Enrique Vela

**Special thanks to Juan Soliz for making this readily available to us.

Enrique Vela
El Rey del Chotis

Enríque Vela, one of the pioneer accordionist of South Texas was born at Rancho Palomas in Sarita, Texas, on May 28, 1922 to Refúgio and Silvéria Fuentes de Vela. Rancho Palomas was part of the Kennedy ranch where Refugio worked.
In 1929 the family moved to Rancho Gallina Blanca, which was owned by Chester Christopher, and was located west of the Naval Air Station in Kingsville. While there Enrique would make guitars out of cigar boxes and attach strings for the chords.

In 1937, he started playing the real guitar and teamed up with Fortunato Mendiola, an accordionist, to form a duo. Their first professional engagement was at a wedding at Rancho Sta. Julia, which was by Agua Dulce. Vela later teamed up with Ambrósio Vasquez, another accordionist.

In 1940 Enrique learned to play the accordion, and he and Tomas Garza teamed up as a duo from 1940-1946. They would play at dances in Kingsville, Sarita, Riviera, and Bishop. In Kingsville they played at Salon Solis, in Riviera at Salon Ruiz, and at Loyola Beach at the Ranch belonging to Simón Perez. They would play from 8:00 P.M. until 4 or 5 A.M. The rate for an all-nighter was $1.25.

In 1941 Enrique married Margarita Hinojosa. They had four sons and two daughters.
At the end of 1946, Vela formed a duo with Marcos Garcia of Alice. In 1947 they moved to San Antonio and worked there until 1952 playing at clubs, weddings, dance halls, and other family gatherings. While there in 1948, they recorded their first record with Discos De Los Santos. Some of the most popular polkas were, “Viva La Curva”, “Eres Alta y Delgada”, “Tierra Blanca”, and “Una Mujer de Este Barrio”. Together they recorded with Ideal Records of Alice, Imperial Records of San Antonio, Torero Records of Corpus Christi, and Siesta Records of San Antonio.

In 1952, Vela moved back to Kingsville and the duo broke up. That didn’t stop him from performing though, as he started a conjunto. The group was called Enrique Vela y Su Conjunto.

In the mid 60’s Enrique’s sons started performing with him, as they all knew how to play an instrument. They toured the northern state of Michigan and even recorded there. They recorded for Pretty Good Fine Discos of Detroit. The songs were “Pretty Good Fine Polka”, and “Huerta de Oro”. Another label they recorded for was Del Rey, and the song they recorded was “Corrido de Detroit”. They would also perform in the surrounding smaller cities such as Pontiac, , St. John, and Lansing. One of the salones was owned by a former resident of Bishop, Pablo Garza, and it was located at Luna Pier, on the Michigan and Ohio border. Vela also toured in California and Florida.

When asked why he was given the title of “El Rey del Chotis” he said, “When I get requests I play what the people want, and in certain places they would request alot of Chotises. Some conjuntos would not play them as much and I would, so the people started calling me El Rey del Chotis.” One particular place that he recalled that loved to dance to chotises was at La Posta Ramireña, located between Alice and George West.

Enrique still has his conjunto with his sons, which are Juan- bajo sexto, Ruben- drums, Martin- bass, and Enrique on accordion. He has no plans to retire as long as he feels good and can still play. He would like for the younger musicians to continue playing conjunto music and not let the redova, vals, polka, chotis, and the mazurka fade away and be just a memory from the past.

This article appeared in “El Mesteño”, Volume II February 1999, Issue 17, page 18, and is copyright.
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Enrique was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in San Benito a few years back, as well at the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame in Alice.

Little known fact is that the Bernal Brothers of the famed Conjunto Bernal, started out as roadies with Enrique. Eventually they learned to play and went out on their own.

R.I.P Enrique Vela

Opening Up Borderland Studies: A Review of U.S.-Mexico Border Militarization Discourse

Opening Up Borderland Studies: A Review of U.S.-Mexico Border Militarization Discourse


An insightful essay on the state of Border studies. It's a bit dated (late 90's) but the points of view are still very relevant.

Enjoy!

EAIII

You Give Love A Bad Meme

I feel misogynistic in a poetic sense of the word. Like a cry against existence...

A turn against the fire of creation in a quest to stop the madness. I see the news and there is nothing but sadness in a world devoid of gladness. Why do we stake our claims on badness?

I feel misogynistic in a poetic sense of the word. Like a cry against existence...

Ennui is the chatter-Left? Right? Center? FINE!
But can see the tatter?
You're too old to thrive on flatter.
That's why you can't see what's the matter!

I feel misogynistic in a poetic sense of the word. Like a cry against existence...

Is this the message you want to send that neighborliness has no friend? Even Sodom & Gomorrah went that trend and we all know that fantastic end! Given our past, what I fear around the bend is a future we cannot defend!

I feel misogynistic in a poetic sense of the word. Like a cry against existence...

Dr. Ferguson Lecture

Texas A & M University-Kingsville's Annual Faculty Lecture will be held tonight at the Irma Rangel College of Pharmacy BLDG Room 115.

The lecture is called "Shadow Work" and the Making of the Modern World by Dr. Dean T. Ferguson, professor of history at TAMUK

"Factory workers were documented in labor history, guild members were noted in the history of the early modern period. These 'shadow workers' have hardly been mentioned at all."

"One of the main things I want people to leave the lecture with is an awareness of the variety of informal sector work that happens all around them."

"I also want them to learn that much of what we know about industrialization and the rise of the west is incomprehensible without these workers..."

"...I want the attendees to see that there are distinct parallels between today's informal sector and the shadow work of the 18th and 19th Centuries."

(Quotes cited from The Kingsville Record April 18, 2010 5A)

I will be attending this lecture. I will post some thoughts later.

EAIII

A Voice Amid the Wilderness

The most enduring image from the series Genesis: A Living Conversation is the image of the trapeze artist. While discussing faith and the story of Jacob, Roberta Hestenes mentions the image of the trapeze artist and how it informed her sense of faith. She said faith is not the fairly safe climb up the ladder or even the precarious swinging. It is when the moment comes to release from the safety and security of the swing and being willing, gutsy, and courageous enough to let go and take the hand of your partner on the other side.

This blog thing is a bit overwhelming, especially within the terms I've set. It is a cute little paradox too. A blog, by its very nature (given the time we live in) is daily and organic. The topics I've chosen to write about, on the other hand, require a lot of research. And given my procrastinatory nature, this could take months ;) Hence, the paradox: a blog languishing in research! Many times I've wanted to write something and have talked myself out of it because it doesn't fit the stated criteria. This is absurd! And it can no longer continue.

The best part of a blog is the dailiness of it and the willingness to be prolific! I do not want to create an online dairy but I do want to have a storehouse of thought. A narrative of my life even; I can't do that if I focus the blog so much that it misses large portions of my life. So this is me today, trying to find a voice in the bloggosphere. Trying to traverse the worlds of history and music and drumming to find a unified voice. My personal unified field theory.

This is where I let go of the swing ready to catch the hands of my readers.

Ghost From Writings Past

I wrote this back in 2006 on the anniversary of my mother's passing. I post it again today for two reasons: I felt I wanted to read it anew and this blog represents a fruition of this little piece. The last line "No one escapes the sweep of history" set a course for the way I understand history, not as a discipline but as a phenomenon of life; as a thing beyond us and from which we cannot escape (except through death of course). In this sense, one could almost use life and history interchangeably.

"...death is a part of life it's something we're all destined to do" -Ms. Gump

Have you ever asked yourself "how will I survive" after thus and such? The actual dynamic of your own experience is relative, of course, but the question is what's important, especially in the context of the loved one gone forever. In anticipation of a life-wrenching event we most always (at least I do) assume we'll either lose our mind or come eerily close to it. But I've come to learn that we humans have phenomenal capacity; that what we often see as insurmountable, in the end, turns out to be our greatest achievement and reason for renewing and becoming.

Six years ago I posed myself that question and not to my surprise my answer was "I can't." Well, here I am and of course I could! It's like in the bible when someone is blessed with the occasion of meeting God. The inevitable result is a different person with a new name and a new physical price to pay, like Jacob (now Israel) who limped ever after. Many are on this side of that occasion and many, like myself, were cast headlong over the event-horizon into that most bitter black hole. As often happens, profound beauty is tempered with the base alloy of tragedy and for me the phrase life goes on fits well within this precept. Life went on without her and still life pushes on with or without us. The best thing I have found to make the emptiness bearable is the radiance and immutability of memory for it is this that makes immortality possible. I must not douse the flame of her memory with the ocean of my sadness. No one escapes the sweep of history!

"In [my] stream of consciousness there's a river crying...You took away my hero will you take away my pain?...I'll carry on the best that I can without you here beside me" JP

Tom's Bumper Sticker Idea

I'm taking this over from one of my favorite blogs *The Musings of Thomas Verenna* (whose link you'll find to the right) because I think it's a great idea and I have his permission to do so! He writes,

I think that people should get bumper stickers for being wrong about things to brighten the mood a little. “I backed the wrong horse” will do fine. You can personalize it too: “I Backed the Wrong Horse: The World Will End in 2000″ or “I Backed the Wrong Horse: I Voted for Bush.”

Be fruitful and multiply O grand idea!

EAIII