and in 2010, a television show titled "Acordeones de Tejas" in partnership with KMBH-Harlingen, then the Valley's PBS station.
KRGV TV-Harlingen continues to broadcast the original Acordeones de Tejas TV show on Sundays as part of Somos El Valle programming, while Saenz has expanded his two-hour live internet weekend radio show to KEDA Radio in San Antonio and its affiliate station in Dallas.
In 2019, three additional STCA chapters were established in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and Laredo. Houston comes onboard in 2024, according to information released as part of De Los Santos' resolution.
