Economedes High School offers Tejano music program – Spectrum News

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EDINBURG, Texas — Grupo Nueva Era from Economedes High School in Edinburg, Texas, can be heard playing songs of the homeland. 
The students are part of the state’s first high school Tejano music program. It was launched by the Tejano Music Legacy Foundation in the Rio Grande Valley.
“A lot of the kids it comes from their abuelito, it comes from their tios, it comes from their dads,” Juan Garza said. 
Mariachi director Juan Garza oversees the music program, which already has conjunto and mariachi. His student are singing and playing songs that were the soundtracks of their childhood.
Jose Cruz, who is a junior, feels he is honoring his grandpa by playing the accordion. 
“I wanted to join to keep playing this music and not forget about it,” Jose said. “My grandpa was really into the conjunto style music, and he inspired me to keep going.” 
He’s preserving his roots planted here in the Rio Grande Valley with every note he plays. 
“It feels special to know that we are bringing something that was slowly dying off back to life,” Giselle Lara, a junior at Economedes said. 
Tejano was a genre of music that experienced its glory days in the 1980s and 1990s, but for many in South Texas, it’s a culture that never died off. It’s who they are.
“One of our former members is Payo. He came to the school, and I always tell my students he sat right there and he played the accordion when he was a junior,” Garza said. 
Payo is part of the Grammy-award winning Grupo Frontera. Garza says the students look up to Payo, who graduated from Economedes in 2021. 
The students also draw inspiration from legendary Tejano singer Roberto Pulido, who lives across the street from the Edinburg CISD school. He’s an educator turned Tejano star.
“It’s very important to me. I wish the new generation would follow in those footsteps that we followed way back then,” Roberto Pulido said. 
His Grammy-winning son Bobby Pulido was part of Edinburg High School’s first mariachi program.
“This area, the border region, has continually and consistently put out new talent,” Bobby Pulido said. “That’s something that’s really unique to the Rio Grande Valley and I don’t want to lose that.” 
Garza says his students are making sure the culture is preserved and propelled forward.

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