Carrying the Flag
I’m hip to the Mexican wishing to be Mexican (“The 66 Percent,” May issue). Why shouldweexpectanythingelse?Butyoudon’tseeAfricanAmericanspushingAfrican music; they burst forth with their own rapper sound in these United States. I don’t hear European immigrants pushing Italian or Polish or German sounds, other than at annual festivals or ethnic parades. Hell, even Cuban Gloria Estefan went mainstream with her music. Yes, be proud of being a Mexican. But the United States, in its Grand Experiment, wishes all who come here to create the new and the novel. Conjuntos are yesteryear. Cute, but not mainstream. Tejano rock has faded for a reason. And the staple, the once-proud mariachi, has been relegated to strolling tables at cheap Tex-Mex cafes from Houston to El Paso, from Brownsville to Big D.. The…