San Antonio Current — December 1, 2021

DEC. 1 - DEC. 14, 2021

Clowning with Louie Gohmert | Artpace's winter surprises Having it all with Jerk Shack's Nicola Blaque

Tejano

Loveletter

Remembering Chulas Fronteras, the San Antonio-shot documentary that introduced the rest of the world to conjunto music

YELP ONWARD TABULA RASA

HERE’S TO NIKI T, WHO GOT THE LIGHTEST OF HIGHLIGHTS SO WE MAY ROCK OUR HOLIDAY ‘DO

DISCOVER THE PERFECT HAIR SALON

Thank you to our Press Club members

for keeping independent local journalism alive!

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Join the San Antonio Press Club at sacurrent.com/sanantonio/SupportLocalJournalism today. sacurrent.com | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

OPEN DAILY 418 Villita St. LaVillitaSanAntonio.com

in this issue San Antonio Current

Issue 21-24 /// December 1 – December 14, 2021

Editor-in-Chief: Sanford Nowlin General Manager: Chelsea Bourque

Editorial

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Chris Strachwitz / Arhoolie Foundation

22 Feature

Tejano Loveletter

Remembering Chulas Fronteras, the San Antonio-shot documentary that introduced the rest of the world to conjunto music

09 News

The Opener News in Brief

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Current Events

Make Room, Make Room!

12 Calendar Calendar Picks

17 Arts

Folk saints, scarecrows and sea monsters (And other reasons to visit Artpace this winter)

19 Screens

Agent Provocateur

Zeros and Ones writerdirector Abel Ferrara discusses storytelling, making a film during pandemic

DEC. 1 - DEC. 14, 2021

Clowning with Louie Gohmert | Artpace's winter surprises

20 Food

Having it all with Jerk Shack's Nicola Blaque

Having It All

Tejano

The chef-owner of Jerk Shack and Mi Roti balances growing her business and her family

Loveletter

Remembering Chulas Fronteras, the San Antonio-shot documentary that introduced the rest of the world to conjunto music

Hot Dish

22 Music Music Listings

O

n the Cover: A still from the 1976 documentary Chulas Fronteras shows singer Lydia Mendoza. Photo: Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation. Cover design: Samantha Serna.

San Antonio PRF BFH Bld.pdf

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11/15/21

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sacurrent.com | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | CURRENT

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CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

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Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign is running an ad feauring remarks from Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke that were deceptively edited to make it sound like the former Democratic congressman said he wants to abolish police departments, according to a CNN analysis. The ad first appeared online in October.

H

Texans may not be united on much politically, but they are clear on at least one point: they want legal marijuana. A survey from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University earlier this month found that two in three support legalization of recreational weed.

Democrats and Independents are the most supportive of legalization, but a slim majority of Republicans support it as well.

H

The state’s power grid continues to be vulnerable to blackouts during extreme winter weather, according to a new analysis from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ERCOT found that a combination of cold weather and high heat demand could trigger blackouts like those experienced last February in which hundreds of Texans lost their lives. An ERCOT spokesperson said the agency has made improvements in preparation for the coming winter.

The nonprofit women’s collective Impact San Antonio has awarded the Carver Community Cultural Center a $100,000 grant to fund a mobile arts lab. The grant will allow the organization to take its arts programming beyond the walls of its East Side location. The Carver will equip a van with art supplies, a mobile stage, A/V equipment, a generator and other tools.

— Abe Asher

YOU SAID IT!

“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying.”

— Anthony Fauci,

White House Chief Medical Advisor commenting on attacks by Sen. Ted Cruz and other Republican lawmakers to CBS News.

news

That Rocks/That Sucks

U.S. House Creative Committee

ASSCLOWN ALERT

Conspiring with Ronny Jackson Assclown Alert is a column of opinion, analysis and snark.

Even though he’s a medical doctor, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, wasted no time in ginning up a conspiracy theory about the new Omicron coronavirus variant.

In a tweet Sunday, the first-term MAGA lawmaker claimed the mutation discovered

by South African doctors was a Democratic plot to steal the 2022 election. “Here comes the MEV — the Midterm Election Variant!” Jackson tweeted. “They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots. Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election — but

we’re not going to let them!”

One would assume Jackson, the White House physician for Barack Obama and Donald Trump, knows this is bullshit from a medical standpoint. But it’s also laughable for other reasons.

If there’s a conspiracy to fabricate a new variant that will disrupt U.S. elections, why have it originate on another continent? Wouldn’t it be scarier if it started here? For that matter, why discover it a year out from the midterms instead of weeks before? And wouldn’t the spread of a new variant be bad news for the party currently holding the White House?

Despite the profound illogic of his tweet, Jackson has already uncorked a conspiracy theory that will make it harder for public health officials to convince the vaccine resistant to roll up their sleeves as a new variant inevitably makes it to U.S. shores.

And this guy calls himself a doctor? No thanks. We’ll call him a fucking assclown. — Sanford Nowlin

After months of will-he-or-won’t-he speculation, it’s official: Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey is not running for governor of Texas. In a video posted on his Twitter account last Sunday, the Austin resident said it was “humbling and inspiring” to consider a run for office. “It is also a path that I’m choosing not to take at this moment,” he added.

Matt Hagee, senior pastor at San Antonio’s Cornerstone Church, has apologized for hosting a far-right rally that made national headlines when one of its featured speakers, former Trump administration official Michael Flynn, told the audience that the United States should adopt “one religion.” Even though he spoke from the stage to introduce the rally, Hagee said the group wasn’t properly vetted and didn’t represent the church’s views. — Abe Asher Twitter Screen Capture / Brian Kaylor

Find more news coverage every day at sacurrent.com

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The study measures the changes that occur during and after exercise. This will help researchers learn how exercise improves health.

We are looking for volunteers who: · Are 18 years of age or older. · Exercise 1 time a week or less. · Have no history of diabetes or heart disease. · Would like to have an opportunity to exercise with a personal trainer for 12 weeks and have study-related health exams at UT Health San Antonio.

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CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

news CURRENT EVENTS

Make Room, Make Room!

Louie Gohmert jumps into the clown car that is the GOP primary for Texas Attorney General

BY SANFORD NOWLIN Editor’s note: The following is Current Events, a column of opinion and analysis.

S

omeone free up a seat in the ahooga-ing, exhaust-farting clown car for U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert.

The Tyler Republican, known more for his bizarre and inflammatory rhetoric than his legislative record, earlier this month announced that he’ll challenge incumbent Ken Paxton in the already crowded GOP primary for Texas Attorney General.

Even the stop-start-WTF style in which Gohmert made his announcement was par for the course for one of Congress’ fringiest-of-the-fringe lawmakers.

Gohmert threw his hat into the ring Monday, Nov. 22 on appropriately far-right cable network Newsmax. Originally, the congressman said he’d announce his decision Friday on a Dallas conservative radio talk show, but never one to bend to the rule makers, he didn’t call in as scheduled.

It’s unclear exactly how Gohmert plans to set himself apart from Paxton, who’s already used the office to score plenty of points with the MAGA crowd.

During the Newsmax interview, the congressman mentioned “election integrity” and the U.S.-Mexico border as two issues driving his campaign.

Never mind that Paxton has already doubled down on GOP falsehoods that widespread fraud riddles the election system and that the current AG has been a steadfast ally with Gov. Greg Abbott as he engages in a pissing match with the Biden administration over who enforces immigration controls.

“When the federal government will not protect the border, the state can take action itself,” Gohmert told Newsmax in what sounded like rhetoric straight from Abbott’s mouth.

Whatever the case, Gohmert enters the race as another far-right candidate, State Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, leaps out of the sputtering car to instead run for Tarrant County district attorney.

Krause, you may recall, made recent news by using his position as a House committee chair to launch a Bozo-worthy probe into “objectionable” books in Texas public schools that address LGBTQ+ and racial justice themes.

That now leaves Gohmert in a primary field with Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, the latter of

Flickr Creative Commons / Gage Skidmore

whom has yet to attract enough media attention to fully show off her Emmett Kelly greasepaint.

However, Bush — a member of one of the state’s most powerful political dynasties — has already kicked a deep dent in his political brand by repeatedly kowtowing to former President Donald Trump — you know, the same guy who’d repeatedly insulted the Bush family — in what turned out to be a naive and failed bid to win his endorsement. Cue sad trombone and dropped trousers.

Gohmert has also worked overtime to establish himself as a steadfast Trump ally. Among his stunts under the Washington big top: denying that the Jan. 6 insurrection was carried out by supporters of the former president. Hell, according to a Rolling Stone investigation, Gohmert even met with organizers of the rally that ultimately spilled over into the Capitol attack.

Despite all that overtime groveling, Trump has given his endorsement to Paxton, whose two terms in the attorney general’s office have left him armed with a squirting lapel pin, a honking red nose and a rickety suitcase of gags, tricks and polka-dot undies that can explode open on cue.

After all, Paxton is running for reelection against the baggage of a felony securities fraud indictment that his attorneys have managed to drag out in court for five years, a reported FBI probe and allegations by former top aides that he abused his office and took bribes.

Welcome to the clown car, Louie. Make sure you don’t slam one of your giant-ass shoes in the door behind you.

And don’t choke on the exhaust and the rhetoric emanating from inside — both are toxic. sacurrent.com | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | CURRENT

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FRI | 12.03 SUN | 12.05

least on the periphery of TV almost constantly, including as a talk show host and an NFL commentator. A recent announcement confirmed he’ll have yet another a new series Lopez vs. Lopez, this one helmed by the producer of The Conners. Lopez also made the jump to the big screen

TH EATER

through roles in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua series and The Adventures of

BLOOD & HOLLY

Shark Girl and Lava Boy 3-D. But, at the end of the day, Lopez’s essence

Actor, playwright and humorist Jaston Williams is bringing his holi-

is comedy, and the fact that extra shows had to be added to accommo-

day-inspired, one-man show to San Antonio audiences for a series of

date demand for his upcoming San Antonio appearance is a testament

performances in early December. Best known for writing the quartet

to his enduring appeal. After being raised by his grandparents, he

of Greater Tuna plays, Williams describes his childhood Christmases

started performing standup in the late ’90s, partly drawing on his experiences growing up Latino. Once he became a circuit regular, he was approached by Sandra Bullock about TV, which led to his eponymous series. The rest is, as they say, history. $40.50-$245, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St., (210) 226-3333, majesticempire.com.

— Mike McMahan

Twitter / spurs

tandem of Julius Randle and Kemba Walker. Randle elevated his game

FRI | 12.03 SAT | 12.04 SPECIAL EVEN TS

27TH ANNUAL MARIACHI VARGAS EXTRAVAGANZA

last season, leading the Knicks to a playoff appearance for the first time since 2013, while earning Most Improved Player and All-NBA Second Team honors along the way. With career highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals, point guard Dejounte Murray has taken a similar leap in his sixth season with the Spurs, positing his name in the Most Improved Player conversation. Just last month, Murray secured the sixth triple double of his career and his second this season against the Lakers. Murray’s playmaking was on full display in Los Angeles, and

As the largest and longest-running mariachi festival in Texas, the

he finished the night with 22 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and three

annual Mariachi Vargas Extravaganza’s mission is to preserve and

steals, even though the Spurs ended up with a 106-114 loss. Murray’s

promote mariachi history, culture and tradition through exception-

floor leadership and tone-setting defense will continue to prove critical

as a “warped hybrid of Toyland and Franco’s Spain.” The idea of fascist

al performances, workshops and competitions. When it comes to

for the young Spurs as the losses mount. $10-$820, 7:30 p.m., AT&T

nutcrackers is disturbing enough, so if you’re hoping for more plum

mariachi music, it’s hard to think of a more storied ambassador than

Center, One AT&T Center, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com, Bally Sports

pudding and less prickly parody, Blood & Holly probably isn’t your kind

the world-renowned, Mexico City-based Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán.

Southwest. — M. Solis

Courtesy Photo / Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

of gingerbread cookie. Whatever Williams has in store, he’s overjoyed

TUE | 12.07 SUN | 12.12

that he’s back in person after months off because of the pandemic. “You can tell that audiences are hungry for it,” Williams said during a recent interview with Houston Film Fanatics. “We really need to laugh, and Christmas just begs to be mocked. Christmas just asks for it.” Williams says the scariest part of the holiday season is that people get together

THEATER

“for no other reason than they have to.” If you’ve seen Williams’ A Tuna Christmas, you know the kind of satire you’re in for. $34.50-$44.50, 7:30

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, Tobin Center for the Perform-

A theatrical rendering of the classic Roald Dahl children’s book is

ing Arts, 100 Auditorium Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — Kiko

the next traveling Broadway show to come to San Antonio’s Majestic

Martinez

Theatre this season. The production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — a winner of two Laurence Olivier Awards for Best Costume Design

FRI | 12.03 SAT | 12.04

and Best Lighting Design — comes alive with mad candy creator Willy Wonka, the Oompa Loompas and the Great Glass Elevator. Satisfy your sweet tooth and indulge in this fantasy world with songs from the origCourtesy Photo / Mariachi Vargas Extavaganza

COMEDY

inal film, including “Pure Imagination,” “The Candy Man” and “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket,” along with a dazzling new score from the songwriters

Founded in 1898 and spanning six generations, Mariachi Vargas is one

behind Hairspray. $45-$130, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2

of the world’s leading educators on the art form. The group’s San Anto-

p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Theatre, 224

Not just a stalwart on the comedy scene, George Lopez has been an icon

nio extravaganza culminates with a concert Saturday night, but there

E. Houston St., majesticempire.com. — Yukiko Yamazaki

in the Latinx community for two decades. He is arguably best known

are plenty of events taking place during the entire weekend, including

for his accurately named sitcom, George Lopez, but he’s also been at

student workshops and vocal, mariachi and songwriting competitions.

GEORGE LOPEZ

The event attracts more than 1,000 mariachi students from across the country, and it’s the only one judged by Mariachi Vargas themselves.

“It’s a huge honor to perform in front of members of Mariachi Vargas and have the opportunity to open for the group in concert as winners,” said Eloy Garza, director of six-time champion Mariachi Nuevo Santander from Roma High School in Roma, Texas. $46-$206, various times Friday and Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Saturday (main concert), Lila Cockrell Theatre, 200 E Market St., (210) 207-8500, mariachimusic.com. — KM

TUE | 12.07 SPORTS

SPURS VS. KNICKS The San Antonio Spurs open a five-game homestand at the AT&T Courtesy Photo / Majestic Theatre

12

CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

Center on Tuesday night against the New York Knicks and their All-Star

Courtesy Photo / Broadway in San Antonio

calendar

Alexander Devora Photography

FRI | 12.10 FRI | 12.11 DANCE

THE NUTCRACKER

The Children’s Ballet of San Antonio is back with its annual production of The Nutcracker — this time with an immersive twist. Combining multiple holiday traditions into one, this year’s performances at the Lila Cockrell Theatre will also feature a holiday market, “magical makeovers,” photos with Santa and the Nutcracker cast, among more family-friendly diversions. To make Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet accessible even to the “tiniest attendees,” the performance has been condensed to an hour-and-a-half runtime. The pre-show market will include dress-up items as well as hair stylists and makeup artists on hand to transform little ones into “regal royals for a glittering good time.” The holiday market and photos with Santa will open one hour prior to each performance. $40-$50, 7 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, Lila Cockrell Theatre, 200 E. Market St., (210) 462-7660, childrensballetofsanantonio.org. — Kelly Merka Nelson

FRI | 12.10

boot. Die Hard was released in 1988, right at the height of

writing his new story, Dickens is forced to confront his own

leading man Bruce Willis’s career. Dealing a blow to the

unfavorable feelings toward his father and the fact that he’s

whole “It’s a Christmas movie” perspective, the film was

allowing his work to interfere with his family life. The film

originally released in July, placing it squarely in summer

also stars Academy Award nominee Jonathan Pryce (The Two

popcorn-movie territory. The film was reportedly pitched

Popes) as Dickens’ father and Donald Sumpter (The Girl with

If you’re on social media, you’ve seen the “It’s not Christmas

as “Rambo in an office building,” though it’s since grown in

the Dragon Tattoo) as Jacob Marley. The Man Who Invented

until I see Hans Gruber fall from Nakatomi Tower” meme.

stature, with critics pointing to the relative vulnerability

Christmas was nominated for Best International Film at the

The good news is that big day can become official with 15

of Willis’ character, John McClane. The movie also stars the

2018 Saturn Awards. Free, 7 p.m., Will Naylor Smith River Walk

days to spare! Yes, your favorite “Is it a Christmas movie

sorely missed Alan Rickman, in full mustache-twirling mode

Plaza, Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, 100 Auditorium

or not?” classic is here, and on the big (outdoor) screen to

as villain Gruber. Die Hard has since spawned four sequels,

Circle, (210) 223-8624, tobincenter.org. — KM

FI LM

DIE HARD

though none of them matched the staying power of the original. Yippy ki-yay, mofos. Free, 7:30 p.m., Peacock Alley, 110 Broadway, (210) 225-3862, centrosanantonio.org. — MM

FRI | 12.10 FILM

THE MAN WHO INVENTED CHRISTMAS Instead of another version of British novelist Charles Dickens’ timeless holiday tale A Christmas Carol, this 2017 biographical dramedy tells the story of how Dickens came up with the idea for his 1843 novella. The movie, which is

Reminder:

directed by British-Indian filmmaker Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) and penned by Canadian writer Susan Coyne (Mozart in the Jungle), is adapted from author Les Standiford’s 2008 book of the same name. In the film, Dickens (Dan Stevens), four years removed from the success of Oliver Twist, is in perilous financial straits. He looks for inspiration for his new book among the people around London, including a curmudgeon named Ebenezer Scrooge Twentieth Century Fox

(late Academy Award winner Christopher Plummer). While

Bleecker Street Media

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

DEC 2 DEC 5

DEC 9 DEC 11

DEC 12

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SUN | 12.12

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SPORTS

SPURS VS. PELICANS

It’s been a tough start for first-year head coach Willie Green and the New Orleans Pelicans. With the departure of Lonzo Ball to the Chicago Bulls via free agency and no timetable for the return of franchise cornerstone Zion Williamson from injury, the Pelicans have struggled and own one of the worst records in the league. The Spurs are no strangers to obstacles this season, missing starting center Jakob Poeltl to health and safety protocols for six contests and counting. As a rough four-game West Coast swing looms on the horizon, consistency remains key for the Spurs at home and on the road. Coach Gregg Popovich alluded to the team’s lack of effort after a recent loss to the Dallas Mavericks. “To me, it’s a mental toughness exercise where you just have to realize that everybody has to bring it every single night,” Popovich told reporters. “You can’t get satisfied because you won a game, and the next game is going to be the same way. You have to bring it.” $12-$751, 6 p.m., AT&T Center, One AT&T Center, (210) 444-5000, attcenter.com, Bally Sports Southwest. — MS

Holiday Market DECEMBER 5, 2021 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM FREE ENTRY INTO THE MARKET SHOP 30 LOCAL MERCHANTS FOR A UNIQUE HOLIDAY SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

MON | 12.13

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COMEDY

MICK FOLEY

Let’s face it. Mick Foley seems like a helluva nice guy. If there were doubts, his heartbreaking appearance in the 1999 behind-the-scenes-pro wrestling doc Beyond the Mat crushed them, piledriver-style. In those days he was a championship wrestler known as Mankind, but those days are behind him. But the memories linger, as do pains from his old injuries, most likely. And now Foley is — checks notes — making the rounds with a spoken-word show. At first, this might seem like an odd career move, but it’s not too far off given the performative elements of his former gig. One critic even provided an awesome summation of Foley’s skill at the mic: “If you’re interested at all in wrestling, you’ll love it; if you’re not, you’ll like it.”

Though the show is reported to focus on his wrestling days, Foley has a wealth of experiences to pull from if he chooses. No stranger to the word game, his 1999 book Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks was a New York Times Bestseller. And he’s continued to write, publishing his fifth book Saint Mick in 2017. Fitting that jack-of-all-trades vibe, Foley has appeared on numerous TV shows, from Squidbillies to Boy Meets World to Family Feud. $50-$300, 7:30 p.m., Laugh Out Loud Comedy Club, 618 NW Loop 410, (210) 541-8805, improvtx.com/sanantonio. — MM

3801 BROADWAY | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS 78209 sacurrent.com | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | CURRENT

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arts

Folk saints, scarecrows and sea monsters (And other reasons to visit Artpace this winter)

BY BRYAN RINDFUSS

F

amously likened by late founder Linda Pace to a “laboratory of dreams,” the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence program encourarchive to life in sculptures reinterpreting the ages participants to take creative risks. aerodynamic female figures that adorn the Although a guest curator assembles each hoods of Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces. While trio of artists who participate in the program Hoen’s reimagined chrome goddesses make purposefully — one from Texas, one from an appearance at Artpace, they play a supelsewhere in the U.S. and one from abroad porting role to “body-sized” sculptures that — common ground is never a given. That humanize everyday objects — a banister, a unpredictability only adds to the suspense table and a school desk — with large wooden that builds before a trio of openings, and it braids resembling ponytails. makes the conversations between creators During the walkthrough of her “Folding, and creations even more compelling.

Floating, Falling,” Hoehn likened the braids Organized by guest curator Natalie Bell to appendages or armor that might protect of MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, the fall 2021 her hybrid, furniture-like forms. edition unites Dan Herschlein (Brooklyn), “A lot of the work that I’ve done almost Shana Hoehn (Texarkana) and Naufus unconsciously ends up feeling a little bit Ramírez-Figueroa (Guatemala City). During like a sea creature … or a sea a recent media preview, Artmonster,” she said, addresspace Director Riley Robinson Fall 2021 ing a nautilus-shaped object applauded Bell for her strong International enhanced with two long support of makers. While it’s Artist-in-Residence braids. true that the three artists Bell Exhibitions invited are deft fabricators, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, their methods and intentions ‘Plane and Sane’ noon-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday are wildly different.

“All three artists impressed While Hoehn conjures Artpace, 445 N. Main Ave., me with the ways they interhaunted furniture and (210) 212-4900, artpace.org. pret and transform what is humanoids from the deep, often commonplace imagery Herschlein takes things into in the cultures around them,” Bell told the darker territory in the adjoining gallery.

Current via email. “For Dan, it’s a look at the An avid horror fan whose artistic practice eerie paradoxes of the home as a physical includes sculpture, drawing and carpentry, and psychic space; for Shana, it’s looking at Herschlein has developed a visual vocabulary gendered bodily contortions like the arched populated by headless figures, dismembered back and the sexualization of women in hood body parts and other oddities befitting the set ornaments, shipheads, and other decals; and of a David Cronenberg film. for Naufus, it’s looking at where indigenous An exploration of the tension between light and colonial history collide and thinking and dark, his exhibition “Plane and Sane” is about how icons (like Roman Catholic saints) anchored by The Rough Patch — a foreshortcan come to embody anti-colonial histories.” ened, house-like structure that gallery-goers can pass through. From the front, the facade is intensely dark with swarms of creepy ’Folding, Floating, Falling’ “finger flies” buzzing in the illuminated windows.

A multimedia artist who works between From the back, a strategic paint job gives sculpture, video and “photo-adjacent prothe illusion of headlights approaching from cesses,” Hoehn collaborates with curator behind. Even with daylight streaming in Ruslana Lichtzier on an archive compiling through the gallery windows, there’s an unimages of women throughout the ages with settling vibe that intensifies once you realize a particular emphasis on one gesture: the somebody is “home” — a headless, scarecrow arched back. For her 2019 solo exhibition extracting little sacks from his body and ar“Hauntings,” Hoehn brought aspects of that

Bryan Rindfuss

From left: Artpace’s current exhibitions showcase works by resident artists Dan Herschlein, Shana Hoehn and Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa.

M

ranging them on shelves with assistance from disembodied hands. During the preview, Herschlein explained that the piece explores the “idea of accumulation and scarcity,” but that it’s intended to offer “an ambiguous experience.”

‘Cecília Rebelde’ A widely exhibited artist whose work involves performance, painting, sculpture, and sound, Ramírez-Figueroa investigates varied themes tied to historical narratives, cultural resistance and the Guatemalan Civil War. Exemplifying his curious sense of humor, his 2010 piece A Brief History of Architecture in Guatemala entailed performers dressed as a Mayan pyramid, a colonial church and the National Bank of Guatemala dancing until their crafty costumes fell apart.

For his Artpace residency, Ramírez-Figueroa investigated the Totonicapán Uprising of 1820, during which the indigenous K’iche’ mobilized against the Spanish Empire. The popular legend that K’iche’ leader Atanasio Tzul “borrowed” the crowns of St. Joseph and St. Cecilia from a church — declaring himself king and his wife queen — forms the thematic backbone of his exhibition “Cecília Rebelde.” Referencing geometric patterns used by tailors and dressmakers, the artist suggests saintly attire in five masterful paintings on carved wooden panels.

“I was interested in how clothing patterns in themselves are very interesting, abstract things to look at,” Ramírez-Figueroa said during the preview. Accompanied by three small sculptures and a sound piece, the paintings are suspended from the ceiling in an arced configuration that quietly evokes stained glass windows in an implied chapel.

Find more arts coverage every day at sacurrent.com

18

CURRENT | December 1 - December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

Zeros and Ones writerdirector Abel Ferrara discusses storytelling, making a film during pandemic

BY KIKO MARTINEZ

T

here’s not much middle ground when processing the kind of dark arthouse films Abel Ferrara writes and directs.

Even after five decades, Ferrara’s approach to filmmaking remains equal parts provocative and polarizing. From his grimy 1992 crime drama Bad Lieutenant starring Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel to his six collaborations with Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe, including the 2019 fantasy Siberia, Ferrara’s contributions to the film industry are, if anything, ambitious.

The same can be said about his latest movie Zeros and Ones. The action-drama stars Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke (Boyhood) as an American soldier stationed in Rome who’s thrust into the center of a terror plot to destroy the Vatican.

During a recent interview with the Current, Ferrara talked about choosing the holy city as the film’s prime target, making a movie during the pandemic and how his relationship with storytelling has changed over his career.

Zeros and Ones is currently available on VOD platforms and on Blu-ray and DVD January 4, 2022.

A lot of movies centered on terrorism focus on a specific landmark or event like the White House or the Super Bowl. Why did you choose the Vatican for this film?

You’re talking about a battle of East and West — Christianity and not-Christianity. Like the World Trade Center, the Vatican is an icon of the West — the religion of the West.

How did your own thoughts on religion play a role in crafting this story?

Right now, I practice Buddhism. My Buddhism brings me closer to Jesus in reality.

You make a film in Rome about the Vatican … you’re making a film about the Catholic religion. It all goes hand in hand.

Many artists have been inspired to make art during the pandemic, but there were just as many who weren’t. Where did you find the fortitude to make films over the past two years?

It’s in my nature. This is what I do. I’m not

screens

Agent Provocateur

Aude Guerrucci

going to get depressed by it. What are you going to do, take a “Why me” approach?

Why me? Why not me? Why the pandemic?

Why not the pandemic? Who wrote the book where everyone is entitled to a happy ending or middle or beginning? The world has been turned inside out from the beginning of mankind. One hundred years ago, the same thing happened. It’s what is. Shit happens, bro. You can’t let it throw you off. You have to accept it and understand it. It isn’t anything against you. It’s life on life’s terms.

You don’t mention COVID-19 in the film. Did you make that decision so you don’t age it?

No, it’s a war movie with its own ground rules. We’re talking more about World War I poison warfare. It’s the pandemic as an element of war — as another tool of destruction.

We don’t mention a specific thing because they don’t know what it is. They’re just being prepared for something. They don’t know what is out there. This is like St. Petersburg in World War II. They’re under siege. There’s that vibe. The enemy is coming. Where and when is the question.

You’ve been making movies for 50 years now. Over that time, how has your relationship with storytelling changed?

Hopefully, I’m learning something as I’m going along. Story is a strange word. A film is 90

minutes of images and sound. You walk away with a feeling and an understanding and a concept. What is a story anyway?

What led you to cast Ethan Hawke?

I like everything about him. I like the films he does and what he does in them. I like him as a person. We’ve been trying to do something together. It just came together.

How do you ultimately decide what your next project is going to be?

It’s about what I can learn. It’s about my growth as a person and us together as a group. I’m looking for something that can take me somewhere that can enrich me as a person on every level. I don’t have to understand it. I don’t have to know how it’s going to end. I don’t even care if it has an ending.

It just has to lead me to a better place all around. I don’t have to be challenged as a filmmaker. I just want a place where we can do our best work.

Are there any filmmakers today that excite you with the work they’re making?

I wouldn’t want to say one name. I go to a lot of festivals where I meet a lot of filmmakers.

I love the movies, [but] when you’re in an editing room and on a set all day long, I don’t watch so many. I’ve got my own problems.

Find more film stories at sacurrent.com

Courtesy Photo / The Jerk Shack

Having It All

The chef-owner of Jerk Shack and Mi Roti balances growing her business and her family

BY NINA RANGEL

T

Find more food & drink news at sacurrent.com

he Alamo City’s post-pandemic culinary landscape may be in constant flux, but this much is certain: Caribbean food has arrived in San Antonio, and it’s not going anywhere.

Perhaps more than any other restaurateur, Nicola Blaque — chef-owner of Jerk Shack and Mi Roti — has helped create that foothold.

With the support of her husband Cornelius Massey and executive chef Lionel “Butch” Blache, Blaque has broadened local culinary horizons with bold flavors and island culinary traditions.

It’s no mean feat that she and her crew helped create a Caribbean craving amid the pandemic. The crisis brought on numerous local restaurant closures — including one of her own. The flagship West Side location of Blaque’s award-winning Jerk Shack permanently closed in September, a move she said was unavoidable.

“I just don’t think that area is ready for a business like mine,” the Jamaica-born chef told the Current. “We were doing food that no one does over there, so we struggled with our pricing. We put a lot of effort into our food, and our spices cost a lot. And it required a lot of labor. I needed to charge a certain price point, but in that area, I just couldn’t do it.”

Blaque said slow dinner traffic also influenced her decision. The spot, located at 117 Matyear St., did gangbusters on Friday and Saturday and had a solid lunch crowd, but it got little business on weekday evenings.

As part of the closure, Blaque is transferring the Jerk Shack concept to a new location in far Northwest San Antonio near SeaWor-

ld. However, opening it has been an uphill battle. Pandemic-related construction delays pushed the opening back by several months, and she now expects it to begin serving in December.

After the original Jerk Shack’s 2018 opening, Blaque was tapped by the Pearl to develop a new concept for its Bottling Department food hall. That eatery — dubbed Mi Roti, after a flatbread frequently used in Jamaican street food — has received rave reviews since opening last July.

No stranger to the pressure But the restaurants aren’t the only thing Blaque is juggling. In the past 14 months, the Culinary Institute of America-trained chef’s family has grown by not one, but two, kids.

“My son was only about a month old when they broke ground on the new Jerk Shack location, but shortly after that, I became pregnant again,” Blaque said. “It threw everything off, and it became a scenario that made me think, ‘How am I going to do this with two kids?’”

Women in the foodservice industry — especially women of color — often feel cultural pressures to take care of all things inside the home, regardless of their rigorous work schedules. Blaque is no stranger to that pressure, she added.

“I have two babies, you know, and I don’t want to take time from them. But I do struggle with having to drop things [at work] so that I can care for them,” she said. “I can only afford to put out very serious fires [at

the restaurants], and that’s not something I’m used to. I’m used to going full-force at everything and doing everything myself, and having the kids really changed my perspective.”

Blaque says she often reminds herself that she’s not the first mom to take on multiple culinary concepts and make it all work. She said a driving factor for her success is knowing young women are looking to her as an example of how a female chef can have it all.

Full throttle Being a role model is important, Blaque said, because San Antonio has a dearth of female chefs leading the way. However, she runs into more female chef-owners at events, which gives her hope that the community is growing.

“When I see female chef-owners, it’s so exciting, because it’s letting these line cooks and line-level kitchen employees know that there is more,” Blaque said. “There are just so many amazing things happening in the city right now that weren’t there just a few years ago. I can still be a mom, I can still be a wife and I can still have all of this.”

Blaque’s “all of this” will soon encompass yet another location of the Jerk Shack, this one at Hemisfair downtown. That location — inside the Schultze House, one of the complex’s historically recreated homes — is expected to open in summer 2022. It will be the first Jerk Shack to include a full bar.

“It’s all about organization. You have to be organized if you want to go full throttle into being a working mom with multiple businesses,” Blaque said.

“In all reality, I had small dreams. I just wanted to serve good jerk chicken, and I wanted to serve it my way. And it’s just crazy to see how many people’s lives that little dream has touched.”

San Antonio PRF BFH Bld.pdf

1

11/15/21

9:28 AM

food

NEWS Maverick Whiskey has debuted a limited-edition

Burger Boy’s new Southside location — the home-

barrel-proof bourbon.

grown chain’s fifth — is now open.

Bud Light is pandering to Texans with a new can

Local influencer Donovan Thomson’s New

design featuring a lone star on the packaging.

Braunfels Big Hops franchise is now open, giving

Yee-haw!

the local chain its first location outside of San Antonio proper.

Blue Bell ice cream has released new holiday-inspired flavors: Eggnog, Peppermint and Christmas

After a five-month closure due to flood damage,

Cookie.

gourmet hot dog spot The Dogfather has reopened.

Local chefs Kristina Zhao, Jian Li and Johnny Her-

Pluckers Wing Bar will open a third San Antonio

nandez will host a James Beard Foundation dinner

location in January, this one near North Star Mall.

C

on Sunday, Dec. 12.

M San Antonio staple Delicious Tamales will open its

Longtime holiday event La Gran Tamalada will

first out-of-town location in Austin this month.

Y

return with a hybrid model Dec. 11-12, allowing CM

participants to sample the holiday staple at Market

Fish City Grill is angling to open a third location

Square in person or attend online events.

near the Rim shopping center next spring.

OPENINGS

Universal City’s Gather Brewing Co. will open to the

Tex-Mex eatery Tomatillos has left its longtime

public Dec. 11, serving up craft brews and chef-pre-

Broadway location and reopened on the city’s

pared bites.

MY

CY

CMY

K

North Side.

Blue Bell

sacurrent.com | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | CURRENT

21

Tejano Loveletter

Remembering Chulas Fronteras, the San Antonio-shot documentary that introduced the rest of the world to conjunto music

BY BILL BAIRD

E

nhanced by a deeply saturated 16mm film grain, haunting cinematography and a startlingly beautiful soundtrack, there’s a case to be made that 1976’s Chulas Fronteras is one of the best music documentaries ever made.

The movie, which features Tejano music icons including Flaco Jiménez and Lydia Mendoza, was primarily filmed in San Antonio. As such, it deserves credit for introducing conjunto, South Texas’ homegrown musical form, to much of the outside world.

Co-directed by film legend Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, founder of groundbreaking roots music label Arhoolie Records, Chulas Fronteras — which translates to “beautiful borders” — is a moving and culturally significant time capsule of Tejano music and border culture. In testament to its cultural significance, the movie was entered into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry in 1993.

“What’s beautiful about that film is its vibrancy and the performances,” said Hector Saldaña, curator of Texas State University’s Wittliff Music Archives. “There is a reverence, there is a sense of respect and love of the culture.

They weren’t filming it to put it down or ghettoize it. They were holding it up and saying, ‘My God, this is beautiful!’”

Chulas Fronteras employs Blank’s trademark “tone poem” style, largely eschewing the standard talking-head documentary format. Instead, it dives straight into the world it seeks to depict. The lens often draws back from the musicians to see everything else happening around them.

Blank, who died in 2013, received the American Film Institute’s Maya Deren Award for outstanding lifetime achievement for his work as an independent moviemaker.

“It shows a San Antonio and a West Side that don’t exist anymore. And that’s one of the coolest aspects of it,” added Saldaña, a former Express-News writer and frontman for long-running garage rock band Krayolas. “The vibe of San Antonio was so different then, in the ’70s. It was really wide open.”

One by one, the documentary introduces the musical giants who

22

helped define Tejano and Norteño music. Along with the aforementioned Jiménez and Mendoza, viewers encounter Narciso Martínez, Santiago Jiménez Sr. and Jr., Los Alegres de Teran, Los Pingüinos del Norte, Rumel Fuentes, and San Antonio musical giants Jose Morante and Salomé Gutiérrez. The camera explores an independent and thriving South Texas music culture that includes record shops and homegrown recording studios, even a small-scale San Antonio record-pressing plant.

The significance of the film, which was digitally remastered and released on DVD and BluRay in 2018, isn’t lost on Strachwitz.

“It really flows, doesn’t it?” he asked during a recent phone conversation. Strachwitz, who just turned 90, is still a master storyteller. And Chulas Fronteras is certainly evidence of that.

‘The beauty of a culture’ Like many of America’s regional musical styles, the one created along the Texas-Mexico border is a unique hybrid found nowhere else — the sound of Czech and German polkas and accordions fused with Mexican and indigenous culture and the bajo sexto, a distinctive 12-string Mexican instrument in the guitar family.

“We created a very unique original American ensemble, called ‘conjunto’ north of the border and ‘Norteño’ south of the border,” said Juan Tejeda, a former Palo Alto College professor and activist whose resume includes helping launch the Tejano Conjunto Festival and heading the Xicano Music Program at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center. “We are this hybrid, this fusion, and our music and culture reflects that. We are this border people ... that transcends borders.”

To that point, Chulas Fronteras depicts not only the region’s music but the Mexican American border experience in its totality. The viewer gets an up-close look at migrant workers, racism, police brutality, dances, weddings, delectable food and even cockfighting.

“It blew me away,” Tejeda said of his first viewing of the documentary.

CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

“It was the first time it had been put out like that. And when it came out, it had a tremendous impact — it reverberated. Not just in the film or music industry, but throughout the Chicano community. ‘This is what we need to see! Something positive, not this gang shit that’s always being depicted.’ It showed the beauty of the culture.”

The Strachwitz story The making of Chulas Fronteras begins with one unlikely man: Strachwitz himself.

A German immigrant fleeing the invading Russians at the end of World War II, Strachwitz immigrated to the U.S. in 1947 and lived with a great aunt in Reno. He was a stranger in a strange land, but quickly became enamored of U.S. regional music styles — conjunto, hillbilly, blues and jazz — emanating from XERB, one of the high-wattage “border blaster” radio stations operating from Mexico.

It was a breath of fresh air.

“In most of Europe, opera and clas-

sical music was so embedded in the popular culture, and they had no local dance music like people have here,” he said. “They listened to war marches and pop music, which was horribly schmaltzy.”

After working for several years as a schoolteacher, Strachwitz couldn’t resist the lure of the music world. The folk scene of the early ’60s, inspired by folklorist Alan Lomax, sought to document America’s regional styles — the “old weird America,” in the words of critic Greil Marcus — and so did Strachwitz. He joined other musical obsessives sniffing out and chronicling undiluted regional folk styles before they vanished. Think Indiana Jones with a tape recorder instead of a bullwhip.

Thus began Strachwitz’s many forays into Texas, first focusing on African American blues and Creole music in East Texas and Louisiana where he helped “discover” and bring attention to Mance Lipscomb, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Clifton Chenier through his then-fledgling Arhoolie label.

music Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation

During his early 1960s trips from California to Houston, Strachwitz would inevitably drive through San Antonio, and the conjunto and Norteño music playing on the radio caught his ear. Of particular interest was the use of accordion, originally a German instrument, and the duetos, or tight vocal harmonies.

“I quickly found out that I liked music with accordion,” Strachwitz remembers. “I became aware of these myriads of labels that sprung up in South Texas since the late ’40s — Rio, Falcon, Ideal. I heard the music, and I became very fond of it.”

Digging for the Frontera collection That music ended up being Strachwitz’s first lure to San Antonio for a proper visit.

During the ’50s and ’60s, as 33 and 45 rpm records dominated the marketplace, many stores and juke box operators dumped their now-obsolete 78 rpm discs for dimes. On a tip from Alamo City folklorist Larry Skoog, Strachwitz ended up in a West Side warehouse, sifting for hours through old 78s from the collection of radio station KCOR.

He purchased 1,000 records that day.

“The 78s were heavy,” Strachwitz recalled. “It was probably 500 pounds of records! I was totally dehydrated because it was a hot day, and I was furiously looking for more and more in this mini storage. At one point, a tarantula popped out. I was scared but didn’t drop the records!”

That haul immersed Strachwitz in the regional style of the corrido, a genre of border folk balladry depicting current events and tragic heroes. The songs serve as a “musical newspaper” for border communities. Older corridos depict the assassination of JFK, Pancho Villa’s exploits and struggles against the Ku Klux Klan while new “narcorridos” chronicle the border drug trade.

Corridos date back hundreds of years, descendants of the Spanish “romantic” songs of the Middle Ages, but the form was filtered through the South Texas waltzes and polkas as well as the Tejano experience. The style

Les Blank (with beer) and Chris Strachwitz (with microphone) capture interviews for the 1976 documentary Chulas Fronteras.

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takes its name from the verb “correr” (to run), referencing the songs’ brisk pace.

Strachwitz continued exploring South Texas border music for another 10 years before deciding to document the scene on celluloid. He and Blank decided to shoot a documentary about the major musical figures of San Antonio, but he hadn’t met them yet. Thus began another sleuthing adventure.

“I first met Fred Zimmerle and his Trios San Antonio. Then I met Salomé Gutiérrez, who founded Del Bravo Records,” Strachwitz said. “I immediately sensed that Salomé was a real character. He was so helpful for the film, tracking down folks, making connections.”

FOR A SAMPLER OF BORDER MUSICIANS DOCUMENTED IN CHULAS FRONTERAS: Tune in to this Mixcloud playlist at mixcloud.com/sasound/chulas-fronteras-border-music-from-1937-1983.

Reminder:

Although live events have returned, the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us. Check with venues to make sure scheduled events are still happening, and please follow all health and safety guidelines.

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music

Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation

Independent ecosystem

Del Bravo, founded in 1966 and situated on Old Highway 90, is considered by many to be the oldest record shop in Texas. In 2018, San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission designated Old Highway 90 (aka Enrique Barrera Parkway) as a Cultural Heritage District, making it only the city’s second area to land the designation. Del Bravo is still there — and still slinging vinyl, cassettes and CDs. Del Bravo is a reminder of the vibrant South Texas musical ecosystem that grew out of the region’s conjunto scene, a network of independent record shops, studios, publishers and promoters.

In the 1920s, northern record labels looked to boost sales by dispatching mobile recording studios to other parts of the country so they could expand into regional styles — among them, blues, hillbilly, Mexican, Cajun and German. These labels would advertise in local newspapers and book all-day

sessions with regional musicians. This was still the Jim Crow era, however, which complicated the process.

“In San Antonio, they had to make sure they would allow people of color to come to top floors. In those days, they still had ‘No dogs, no Blacks, no Mexicans’ [signs] outside of businesses,” said Rudy Guitiérrez, son of Del Bravo’s Salomé Gutiérrez. “And back then there was no air conditioning.

They were recording onto wax, so if it got too hot ... the masters would melt. So, they had to pick the right seasons ... and the right hotels that would allow minorities inside.”

By the end World War II, big labels ended their regional recording expeditions, leaving an opportunity for local enterprises to release records of their own. Into this gap stepped Armando Marroquín. As founder of Ideal Music in the Rio Grande Valley, many consider Marroquín the first Mexican American studio owner.

“That sounds like a fancy title ... but he was recording in his living room,” Gutiérrez said with a laugh. “But

Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation

people loved it. And now the jukebox owners had new records to spin.”

Beyond feeding jukeboxes, Marroquin pioneered a new business model, one where Mexican Americans took control of their own music without waiting for major label support.

“We see Ideal as the origin of local record labels here in Texas,” Gutiérrez added. “If he can make it, we can make it.”

Inspired by that success, the senior Gutiérrez started the Del Bravo Record Shop, the DLB record label (along with its 10 sublabels), a recording studio and San Antonio Music Publishers, which grew into one of the largest publishers of Tejano music and possesses one of the largest independent Latin catalogs. Beyond his entrepreneurial activities, he also somehow found time to write more than 1,000 songs.

“He was really there at the beginning of commercial conjunto and Norteño music,” Strachwitz said of Gutiérrez in a 2016 obituary. “He quickly realized the [vitality] of the music of the underclass.

He also composed, which was the other

Left: Lydia Mendoza performs in Chulas Fronteras.

Right: As evidenced by his extended middle finger, singer Rumel Fuentes wasn’t afraid of confrontation.

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amazing thing. The songs had to be in the vernacular so that people liked them, and he knew how to do that. His knowledge of the local language was extraordinary.”

Along with legendary San Antonio producer Jose Morante — whose amiable presence features prominently in the film — and Ideal’s Marroquín, Gutiérrez forged an impressive musical community.

“Those three men together helped each other. Everybody here knew somebody,” the younger Gutiérrez said. “We lent a hand. ‘Why don’t you sell my product in the Valley, and I’ll sell your stuff up here in San Antonio?

So, people started hearing all the different styles.”

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music Meeting Flaco Also crucial in helping Strachwitz and Blank assemble the musical cast of Chulas Fronteras was San Antonio’s Rio Records.

After a stint teaching electronics at Kelly Air Force Base, Hymie Wolf founded Rio at 700 W. Commerce St. in what used to be his family’s liquor store. During the remodel job, he built a recording studio in a back room of his new record store.

“For authenticity, no other label or producer captured pure cantina music the way Hymie Wolf did on his Rio recordings,” wrote Strachwitz in the liner notes for Tejano Roots: San Antonio’s Conjuntos in the 1950s, released by Arhoolie in 1994.

However, by the time Strachwitz and Blank got around to making their film, Wolf had died, leaving the business to his wife Genie.

“I went to Mrs. Wolf, and I asked her, ‘Who do you think I should be looking for?’ And she came right out and said, ‘There’s a really handsome guy. He’s a really good musician and he’s really gonna go places; he has real charisma.

His name is Flaco Jiménez.’”

When Chulas was filmed, Jiménez wasn’t the household name he is today thanks to his subsequent mainstream breakthroughs, including his stint with the Texas Tornados. Though he’d already become a regional star with his hit single “Un Mojado Sin Licencia,” which he performs in the film, Flaco was only beginning his journey into the mainstream. Even so, he’d already met Bob Dylan and other music industry luminaries during the 1972 session for Atlantic Records’ Doug Sahm and Band. During the filming of Chulas Fronteras, he also became close with slide guitar maestro Ry Cooder, who further elevated his career.

“The film brings a lot of memories of my fellow musicians, especially my dad,” Jiménez said in a Q&A following a 2018 Austin Film Society screening of the documentary. “It’s very hard to explain those memories — the long roads and ... flat tires. Homemade trailers, hauling U-Hauls to the gigs, every 30 minutes a blow-out. We carried three spare tires to the gigs. ... Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz managed to put our scene into a film. In some ways, the music has changed — change of instrumentations, too many synthesizers, not the nitty gritty of our kind of music. But ... I’m lucky to still be here.”

Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation

Chulas also spotlights Jiménez’s father Santiago Jiménez Sr., another of the true giants of South Texas music, performing with Flaco’s brother Santiago Jr. Those scenes have a particular resonance for Juan Tejeda.

“I come from this tradition,” said the conjunto scholar. “I learned my first polka, which was originally played by Santiago Sr., when I was 9 years old. So, it’s very special to me, those scenes.”

Strachwitz himself has a warm place in his heart not just for Flaco and his father, but for the whole family.

“Puro conjunto is a very limited thing when you’re dealing with a gringo audience,” Strachwitz said. “Flaco has expanded beyond, crossed genres, with the Tornados and Ry Cooder. But I love Santiago Jr., ‘El Chief.’ He’s holding down the tradition, the puro conjunto style. The traditional approach is more limited in its reach, but thank God he’s holding it down.”

Down in the Valley For the film’s scenes in the Rio Grande Valley, Strachwitz relied on Ramiro Cavazos, the bajo sexto player for conjunto ensemble Los Donneños.

In that more rural swath of South

Texas, a music-obsessed folklorist like Strachwitz was a novelty.

“At that time, they had never met somebody like me,” he said. “It was always record people or businesspeople, and here comes this fanatic. Ramiro Cavazos introduced me to his wife, I’ll never forget, as ‘Chris, el fanático de música Norteña.’”

Through Cavazos, Strachwitz met Los Alegres de Teran, a group that supplies some of the film’s most haunting performances.

“For recording with one mic, it was the most gorgeously balanced acoustic music I’d ever encountered,” says Strachwitz.

In the valley, Strachwitz also met Narciso Martínez, “El Huracán del Valle,” considered the father of conjunto. In the early 20th century, Martínez learned accordion from Czech and German families living near the town of Bishop, 40 miles from Corpus Christi, and in 1935 teamed with bajo sexto player Santiago Almeida.

That collaboration established the accordion and bajo sexto as the core of the fledgling conjunto style. Martínez was honored in 1983 with a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the nation’s

Narciso Martínez (right), who died in 1992, is considered the father of conjunto music.

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highest honor in folk and traditional art.

One particularly memorable scene in Chulas Fronteras shows Martínez working his day job at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville and feeding the elephants and toucans.

‘The Meadowlark of the Border’ Martínez wasn’t the only legendary originator captured in the film. Lydia Mendoza, called “La Alondra de la Frontera” (“The Meadowlark of the Border”), provides a compelling gravitas and welcome feminine presence in Chulas Fronteras.

“She’s the only woman they focused on in the film, which makes her role all the more important,” scholar Tejeda said. “Most of the time, it’s about men.

Across cultures, music has been more of a macho, patriarchal business, but there’s always been women, they just haven’t gotten their due. That’s why it’s important that Lydia was in here. She’s

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music

Chris Strachwitz © Arhoolie Foundation

one of the greats.”

After a recording session by the Mendoza family for Okeh Records in a downtown San Antonio hotel, Lydia became a musical star at age 12. A later session went down in the Acuña furniture shop — explained because furniture makers were among the sellers of early phonographs.

Eventually, Mendoza struck out on her own, signing with Bluebird Records, and becoming the star of the family with her famous solo version of “Mal Hombre.” She designed and sewed her own stage clothes and played to massive crowds across the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Thanks to her forceful guitar work and emotion-wrenched vocal approach, her classic 1934 recording “Mal Hombre” still sends shivers down the spine.

“Lydia sang in the vernacular, the peoples’ way of singing, not the highly trained or theatrical performers,” Strachwitz said.

The film takes the viewer inside Mendoza’s home, showing her making tamales by hand, singing at a wedding and describing her process.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a corrido, a waltz, a bolero, a polka or whatever,” Mendoza said on camera. “When I sing that song, I live that song.”

Ultimately, Mendoza was honored with the National Medal of Arts, the Texas Cultural Trust’s Texas Medal of Arts, a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and even performed at Jimmy Carter’s 1977 inauguration.

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“When I think of Lydia, I think of somebody like Leadbelly,” Texas State’s Hector Saldaña said. “Like a rock, just so singular. She was playing for the poorest of the poor ... and she was poor herself. Though she’s an icon and superstar today — in the relative sense — she wasn’t celebrated in her day. She was playing worker camps, in the plaza, on the streets. Her music was the people’s music. When she emerged, Texas was largely agricultural and poor.”

Only after her rediscovery in the 1960s was the singer celebrated and given the recognition she deserved, Saldaña said.

“The film is part of the reassessment.

It’s way past her heyday,” he said. “The film shows her rediscovery.”

Soy Chicano One of Chulas Fronteras’ most significant cultural contributions was that it didn’t just capture the originators of conjunto, it also showed a new generation picking up the mantle.

“It was the era of the Chicano,” Strachwitz said. The term ‘Chicano’ had previously been used with disdain — somebody destitute and uneducated — but, by the late ’60s, a new generation of Mexican Americans, tired of apologizing for their skin color and their culture, embraced the term.

In the film, Rumel Fuentes gives voice to the Chicano movement with a particularly rousing performance of the song “Soy Chicano.”

“Chicano, soy Chicano / ’Cause I’m

CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

brown and I’m proud / And I’ll make it in my own way,” he sings.

“The new Mexican Americans were proud of being Chicanos,” Strachwitz said. “There was a pride there. And that became a pretty popular song for Rumel and for Los Pingüinos del Norte, another group from the film.”

Fuentes’ youthful exuberance provides a compelling counterpoint to the film’s older generation. The bandleader had emerged from the civil rights and rock ’n’ roll era, making him a new type of performer.

“My God, you talk about a Bob Dylan type character, who had the balls to say it, to say what needed to be said,” Texas State’s Saldaña said. “When he’s expressing that stuff, there was a line drawn. Not all Mexican Americans wanted to be called Chicanos. In fact, many did not. ‘Chicano’ was more of a radical term and more confrontational. ... But, at the end of the day, Fuentes was right! He tapped into something, and you had to say, ‘Wow! .... This is us!”

Arhoolie recently released a posthumous collection of Fuentes’ songs from the ’70s, Corridos of the Chicano Movement.

Chulas Fronteras’ unflinching depiction of the Chicano movement, as well as the racism and police brutality faced by brown people, also impressed Palo Alto professor Tejeda when he saw the film as a youth.

“Be proud of who you are. That’s what Rumel said to us,” Tejeda said. “A lot of films wouldn’t get so politically

San Antonio “was really wide open” during the era in which M Chulas Fronteras was filmed, one music historian remarked.

involved. It captured the way it was, not only for our roots music, but for our young people in the Chicano movement. We were demanding our rights, learning our roots and our cultural identity, learning to take pride in who we are, when society would humiliate us as brown people and poor people.

It’s the struggle of the indigenous, and it’s been happening for 500 years.”

That struggle finds musical form in Chula Fronteras’ opening scene, where Ramiro Cavazos sings the classic “Canción Mixteca” accompanied by footage of a ferry crossing the Rio Grande.

“It’s interesting that song is called ‘mixtec,’ which means indigenous,” Tejeda said. “It’s a beautiful lament [about] the people who had to leave on the migrant trail to survive. Like this whole border culture, it’s a fusion — an indigenous song played on a European instrument and sung in Spanish.”

Hidden history While music may be the primary draw for modern viewers looking to explore Chulas Fronteras, it wasn’t the only thing that drew Strachwitz to make the film. He was also motivated by his desire to share a hidden history.

“I had always enjoyed history in school, but it was usually taught from

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the perspective of the ruling classes and their culture,” he wrote in the liner notes for 2000’s The Journey of Chris Strachwitz boxset. “Suddenly, as a record producer, I found myself face to face with other social strata, whose music, culture and history no one seemed to have charted.”

As an immigrant and an outsider himself, Strachwitz sympathized with those on the margins.

In the 1990s, following a lifetime of hunting down the most unique and fantastic regional music in America, Strachwitz made arguably his greatest and most lasting contribution to Mexican American Culture — the Strachwitz Frontera Collection at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC).

Founded in collaboration with Guillermo Hernández, a UCLA Spanish professor who was one of the foremost authorities on the corrido and was later the CSRC’s Director, Frontera maintains the largest repository of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican American vernacular recordings. Its more than 160,000 individual recordings, many rare or impossible to find, are available free online at frontera.library. ucla.edu and at youtube.com/c/FronteraCollection.

Getting the archive off the ground required an infusion of capital, and Strachwitz turned to musicians for help with that. After bringing Grammy-winning Norteño group Los Tigres del Norte to California for a folk festival, Strachwitz played the group some of his original 78 rpm recordings of early 20th-century corridos.

“They were amazed that these songs they play were recorded way back then,” he said. “They thought it was just an oral tradition! But we had the records!”

Jorge Hernández, Los Tigres’ leader, realized the importance of the recordings and the group donated $500,000 to jumpstart the Frontera collection. “[Strachwitz’s] life work documenting the history of Mexican American music marks one of the great social and artistic contributions to U.S. pop culture of the 20th century,” wrote Los Angeles Times journalist Agustín Gurza, editor of the Arhoolie Foundation’s UCLA Frontera Collection.

Besides giving the recordings a home in perpetuity where they can inspire future generations of musicians, historians and culture buffs, the project gives artistic legitimacy to corridos, Strachwitz said.

“UCLA believed that these corridos

were the literature of the people that they cater to,” he added. “By doing an academic study of these corridos, it legitimized it as literature of the common man.”

Corrido legacy After the completion of Chulas Fronteras, Strachwitz returned to San Antonio for a shorter follow-up film, Del Mero Corazón. Released in 1979, Del Mero Corazón focuses less on corridos and more on the love songs of the border. Later trips to South Texas found Strachwitz researching the narcorrido movement, including a visit to the hideout compound of legendary narco Pablo Acosta and his girlfriend Mimi Webb Miller, whose whirlwind romance was depicted on the current Netflix series Narcos.

“She was a real character,” Strachwitz said. “That was a bit scary, that trip. But fascinating.”

Recalling the magic captured in Chulas Fronteras, Strachwitz concedes that the film likely documented what was just a brief window in time for South Texas’ indigenous music.

“You’ll never repeat that music the way it was then,” he said. “But the lives of the people it shows ... haven’t really changed that much.”

To that end, Strachwitz brushes off the “roots” tag often used to describe the music he documents.

“I don’t want to call it ‘roots music,’ because ‘roots’ indicates being stationary,” he said. “I think of all music as rivulets that run into a river and a river that runs into something else. Everything is moving constantly, and one rivulet brings one influence, another rivulet brings another influence.”

Conjunto scholar Tejeda has a similar view.

“The songs document this history that we’re still living through, and that’s the importance of the arts, of music, of literature: it documents our culture,” Tejeda said. “This is who we are. And we are proud of it. This film gave us that pride. Because there’s still not that much in film form that depicts our culture — as Tejanos, as Chicanos, as Texas Mexicans, as border crossers.”

He added: “And that is what makes this film so much more important. There are so many great stories yet to be told. We just keep working for a better future for our kids. That’s where our liberation lies. And I hope the music shows the joy of that struggle for liberation.”

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music listings Friday, Dec. 3

Nitzer Ebb Nitzer Ebb brought visceral, aggressive synth pop to the working class UK town of Essex in the ’80s. Three decades later, the band is coming to another blue-collar town, San Antonio, to deliver its brand of electronic rock, which often revels in the seedier side of life. According to an interview in the The Guardian, the band has no interest in taming the sexual energy of its music, even though its members are now in their 60s. $35-$50, 9 p.m., Sam’s Burger Joint, 330 E. Grayson St., (210) 223-2830, samsburgerjoint.com. — Enrique Bonilla Balcones Heights Jazz Festival Christmas Concert Headliner Slim Man, a bassist who also happens to be a singer-songwriter, will bring his mix of soul and pop to this free festival of Holiday cheer. For those keeping score at home, this will be the performer’s 13th appearance at the annual event. This year’s engagement also marks a return to an in-person show, since last year’s was held online due to COVID-19. San Antonio crooner Ken Slavin will open the show.

Free, 7:30 p.m., Wonderland of the Americas Amphitheater, 4522 Fredericksburg Road, (210) 785-3500, wonderlandamericas.com. — Mike McMahan

Saturday, Dec. 4 Somi Somi — a Grammy-nominated vocalist, songwriter, playwright and actress — will pay tribute to African international star, singer and activist Miriam Makeba with this performance. Called “the new Nina Simone” by media outlets including Huffington Post, Somi was born in Chicago to immigrants from Rwanda and Uganda. She released her major label debut The Lagos Music Salon in 2013, drawing in guest spots from Common and Angelique Kidjo. Her most recent release, 2020’s Holy Room: Live at Alte Oper with Frankfurt Radio Big Band, earned her a Grammy nod. $34, 8 p.m., Carver Community Cultural Center, Jo Long Theatre, 226 N. Hackberry St., (210) 207-7211, thecarver.org. — MM

Somi

Sammy Hagar and The Circle Presumably driving more than 55 mph on his current tour, the Red Rocker is making a return to San Antonio, a city with whom he has a long history. Hagar’s band, The Circle, which includes former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, recently completed a Las Vegas residency that included a heavy helping of Van Hagar tunes, solo hits and covers including Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll.” Expect a similar show here. Shoutouts to tequila are also a safe bet. $49.50-$99.50, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., theaztectheatre.com. — MM

Thursday, Dec. 9 Jinjer Riding a wave of hype that’s certainly earned, Ukrainian metalcore outfit Jinjer is back in action after COVID-19 forced numerous tour delays. Vocalist Tatiana Shmailyuk is a relative rarity: a female vocalist leading an extreme metal band. But whatever assumptions and prejudices this generates are usually swatted down once Jinjer takes the stage. Shmailyuk and crew have held their own on tours with legends including Arch Enemy. The band’s most recent release, Wallflowers, dropped in August of this year. $35, 7 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., theaztectheatre.com. — MM The Last Bandoleros San Antonio-born The Last Bandoleros have earned praise for their energetic performances and well-crafted pop-rock tunes that sometimes include a kick of Tex-Mex. With performances at the City of San Antonio’s Tricentennial New Year’s Eve concert and on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it’s clear the group’s Navaira brothers are following in the musical footsteps of their late father, Tejano heavyweight Emilio Navaira. $18$23, 8 p.m., John T. Floore’s,14492 Old Bandera Road, Helotes, (210) 695-8827, liveatfloores. com. — BE Doc Watkins It’s hard to think of holiday music without thinking of A Charlie Brown Christmas. And if you love the soundtrack’s iconic “Linus and Lucy” piano line as much as the rest of us, you might want to pop in to hear San Antonio jazz pianist Doc Watkins bring it to life. The cartoon special’s Vince Guaraldi compositions are almost as well-known as the show itself. As evidence that the soundtrack has become a cultural touchstone, it’s had numerous holiday runs on the Billboard charts and was added to the Library of Congress’ collection in 2012. $35, 8 p.m., Jazz, TX, 312 Pearl Parkway, Bldg. 6, (210) 332-9386, jazztx.com. — MM

Friday, Dec. 10 Chelsea Grin Utah deathcore outfit Chelsea Grin somehow managed to book a whole tour despite new frontman Tom Barber insisting he won’t play shows in venues that require him to be vaccinated. If you don’t mind standing in the same room as an anti-vaxxer who’s aerosolizing his saliva every time he “bleghs,” have at this one. $19-$22, 7 p.m., Rockbox 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 677-9453, therockboxsa.com. – BE Facebook / Somi

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Jinjer

CURRENT | December 1 – December 14, 2021 | sacurrent.com

Rockapella This New York-based quintet sings original music and covers — all delivered, as their name suggests, a capella. The group’s music has shifted from pop to more of an R&B approach over time. However, for this set, they’ll unleash their impressive vocal prowess on a selection of holiday covers. $28-$49, 7:30 p.m., Brauntex Theatre, 290 W. San Antonio St., New Braunfels, (830) 627-0808, brauntex.org. — EB D.R.I. Houston-formed crossover thrash legends D.R.I. are returning to town — and just in time to kick your ass in the pit before you’re forced to deal with Aunt Sally at Christmas. If your family sits you at the kids’ table, at least you’ll be able show the young ones the gnarly cuts and bruises attained during the band’s ultra-moshable song “Beneath the Wheel.” $15-$19, 7 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — BE

Sunday, Dec 12

Courtesy Photo / Jinjer

She & Him Comprised of avant-Americana singer-songwriter M. Ward and actress-singer-songwriter Zooey Deschanel, She & Him mine a vintage pop sound that also incorporates country and folk. During the duo’s 13-year run, it released the holiday albums Christmas Party and A Very She & Him Christmas. The interest in Christmas tunes seems fitting since Ward became aware of Deschanel’s musical abilities after hearing her sing in the movie Elf. $49.50-$219, 8 p.m., Aztec Theatre, 104 N. St. Mary’s St., (210) 8124355, theaztectheatre.com. — EB

She & Him

Friday and Saturday, Dec. 10-11 Todd Snider Singer-songwriter Todd Snider moved to San Marcos after dropping out of college and was inspired to make music after seeing Texas country legend Jerry Jeff Walker perform at the same location Snider will soon hold a two-night run: Gruene Hall. As evidenced by his songs “Alright Guy” and “Statistician’s Blues,” the Oregon transplant’s music blends folk, rock, country and blues. $25, 8 p.m. Friday, 9 p.m..

Saturday, Gruene Hall, 1281 Gruene Road, (830) 606-1281, New Braunfels, gruenehall. com. — BE

Saturday, Dec. 11 Speed of Sound in Seawater Sacramento, California’s the Speed of Sound Underwater blends catchy indie-pop hooks with technical and impressive riffing that owes an obvious debt to math rock. The band was inactive for a few years and only recently became a touring project again. Standards, Cliffdiver and Donella Drive will open the all-ages show. $13-$16, 8 p.m., 1223 E. Houston St., (210) 255-3833, vibeseventcenter.com. — EB

Courtesy Photo / She & Him

Sunday, Dec. 12 Chrystabell San Antonio native Chrystabell is returning to her Alamo City roots for a show supporting her forthcoming album Midnight Star, which drops in early 2022. The mononymic chanteuse is known for her musical collaborations with David Lynch as well as her role as FBI agent Tammy Preston on the director’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Perhaps fittingly, her latest studio album is billed as a multi-genre “sci-fi fantasia” that weaves together elements of post-disco, synth-pop and space-age psychedelia. $12, 8 p.m., Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s St., papertigersatx.com. — Kelly Merka Nelson

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