A collection of thirty-three essays from the program-magazine from the Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio.

"Readers interested not only in music, but also in ethnic studies and popular culture, will appreciate the broad spectrum covered in Tejano Proud: Tex-Mex Music in the Twentieth Century."--BOOK JACKET.

San Antonio is often described as the “mother” of Texas cities—the oldest and, for two and a half centuries, the largest city in Texas. To many it is, as novelist Larry McMurtry once famously proclaimed, “the one truly lovely city in the state.” Long recognized as a cultural crossroads between two continents, writers in San Antonio, both native and visiting, have had a significant effect upon the city’s literary and cultural landscape. Novels were being written in the city by the late 1830s. Nineteenth century writers like Frederick Law Olmsted, Sydney Lanier, and O. Henry wrote effusively about San Antonio; Oscar Wilde found here “a thrill of strange pleasure.” Here the Mexican Revolution was called into being, and here were the political and literary origins of the Chicano Movement. Literary San Antonio provides dozens of examples of the interplay and cross-pollination of Anglo and Latino literary forms, ideas, and traditions that led to the creation of a unique borderlands or frontera literature. This city, with its winding, still-sleepy river and its story-shrouded springs; its ancient acequias and missions, now acknowledged as valued “world heritage” sites; its sacred battle grounds and historic military forts and bases; its several unique neighborhoods and barrios that have produced and been celebrated by generations of writers; its rich heritage of heroism and revolutionary passion; its endlessly celebratory ability to revel in its multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual roots and branches . . . this city is a good place to write, to write about, and to wander with a book in hand.

300 Years of San Antonio & Bexar County captures the iconic stories, moments, people, and places that define one of the oldest communities in the United States. A collection of diverse authors joined forces to produce this richly illustrated and complexly woven thematic telling of the city’s history. From its earliest legacy as home to many indigenous peoples to its municipal founding by the Canary Islanders, a convergence of people from across the globe have settled, sacrificed, and successfully shaped the culture of San Antonio. The result is a 21st-century community that strives to balance diverse heritage with a vibrant economy thanks to stories from the past that provide lessons for the future.