Texas Farmworkers Union "March for Human Rights" (1977)

On Feb. 26, in San Juan, Texas, there was a gathering to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Texas Farmworkers Union’s “March For Human Rights”. Exactly 40 years earlier in 1977, the TFWU started a march in San Juan that took them to Austin by April, then ultimately to Washington, D.C., in September. Altogether they marched more than 2,000 miles demanding human rights for farmworkers and to repeal ‘Right to Work’ laws protected in the Taft-Hartley Act. This video from Abel Orendain, one of the son's of Antonio Orendain, has footage from this famous march in Rio Grande Valley history. 

Upcoming Lucha Libre in the Rio Grande Valley

The weekend of October 21-22 is a major one for professional wrestling in the Rio Grande Valley. In the lower Valley, Hallowmania 9 is taking place on Saturday night, October 21, with the Lucha Brothers (Penta el Zero M and King Fenix) in action at the Jacob Brown Auditorium in Brownsville. In the upper Valley, Robles Promotions is presenting a lucha libre extravaganza that is set for Sunday afternoon, October 22, headlined by top AAA star Psycho Clown. It will be taking place at Famoso Fuego in McAllen, starting at 3 PM.

The show will is schedule to include many luchadores, including Pagano, Hijo del Fantasma, Texano Jr., former TNA star Hernandez, Ramses, La Mascara, someone being promoted as Nacho Libre, Big Neurosis, Corazon de Barrio, Christy Jaines, Mystique, Aguila Azteca, Black Cougar, Al Cruz Jr., Rey Negro, Brysin Scott, Danny Chance, Veronica Brazier, Myzterio, Nite Mare, Pete Pain, Rey Kuervo, Aqua Fish, cult favorite Ronald El Jorobado (a Ronald McDonald hunchback character...), Minion 1, Mini Spiderman, and an appearance from legendary lucha libre pro-rudo commentator Arturo Rivera. No word yet on what matches are going to be taking place, who will be fighting who, between all these luchadores.

This show is being built off last months “Gran Homenaje Brazo de Plata (Super Porky)” event at Famoso Fuego on September 17. Porky is the father of Psycho Clown, who is one of the many members of the legendary Alvarado wrestling family. Clown has been climbing up the ranks at AAA (one of the top professional wrestling companies in the world; based out of Mexico) in the past few years and had his breakthrough match on August 26 at Triplemanía XXV.

On that date, Clown took on lucha libre icon Dr. Wagner Jr. in a ‘Lucha de Apuesta, Mascara vs Mascara’ (Mask vs Mask) match, the biggest type of gimmick match one can have in Mexico. After 28 minutes of back and forth action, and lots of mask ripping and plenty of blood from both men, Clown defeated Wagner Jr. with his version of the ‘Code Red’. Wagner Jr. was thus forced to remove his mask, which he has had since 1985, and reveal himself for the first time in public as 52-year-old Juan Manuel González Barrón. The biggest win a luchador can have is beating a legend in a Mask vs Mask match, and this cemented Clown as the top star in AAA.

The match was a huge success for AAA and Clown. The card drew over 20,000 fans to Arena Ciudad de Mexico. It aired on Twitch for viewers around the world in English and Spanish, and the Clown-Wagner showdown also aired on Televisa in Mexico on the same night as the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Conor McGregor fight. With both matches being aired for free on Televisa in Mexico, Clown-Wagner drew an amazing 22.8 television audience rating, edging out Mayweather-McGregor's 19.9 television audience rating on that same channel.

This will be Clown’s first appearance in the Valley since his career-turning match with Wagner Jr. Presale tickets for the event are going for $20.00, and can be bought at Novedades Martinez in Pharr. For more information on this lucha libre extravaganza, one can call at 956-681-7998.

There is so many lucha libre shows going on at this point in time in the Valley, that it's difficult to keep track for those that don't listen to Spanish-language radio or go to Mexican restaurants where flyers are up. Right before press time, I found out that there is yet another show happening this Saturday night, October 14, at the South Texas Fighting Academy in Mission, Texas, at 7:30 PM. The show will be main evented by Caristico, who formerly went by Mistico during the CMLL (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre) boom period of the mid-2000's, and who used the Sin Cara moniker in the WWE from 2011 to 2013. During his glory days in CMLL, Mistico had a memorable feud with the late, great rudo Perro Aguayo Jr. and his group Los Perros del Mal. Attempts to make him into the next big Latino star for the WWE didn't really pan out and he's back in the lucha libre circuit.

Joining Caristico for Saturday night's card will be Los Ahijados del Dracula, Los Reyes, Black Cat, Misterioso Jr., Temblor, Gemelos Pantera I y II, Pantera Blanca, Turok, Imagen de Oro, Principe Celestial, Aslum, Turok Jr., Temblor Jr., Mariposa Salvaje, Panda, and Imagen 2, who got Monitor headlines in 2013 after the FBI and SWAT invaded a lucha libre show in McAllen because they confused him for a drug-trafficking luchador that used the same Imagen 2 name. Someone didn't alert the FBI that luchadores use the same (or similar-sounding) names way too often.

Pre-sale tickets are $20.00 for adults, $10.00 for kids, and for more information you can call 956-570-0174.

There is a lucha libre and independent wrestling renaissance going on right now, and I just love it. So much great, great stuff going on right now, it's fun to keep track of everything that is happening in the world of professional wrestling.

26th annual NMCAC Conjunto Festival

This week, I'm going to be recommending different recent videos from 2017 to check out of top conjunto musicians who were originally scheduled to perform at the now cancelled 26th annual Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival.

“Mi Ranchito” by Los Donneños - Ramiro Cavazos, who celebrated his 90th birthday in February and who is one of the great pioneers of music in the Rio Grande Valley, is still playing the bajo-sexto and singing at his shop in McAllen, on 23rd street. Cavazos first recorded with Mario Montes in the late 1940s for Falcon Records, where they were named Los Donneños by label owner Arnaldo Ramirez. In this video, he is joined by longtime his longtime accordionist Beto Espinoza, as they do their rendition of “Mi Ranchito” at Cavazos’ shop. Cavazos, along with Montes, appeared in a few films that starred Piporro, and with Narciso Martinez in the Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz documentary “Chulas Fronteras”.

“Eva Ybarra Honored at the 2017 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert HD at Concert” - Eva Ybarra showcases her unique and progressive accordion-playing style in this new video recorded by the National Endowment of the Arts. Ybarra is a San Antonio native, and developed a completely unique style that stands out on its own as one of the best in conjunto music. Ybarra became the first conjunto musician ever to be an artist-in-residence at a major university when she was invited to be one by the University of Washington’s Ethnomusicology Department in 1997. That experience inspired her to record an album titled “Space Needle”. Ybarra has been a regular at the major conjunto festivals over the decades, including both the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio and the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival in San Benito.

“Los Texmaniacs at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival: “México Americano’” - Los Texmaniacs have become conjunto music ambassadors, and this is another example of them doing just that. Led by bajo-sexto player Max Baca, his accordion playing nephew Josh Baca, and Edcouch-Elsa native and bass player Noel Hernandez, the group performs a great take on the classic “México Americano”. Baca has been playing the bajo-sexto since he was a child, and learned under the legendary accordionist Flaco Jimenez and bajo-sexto maestro Oscar Tellez. Baca also collaborated with Jimenez and the Rolling Stones for the album “Voodoo Lounge”.

"Linda Escobar on Domingo Live" (07/30/2017) - Linda Escobar has been singing for conjunto bands since she was a child, and continues to do so in 2017. A few years ago, she celebrated her 50th anniversary in conjunto music, just to give you an idea of how long she’s been doing this. In this video, she appears on the Corpus Christi-area program “Domingo Live” to sing several songs with her conjunto, Conjunto Amable, and to promote “Vi Una Nube”, the groups’ new album. The last time I saw Escobar perform in person was at the 23rd annual Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center Conjunto Festival, where she performed with the iconic Edinburg conjunto Los Dos Gilbertos.

Interview with Daga

Internationally known luchador Daga was in the Rio Grande Valley recently wrestling in McAllen for Lucha Powerhouse. The former AAA World Cruiserweight Champion is best known for his time in the AAA organization where he wrestled there for six years. He also made some appearances on Lucha Underground on El Rey Network. Daga left AAA earlier this year, to explore the independent wrestling scene, which is currently going through a unique boom period.

Recently Daga defeated Nicho el Millonario (the former Psicosis, who wrestled in AAA and WCW under that character name), in a Hair vs Hair match. Daga took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to me about his training, his favorites, and the current professional wrestling scene in 2017.

EM: To start things off, I read that you trained with two great legends in Black Terry and Negro Navarro, what can you say are some things you learned from those two maestros?

Daga: I’ve always liked the classic style of lucha libre, I’ve always liked it. I’ve become a complete professional wrestler because I can fly, wrestle hardcore, wrestle on the mat. By training with Navarro, Black Terry, and I also trained with CMLL (Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre), my maestros have always been ‘old school’, so the most important thing I learned was to love lucha libre and to project how it used to be, that pure science, that classic style. I’m in a revolutionary era where there is hardcore and high-flying, so I’m prepared to do whatever style but I learned how to love what I do from those two.

EM: Who were your favorite wrestlers when you were a child?

Daga: When I was a child, I had a few. When I was an adolescent, that’s when I had more. One of them was Negro Casas. I liked a lot of American [and international] wrestlers, like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dynamite Kid, Tiger Mask I, Mitsuharu Misawa, Masato Tanaka, Satoshi Kojima. All of them were wrestlers I liked a lot, and they are all part of the style I use today. I liked wrestlers from all over the world but those were my favorites.

EM: Do you keep up with current international and independent wrestling?

Daga: Yes, now that I’m an independent wrestler, my goal now is to wrestle more in America. So I keep watching American, ‘indie’, Japanese wrestling. It wasn’t that long ago that I saw [NJPW] Wrestle Kingdom 11, which was a really good event. So I keep watching. People recognize Daga from television, but now [that I plan to tour more] they are going to know a new different Daga, with more wrestling.

EM: You mentioned Wrestle Kingdom, what did you think of the Kenny Omega vs Kazuchika Okada match that everyone is talking about?

Daga: I don’t think it’s a 6-star match, but I think it’s like 5 ½ stars, no more than that. Omega I think is one of the best wrestlers in the world today, if not the best. Okada is good too, but I think the one that made that match was Omega.

Note: The ‘6-star match’ is in reference to Dave Meltzer giving the match that rating in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, which caused a lot of debate online.

EM: You mentioned Omega, who else do you think are among the best in the world today?

Daga: Today, there is Omega, The Young Bucks, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, there’s so many good wrestlers in the world today. La Rebellion in Mexico too, they are also good wrestlers. The European scene is really good too, with Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, Zack Sabre Jr. There are so many good wrestlers, I think we are in a moment where I wished all the good wrestlers from around the world, from all countries, would start traveling and touring more so we could see professional wrestling grow more and more.

EM: Are there any wrestlers from the independent scene that you’d like to step in the ring with?

Daga: Lots of them (laughs). I would love to go to Japan and wrestle with everyone, Okada, Katsuyori Shibata (note: this was before Shibata suffered his serious head injury), Zack Sabre Jr., The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega. I think right now there are so many good wrestlers all around the world, that all I can say is that I’d like to wrestle them all. From Japan, Europe, to the United States, all of them.

EM: Last question since you mentioned La Rebellion and you’re in the group, what does La Rebellion mean to you?

It’s the best of pro wrestling. I think we have everything we need to do things the right way and succeed. We have Penta, who is a great rudo. Fenix who is a natural high-flyer. They have me, who wrestles with [submission] holds and strong style. Humberto Garza, who keeps moving forward and who women like a lot. I think it’s a great buffet of lucha libre, it’s a movement where La Rebellion are just not four people, but all the people that support us.