Tag: the farthest home is in an Empire of Fire

Krayolas To-Go a Flashback to the 70s

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We wanted this to be just like in the ’70s when bands would load all their equipment up on a truck and go play.

That’s what Hector Saldana of The Krayolas told us during a band break early Sunday evening.  Casting aside the extensive national media attention focused on the unpretentious band three decades ago and now during the past year or so, The Krayolas trucked on over to the intersection of Nogalitos and Zarzamora to provide one of those puro San Antonio moments.  The band enthusiastically offered those gathered at Los Valles Fruteria, the subject of one of their lighter songs, with two admission-free sets showcasing their diverse musical sounds.

The peppy “La Fruteria” is balanced by such songs as a narco-corrido, “Twelve Heads in a Bag;” a song mourning a soldier whose life was lost in Iraq, “Alex;” and a protest song about Arizona’s new immigration law, “1070 (I’m Your Dirty Mexican).”  Hap Mansfield recently described The Krayolas’ Americano sound for the San Marcos Local News:

The Krayolas have been kickin’ out the Tex-Mex pop jams since the late 1970s. Their 2010 release, “Americano,” demonstrates that they’ve still got the chops, but their poetry is 30 years better and deeper. Unafraid of confrontation, the Saldana boys’ recent “1070 (I’m Your Dirty Mexican)” deals with the inherent racism in the controversial Arizona immigration bill. On a lighter note, their recent “Fruteria” may be the happiest Tex Mex pop tune ever.

Click here to catch David Martin Davies’ in-depth interview with the Saldana brothers for KLRN’s Conversations.

P.S.  Please, please don’t fail to bail Gayle out of jail!

Note Added on July 25:  The Krayolas are paired with a reading by author John Phillip Santos from The Farthest Home Is in an Empire of Fire as part of the Macondo Writers Workshop.  The admission-free event will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. in Thiry Auditorium at Our Lady of the Lake University on Wednesday, July 28.

May my neurons make many promiscuous synapses.

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Frustrated with hearing incorrect words, un when it should have been una, and the always scrambled ser and estar come haltingly out of my mouth on my two recent trips to Mexico, I felt like finding a new home far from mine for my expensive RosettaStone CDs.  Often it seems my addled brain has posted a “No Occupancy” sign, refusing to admit one more fact into the inn.

Indirectly, John Phillip Santos, whose The Farthest Home is in an Empire of Fire:  A Tejano Elegy is due out in April, makes me feel compelled to put the headset on again, when only the computer can hear me and indicate my pronunciation was wrong yet again.  In an interview by Mo Saidi in the current edition of Voices de la Luna, Santos says:

I’m in favor of promiscuous proliferation of language instruction. The biggest error of my youth was thinking the world was perfectly fathomable with just English and Spanish….  The more languages Americans speak, the more likely we’ll have a chance to imagine perpetual peace.

The biggest mistake of my youth was being born in in a city where English was the only tongue heard.  My development was stunted by this event beyond my control.  In my teens, I idealistically thought Esperanto was key to world peace, but its proliferation is snail-like.

So, I’m back where I left off before my trips, coincidentally, “El nino escribe arabe.” 

May my neurons make many promiscuous synapses.

Note:  Every time I bump into Jim LaVilla-Havelin (April reading at Bihl Haus), he is bursting with enthusiasm for San Antonio’s celebration of National Poetry Month.   A partial calendar of events can be found on the website of Voices de la Luna.  Mo Saidi will be reading at The Twig on March 29, and remember to put a Poem in Your Pocket on April 29.

Note added on April 5:  Steve Bennett interviews Santos, and Robert Bonazzi reviews The Farthest Home in the San Antonio Express-News.