An Inspiration: Juan Tejeda

On the 28th of November, Juan Tejeda a music instructor and director of PAC’s Conjunto Program came to visit our Humanities class. He was the most inspiring and entertaining speaker that I believe our class has had throughout the entire semester. The main reason for this was because he brought in a variety of different instruments that he plays and demonstrated them to the class by playing a piece of music. He spoke greatly about the languages and told each of us that there are three different languages that we have lived under and should be appreciative for it. It is also important to know your own personal history and culture and be proud of it because we should live at peace with our neighbors and grow, and shall not be at war.

Music is also being expressed in different forms that are coming together and overall, we have created a culture between the United States and Mexican borders. Juan says that the United States has influenced our country by Jazz and rock-n-roll music and words are what counts. He said that he is a pan American Chicano and when he was only nine years old, he learned how to play the accordion and also learned how to play a Polka song. This has created a distinctive style for him, and he also loves the blues and country. Juan played a flute called a quena that was made out of red wood and also sang a song that was for his personal culture identity, for history. Corrido music was the earliest music that was created on the border and was called “A Pistol on His Hand” and the Orquesta Tejano was created here in the state of Texas. In the year 1985, he produced an opera and Conjunto started out on ranches and farms in the early centuries and from Mexico there were corridos.

After listening to him speak and play his musical instruments, I feel like if I ever have the chance to go and see him in public, I would definitely go. This is because I have never had the experience to sit and watch someone play these instruments and a couple of them I have actually never heard of. Overall, his visitation was worth it and I believe that I have learned something from it, along with all of the different forms of music that I never would have thought of.
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