Linda Escobar, this week’s guest on Viva Tejano, is an absolute pillar in the world of tejano music. She is one of the defining female voices in conjunto and helped spread the music globally, alongside her late partner, Kenji Katsube. Her hometown of Alice is known as the birthplace of tejano music, and she grew up as a child star in the conjunto world, touring on a “caravan of stars” alongside her father, famed singer and guitarist Eligio Escobar. The 1965 hit that launched Linda’s career, “Frijolitos Pintos,” was a song the artist and her dad wrote together.
Viva Tejano is produced by Ella Kopeikin and Patrick Michels and produced and engineered by Brian Standefer. Our executive producer is Megan Creydt. Additional production is by Aisling Ayers. Consulting producer is Adrian Arredondo. Graphic design is by Jenn Hair Tompkins and Victoria Millner.
Thanks to our partners, Myrna Perez and Adrian Arredondo, for access to The Johnny Canales Show archives; keep an eye out for the upcoming documentary Take It Away, which chronicles the rise and fall of tejano Hollywood.
Transcript
J. B. Sauceda (voice-over):
Hey, and welcome to another episode of Viva Tejano, a Texas Monthly podcast about tejano music, told by the people who make it and live it. I’m your host, J. B. Sauceda.
This week, I sat down in the studio with the Queen of Conjunto, Linda Escobar.
[Linda Escobar and Eligio Escobar singing “El Gambler”]
Linda is an absolute pillar in the world of tejano music. She’s a member of the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame and a recipient of the Tejano Music Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award. She’s one of the defining female voices in conjunto and helped spread the music globally, alongside her partner, Kenji Katsube.
Alice, Texas—Linda’s hometown—is recognized by the state as the birthplace of Tejano music. And she grew up as a child star in the conjunto world, touring on the “caravan of stars” alongside her father, the famed singer and guitarist Eligio Escobar. The hit that launched Linda’s career, in 1965—“Frijolitos Pintos”—was a song she and her dad wrote together.
To honor her father and other Mexican American veterans of World War II, she founded El Veterano Conjunto Festival, which has been running for more than twenty years now.
We kicked off our conversation with a memory from The Johnny Canales Show in 1999, with a performance by Ramón Ayala at an unlikely spot—the Super Splash Adventure Water Park, in Edinburg, in front of a massive crowd of dancing, swimming tejano music fans.
Here’s my conversation with Linda Escobar.
J. B. Sauceda: And so, the way I wanted to kick things off was to show you a video. And I want get your reactions about, like, what are you thinking, what are you feeling when you watch this—what are you remembering?
[Ramón Ayala playing on The Johnny Canales Show]
Linda Escobar: It’s a beautiful reunion party of Hispanics, you know—both Chicanos and people from Mexico. Just one big happy party, and thanks to Johnny, he was able to make it happen.
J. B. Sauceda: Did you used to watch this pretty regularly?
Linda Escobar: Yes, when I was in town. If I wasn’t out, you know, on a gig, or if I had come in at four or five in the morning from the gig and I was sleeping late, yeah. But yeah, when I was home in leisure, I would definitely watch The Johnny Canales Show on the regular. Mainly with my parents, after church, or after having breakfast. It was just our relaxation time, and just enjoying the music, and of course Dad, you know, remembering the good old days when we would tour with all of these musicians that would come out on his show.
J. B. Sauceda: Yeah. Tell me about touring with them. What was that like for you?
Linda Escobar: Oh gosh. It was wonderful. I got to meet not just all these artists from Mexico—movie stars that I used to watch [in the] theater, the drive-in theaters and stuff—but people. You know, I made so many friends all over the United States, and being in the caravans—it was called caravan of stars, la caravana de artistas, or de estrellas, that Paulino Bernal would put together, because we were artists of his label—so, you know, they became my family. All these musicians, the original Los Dinos. Selena’s dad. Ramón Ayala: he and his partner—music partner—Cornelio Reyna, were Los Relámpagos, and they were getting started. And Carlos Guzman. I mean, there were just so many. Tony de la Rosa. All these artists became our music family. And I was on tour with, you know, my father, so I was always under his guidance, and I just loved it—touring. We toured in a Camaro, Dad and I, while the band went on in a van or a station wagon, and it was just great. I was living a beautiful life as a child. I mean, a little girl from Alice, Texas, a small little town, and here I am in Disneyland, you know, at the age of eight or nine years old, and that was just absolutely magical.
J. B. Sauceda: And tell me about your dad.
Linda Escobar: My dad was awesome. How can I say—the greatest father in the whole wide world. My dad was already a music conjunto singer and recording artist when I was, you know, begging him to allow me to get into the industry as well. And so, I was very blessed and lucky to have been born in the Escobar family. He was funny; he was strict; he was very intelligent. He was admired and loved by many, many people, and he was just a very kindhearted man.
[Eligio Escobar singing “El Veterano”]
J. B. Sauceda: Obviously, you’re a musician as well, but what sort of influences did he have on you?
Linda Escobar: Oh, influences. Every single one. Everything. Who I am is how my father was, you know. Just dedicated, humble—just generous, good to people, just everything. He told me when you get into this business, into this music business, you need to get in it with both feet, not one in, one out, but fullheartedly. There’s going to be times when you don’t feel like going to a gig, you know, but you belong to the public now, and you have to give it your heart. He did tell me you have to sing from the heart. Don’t ever copy anybody, and just respect everyone, you know. Everybody has a talent, and the beauty of it is that everybody’s talent is unique.
J. B. Sauceda: Now, you entered into the conjunto genre, in particular, at a time when—I mean, even now, I feel like conjunto is still very male-dominated. What was that like, cutting that road for yourself?
Linda Escobar: I guess as a child, I didn’t feel that I had a struggle, because there were very few females in the conjunto genre back then, in the sixties. Of course, I’ll be celebrating sixty years in January of 2025 as a recording artist, because I recorded my first record when I was seven.
J. B. Sauceda: No kidding.
Linda Escobar: So as a child, I didn’t feel like I had a struggle with, or challenges by, being female. My dad was very highly respected, so of course, you know, they were going to feel that way towards me too. And I had a hit song that sold over a million records, “Frijolitos Pintos.” So I was very highly respected among all the industry people and musicians, and so I really didn’t feel it at the time.
[Linda Escobar singing “Frijolitos Pintos”]
Linda Escobar: But afterwards, after I got married [and] I, you know, had a tejano band—we had keyboards and electric guitar and everything—it was a challenge trying to get big venues. I mean, they would hire us in nightclubs and things like that, but yeah, it was difficult. Back then, again, there was not a lot of females in the industry, so we were, I guess, not accepted a hundred percent, like all the other male vocalists. So yeah, it was hard.
J. B. Sauceda: And you said you felt that more so as you were trying to break more of the tejano . . .
Linda Escobar: Yes.
J. B. Sauceda: . . . Subset of it, as opposed to conjunto? What do you think led to that?
Linda Escobar: I think that I was molded as a child. The conjunto was instilled in me as a child, so you could see that passion that was so deeply rooted in me, that—I mean, there was no argument that I was conjunto, so I really didn’t have to fight to be recognized as a conjunto artist. It was a given. Tejano was different, because I was wanting to try keyboards. I wanted to show my versatility as being able to sing tejano as well. You got to hold the notes differently, longer, and just, you know, a different structure of the whole genre. So, I was probably just getting my feet wet, so I wasn’t recognized as a tejano artist—yet.
J. B. Sauceda: Do you have any frustration over that, in retrospect? Do you feel like there’s work that was left undone?
Linda Escobar: No, I don’t really have any frustration, because I’m very proud of being known as, you know, the Queen of Conjunto, because I love conjunto music. It’s the music of the humble low- and middle-class Hispanic family, and I love representing my barrio. So, no. Tejano perhaps wasn’t a hundred percent for me, but I’m happy that I can still perform it, you know, in my conjunto shows, where I can show, like I said, the versatility. And I also love to sing country and western as well—bilingual.
J. B. Sauceda: I’ve posed this question to people, you know, because it felt like, for me, in my experience, the music was really prevalent, and was on the radio stations everywhere, growing up. And then it felt like it kind of went away, and it was harder to find, and not quite as prevalent. And so I’ve kind of asked, What happened to the music? Do you agree? Do you feel that it did go away?
Linda Escobar: Oh gosh, yeah. When we, my dad and I used to go on tour, we’d stop in every single town. Every small town, big city. And there was always a tejano or a Mexican American radio station. In every—all we had to do was look for the antenna, and we’d stop, and we’d get an interview right there and then. And they’d play our 45s, you know, because every time we’d go on tour, dad would get two or three boxes of our 45s, our latest recording. And then all of a sudden, you know—those antennas where we would stop at, at the radio station, were no longer Hispanic. They were no longer Mexican American. It was like they became more norteño. They were, like, owned by people from Mexico. And so they didn’t—our music was not in their programming, so we were not allowed to have an interview, or they would say, “Thank you for the record” and would give it to the program director, and that was it. So I think that that’s what happened. I think that the bigger corporations came in and bought all these independently owned radio stations, and a lot of us Tejanos lost out.
J. B. Sauceda: I’ve heard people in the past, even just within my own family, talk about sometimes—Tejanos have a tendency to be a little bit of crabs in the bucket. Kind of pull each other down a little. Were there cultural aspects of what contributed to the music having some challenges?
Linda Escobar: Well, I can say that for conjunto, I would say that we were—the struggle, or the downfall, was that they considered conjunto as cantina music. You know, it wasn’t as upper-class as, let’s say, a big orchestra or tejano was. So when we had weddings and quinceañeras, they would always choose a tejano band over a conjunto band—unless, you know, you had a huge hit on radio, and the father of the quinceañera, or the parents that were going to pay for the wedding, if they were huge conjunto fans, well, then, you know, we had a chance. But yeah, it was hard. It was hard to—how could you say—compete against orchestras and tejano bands, as me being a conjunto.
J. B. Sauceda: Do you feel, that in some ways, TikTok and the internet, and the way that the internet has shifted towards, like, whatever you really like is kind of what the internet shows you—and I find conjunto is in my TikTok feed now. It’s really fascinating to me that this music that I had to go search for is now just showing up on my front door. Do you think that there’s an opportunity for conjunto and tejano, and, really, all of it, to take a bigger stage in a way?
Linda Escobar: I think so. I’m never going to give up hope. [Laughs] I think that conjunto now is worldwide because—and I know it is—because I have a lot of friends in Japan. Japanese conjunto bands. Close friends of mine—of course, Kenji Katsube, who passed away in 2003, he was my music partner and dear, close friend—he introduced conjunto to Japan. And then there’s the Conjunto Festival in San Antonio, the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, that have it every year in Rosedale Park. And they have bands, conjunto bands, from the Netherlands, which is Dwayne Verheyden. Then they have from Spain. Conjunto San Antonio. Los Periquitos. Conjunto J, from Japan. I mean, they just come from all over the world. And I just feel that, yeah, we definitely have a chance. And I think that conjunto and tejano, we’re not just surviving, we’re blooming. And we’re getting out there.
J. B. Sauceda: Yeah. My dad sent me multiple videos of a guy—I think from, like, Switzerland—a young man who plays accordion, and he’s, like, freaked out about it.
Linda Escobar: Yeah. He’s from the Netherlands.
J. B. Sauceda: It’s the Netherlands. That’s right.
Linda Escobar: Yeah. Dwayne Verheyden. Yeah. He plays Flaco Jiménez–style.
J. B. Sauceda: Yeah. Yeah, it’s really great.
Linda Escobar: Good. Yes.
J. B. Sauceda: Now, you mentioned Japan. Why and how did the music—conjunto—get so big and, like, adopted in Japan?
Linda Escobar: Well, like I was saying, Kenji, he went to a concert where Flaco Jiménez was playing. But before that, he was listening to a Ry Cooder album, and he heard the sound of an accordion that he had never heard before, and, you know, he focused in on that, and he said, “What is that instrument?” So it was Flaco Jiménez. So he found out it was a diatonic accordion. And so he ordered one, mail-ordered one, and it came in, and he learned—he taught himself, and then he started conjunto there, in Osaka, Japan. And then he was asked to perform at the Conjunto Festival in San Antonio. And other people just went crazy, because he brought his musicians—his bajo sexto player, his bass player, and his drummer. So the whole four-piece, they were all Japanese.
J. B. Sauceda: Now, you and Kenji were married at one point, correct?
Linda Escobar: We were going to get married, but he passed away from cancer. Yeah. We were together, I guess as boyfriend and girlfriend, for five years. And he was the love of my life.
J. B. Sauceda: Really.
Linda Escobar: I just get choked up about it, because I wish he was still here, but I learned a lot from him, and he did take me to Japan. And I got to perform over there with him, and it was just a wonderful time. Probably the best five years of my life.
J. B. Sauceda: And you wrote “El Corrido de Kenji” about him, right?
Linda Escobar: Yes. One night, around three in the morning, I just started—I started thinking about it, and I just got a pen and a paper, and I started writing. And then I couldn’t—how do you say—put it all together like I wanted, so I contacted my friend Rosa Canales Pérez, from the Valley, and she helped put it together. So we cowrote it. And, yeah, I think it turned out great. The people love “El Corrido.”
[Linda Escobar singing “El Corrido de Kenji”]
J. B. Sauceda: How does music help you process grief and your emotions?
Linda Escobar: Oh, it’s so comforting. I mean, to sing is like an intensified prayer. It really touches your heart, and you close your eyes, and you kind of just relive the memories. It’s just very deep-rooted, very passionate.
J. B. Sauceda: Do you listen to the song at all? Do you prefer to play it?
Linda Escobar: I prefer to play it, yes. I do hear it from time to time, when they play it on the radio, or on internet radio, but I prefer to perform it. I always have it in my repertoire, “El Corrido de Kenji.” A lot of people miss him and remember him, and it’s just a very touching song.
J. B. Sauceda: Now, you gave me a shirt for your conjunto festival.
Linda Escobar: Yes.
J. B. Sauceda: What was the origination of that?
Linda Escobar: My dad. When he passed away in 1994, of cancer, he asked me to always remember to honor the veterans. I grieved really, really hard and deep when my dad passed away. So, I had a dream, five years after his death, that he was upset with me because, after all that he had taught me and all that he had left me, that I wasn’t doing anything about it. And so the next morning, I woke up, and I said, “It’s time for me to honor the veterans, in memory of my father, Eligio Escobar. And so I’m going to put together, like, a festival with different bands, and have military ceremonies, and honor our veterans, and raise that money to give scholarships to children that have a God-given talent in conjunto and tejano, because maybe their parents don’t have the ability, the capability of encouraging them, of helping them in their career, so maybe that’s my role. Like my father helped me, I need to help other children.”
J. B. Sauceda: Yeah, I think there’s some videos floating around out there of, I think, some Japanese girls dressed up like you.
Linda Escobar: Mm-hmm.
J. B. Sauceda: What does that mean to have that kind of impact, like, not only here, but just around the world?
Linda Escobar: [Laughs] It just blows me away. It feels great. I mean, to see—and they even have that same little dance that I have, you know. I feel like they feel it. I’m just very honored, and it just blows me away and just makes me feel that I have an influence in conjunto music to the other side of the world.
J. B. Sauceda: Is there something that you haven’t done yet in your career that you want to do? A different type of music?
Linda Escobar: As of right now, I am also working on a gospel album. You see, I’m a cancer survivor. In 2020, I was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer, and I am cancer-free right now, praise God, and thanks to MD Anderson, in Houston. So, you know, you get a second chance in life, and you come to realize that, don’t sweat the small stuff, that it’s the simple things in life that matter. Making memories with your family, spending time with friends. And then when I went back in July 13 of last year, I was completely cancer-free.
J. B. Sauceda: Wow, that’s incredible.
Linda Escobar: Yes. Thank God. But yes, I think that I sing with more feeling. I value my time onstage, and on performing, a lot more than I did before. Sometimes, maybe fifty percent or more of it is just a job, but now for me, a hundred percent of it is just being able to share my music with my audience, and it’s just more sentimental.
J. B. Sauceda: So, to what extent do you credit Johnny Canales for where the music is today, and its longevity today?
Linda Escobar: To a high extent, because, you know, a lot of migrants that moved from Texas up north, they don’t have their weekly conjunto or tejano dances, so where else are they going to get it but on TV? And so, because of Johnny, that kept that connection with those Tejanos out there, up north, and it kept their alegre, the happiness of their culture, alive. And, [I] just can’t think of the word, but something like, it was a caring thing. It just touched the heart of many people out there that were still able to connect with their Texas Mexican American culture.
J. B. Sauceda: Last question is, Is there anything that you wish people understood about conjunto?
Linda Escobar: I just wish that they would recognize it as much as they do tejano, because it’s very heartfelt. It’s the struggles that the Mexican American family went through. It’s just life as a Mexican American, and it has a lot of heart. It’s humble, it’s caring, it’s loving, it’s just—and it has a wonderful beat: I mean, the sound of the accordion, and the bajo sexto. It’s just—yeah, please give us more credit, because it’s very heartfelt music, and it’s the passion, and it comes from the soul.
[Linda Escobar singing “Frijolitos Pintos”]
All right, that was my conversation with Linda Escobar. Thanks so much to Linda for joining me in the studio. And a special thanks to El Dusty, for his studio space at Produce, in Corpus Christi, and for engineering the recording. And thanks to all of y’all for listening. Adios.
I’ll be back next week with Sunny Sauceda, the hard-charging, “redneck squeeze-box Mexican”—to quote one of his songs—who, after forty years in tejano music, has taken his talents, and his accordion, to Texas country music. We’ll see you then. Adios.
