From Aztlan With Love is Conjunto Aztlan’s second CD (2005) and contains 14 original love songs written by Juan Tejeda and José Flores Peregrino. The style of music ranges from Conjunto Tejano, to blues, boleros, oldies, cumbia and salsa.
Listen to four songs from the CD below.
Hard copy CD’s of From Aztlan With Love are currently not available.
Purchase individual songs or the entire CD at iTunes here.
The first, self-titled Conjunto Aztlan CD (1998), contains 16 tracks of pura poesía y música del Movimiento Chicano that includes cantos indígenas, traditional Conjunto Tejano, oldies, reggae, and salsa.
Listen to four songs from the CD below.
To purchase the hard copy CD via PayPal, click here or on the Buy Now button below. Shipping & Handling is included in the cost:
Purchase individual songs or the entire CD at iTunes here.
“Conjunto,” Spanish for ensemble or group, refers to a specific Tejano musical group whose principal instruments are the button accordion and 12 string bajo sexto. “Aztlan,” translated from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, means “the place of whiteness,” or “the dawn,” and according to the Codex Boturini, it is the original Aztec homeland. It was from Aztlan, somewhere in the Southwestern United States, that the Azteka-Mexica set out, in the year one flint (1064 A.D.), on a sacred journey that lasted about three hundred years and culminated in the founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan (now Mexico City). The Chicano Movement, in an expression of self-determination and reaffirmation of a heritage culturally and spiritually linked to the original/native people of this continent, embraced the concept of Aztlan as our homeland.
Conjunto Aztlan represents a spiritual and musical journey expressed through poetry and song. The Conjunto Aztlan was born out of the Xicano Movement in Austin, Texas, in 1977. Most of the original members were students at the University of Texas at the time when the Chicano Cultural Renaissance was in full bloom. Over the course of the last forty years, the conjunto has gone through several periods of activity and configurations, but it has remained alive and steadfast in its purpose: to celebrate, defend, and expand the musical, cultural, and spiritual legacy of the Chicano people.
Currently, Conjunto Aztlan is Juan Tejeda (button accordion, vocals), José Flores Peregrino (bajo sexto, vocals), Clemencia Zapata (drums, vocals), Eric Flores and J.J. Barrera (bass, vocals), and Sunny Lerma (hand percussion, vocals). In many respects, the Conjunto Aztlan is a traditional conjunto, utilizing typical conjunto instrumentation and playing typical conjunto music (polkas, valses, cumbias, boleros, canciones rancheras). On the other hand, the Conjunto Aztlan is far from typical and their repertoire can shift from cantos indígenas, to salsa, to blues, rhythm-n-blues, Zydeco, reggae, and Latin jazz.
One of their songs, “Yo Soy tu Hermano, Yo Soy Chicano,” from their first CD, was included in a compilation CD produced by the Smithsonian Institution entitled Rolas de Aztlan/Songs of the Chicano Movement, and in 2006 they performed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. In 2007 they performed at the University of California at Riverside Radio Aztlan Festival where they received a Lifetime Achievement Award for over 30 years of performing and promoting Chicano music; and that same year they performed at the 16th Nuits Atypiques Festival in Langon, France. Conjunto Aztlan continues to perform in the Austin and San Antonio areas and for special functions statewide and nationally.
Juan Tejeda 