Interview Español/English

On March 11, 2000 our group interviewed Eva and Gloria in San Antonio, TX.

I. Eva Ybarra- History and Family

II. What did your parents say about playing the accordion?

III. Who are your influences?

IV. Gloria Garcia- History and Family

V. How was your experience in Seattle, Washington?

VI. How does it feel to be a woman in the music world?

VII. Why did you begin composing songs?

VIII. And the corrido of "Carlos y Matilde?"

IX. Why do you use the corrido form over any other musical form?

X. How do people react when you sing corridos which are typically performed by men?

I. Eva Ybarra-History and Family

I was born in San Antonio, Texas and began to play the accordion around the time I was four years old. By the time I was six I was already playing professionally, and as my parents say, this little girl was able to bring more money into the house than the entire rest of the family, and that's the funny thing about it..

I am from Circle 81, close by. This is my native soil, San Antonio. My entire family was born here.

I have a great-grandfather that was a baker in Coahuila, México but the rest of us are from here. My mother was born in Leadsville, Texas and my father in Greytown, Texas.

We're an honorable family and were brought up with respect.

My brother Pedro Ybarra is the oldest; he was born in Nixon, only because my mother said she went there while she was pregnant and had him there. He's the father of Peite Ybarra junior, the one who plays accordion with Emilio Avaira.

Next is my sister Lili. She is a songwriter and has written some of our songs such as "Negra Africana," "La Ricachona" and others.

Next is Gloria. She is the mother of Frank, who plays in the band Rodeo de Pancho. Gloria has a son that plays the trumpet with the Mariachi Campana. She has him and another son caled Joel who writes songs and also plays with a mariachi. They're trying to play at the Hard Rock now.

Delia, the other sister, has a son that plays the saxophone with Los Cowboys.

I'm the fifth sibling. I was going to marry but decided not to because, well, men are sometimes jealous and you fall in love but there's a defect or something and you're disillusioned...I never wanted anyone to say anything about my music.

The sixth is Yolanda. She likes music a lot, she liked to play the piano but never dedicated herself. But she loves to dance.

I showed David how to play base and he played with many bands, first with us then with "Los Blue Notes" and "Los Paisanos," famous groups of the time.

Next is Ray. He got married. He wanted to study the base but his wife was very jealous. She said no because musicians are egostistical, she said "if you start playing we won't get married." So he left it. Now he baptizes. He wants to study to be a priest.

That makes nine of us in the family.

I was the only one to dedicate myself to music. The oldest plays accordion and decided not to, though his son still plays.

When I was young, around six or seven years old, peopl cried. I saw that they were crying and I think it was because they thought I was very young. When I played the accordion they put me on a soda box so I could reach the microphone. My feet were always dangling.

Next we went to work in Arizona to work. My brother Pedro and I played in restaurants and there was a man there who saw us and said he was interested in getting us to play in restaurants. He was the one who introduced us to restaurants. When there was a break they would anounce to pass around a hat in which people put money...

II. What did your parents say about playing the accordion?

My father said that it was my key because there werent' many women who played the accordion. My mother said no because she wanted me to play the piano, because I would strain my lungs. I'm still playing and thank God my lungs are still good. The "push and pull" is very delicate for the lungs. And the weight, the accordion I play weighs nine pounds but I played a Corona Gabanelli, even heavier, but I sold it because of that.

III. What are your influences?

My brother Pedro, the oldest, who played the accordion. He began playing the accordion sinnce he was the oldest and since I liked the sound I used to look at his fingers and say "I want an accordion, I want an accordion." So they bought me one. Listening to the radio I heard the melodies and figured them out on the accordion. My father played guitar and sang and my mother wrote songs, some of which we've recorded for our albums such as "No es de poder" and "Negro Destino."

IV. Gloria Garcia-history and background

I come from a family of eleven, six men and five women, and all of them love music and singing though they never dedicated themselves to the music profession. I was the only one in the family who went for a musical career

because my heart was set on it. In Mexico I was working, I left my hometown in Chiapas to go to Mexico DF and it was there that my singing career took off. I had interviews with many peopl from Channel Two sich as Mario de la piedra, Ricki Placido and raul Velasco. I was on a program that came on Saturdays at 2 in the afternoon on Channel Two and later starred on Palenque 75 on Channel Two. That was where I worked.

I went on tours. We had a tour through Spain though it turned out bad for the first time because we were under a contract from a man who took advantage of artists. He took us to Santander and Leon and took the money we made. We went on tour with artists such as Maria de Lourdes, el bronco negra, a mariachi group, Los Mensajeros and a pair of ballerinas. We worked hard but this man took our money and left us there. His name was Jorge Davis. We had to work in Spain to earn enough money for a plane ticket to come back to DF. So that was the first tour we had and it turned out very badly. Afterwards we had a contract to go to Venezuela. I was working in varios states of Venezuela; in Varancilla, Trujillo, Maracaibo and Caracas.

Then I continued in Mexico. Los Fernandez Palenque de Gallos, national, you could say it was throughout the mexican republic. With Lola Beltran, Alberto Gabrioto, Umberto Cabana and many theatre artists. I also worked with Cantinflas in 1972, the famous comedian. Many Americans went to see him. He made everyone who went laugh. I worked a lot in Mexico City and in 1983 came to Texas. That was where I came to know Eva Ybarra and her conjunto. Her and her conjunto accompanied me to perform in the Royal Palace, a place in San Antonio where she worked. I met her there, I sang with her, we said bye and didn't see each other again for another three or four years. Then we talked longer and she said "I know you compose songs and I want you to be with my group,what do you say?" I told her "Id like to because tejano music is beautiful also." I was used to playing mexican folk music but then said to myself, I have to play what my boss tells me, Eva Ybarra, because sh'es the leader of this group and the one who gave me an oportunity to be in her group. I was very grateful and began to write songs. In one of them I wrote a dance for Eva. It's the cumbia that we recorded on the Hacienda Records album, that we later recorded with Rounder. It's a cumbia dedicated to her. I have many songs recorded with her and we're putting out our third album together. Ive worked and fought with her to reach the kind of music she was happy with. We've toured Seattle, Washington, Portland and California. We've practically toured all of Texas.

V. How was your experience in Seattle, Washington?

Eva was teaching in the University of Washington and she had many students that knew nothing about accordions. She had many productions in the theatre of the University, she alternated with a Korean teacher.

And did the people there like the music?

P>Oh yes, they like it even more than here. They're mostly americans and they dance and sing to the music.

VI. How do you feel being women in the music world ?

Eva:

We women are capable of many things, just like men. It's the power of the woman.

We've had many difficulties because, as you can see, it's a man's world.

I have two americans that play the base and bajo sexto. I work well with them because they're anglos, it's a different culture. The tejano culture is little more macho-man. But, I work comfortably. The problem is that there are some men that won't let the woman be the leader.

Gloria worked with the Vecente Fernan. We got tips in restaurants in Mexico City before he was famous. I got more tips because I was a woman. They said "150 pesos for the lady and 100 for the man." There were always problems. We ended up going our own ways so as not to keep fighting.

VII. Why did you start to write songs?

I started because there are so many things that happen in life and one has to think about what they've suffered. I do this by writing songs. That's what's beautiful about it. As I said before, since I was little I've had it in my blood because I didicated myself to folk music more than ranchera. But now, after joining with Eva, I write tejano music. I'm very happy to be with Eva because sh'es was born a good and honorable person and she helps people that are talented and that unfortunately others don't help.?? She's not selfish nor jealous even though we're two women. We're different. We haven't had any problems, we always work well together.

VIII. And the corrido of Carlos y Matilde?

This actually happened back home. They raped a woman and tied up her husband so that he had to watch them rape his wife. He killed all who raped his wife. This came to me in Chiapas in a small town where there are tough hacienda owners who like to have power over women, whether they're married or not. They have no respect. That's where I began to write the story exactly as it happened.

IX. Why do you use the corrido form over any other musical form?

Because I sometimes write to play with a mariachi band. It's better, history wtih music makes more of an impression, you feel it more, understand it better. The mexican people are used to hearing the corrido, there are many about drug addicts that take and traffic drugs like corridos that the Tigres del Norte sing, that's real, it's real life.

Of all my brothers there's one that sing purely romantic songs, Rafael Garcia. He writes many songs but only love songs. He's working here in San Antonio and has a completely different style than mine, folkloric corridos, rancheras, boleros rancheros, huapangos. He's more romantic.

X. How do you think people react when you sing corridos which are typically performed by men?

Yes, most corridos are performed by men, but when I heard one I said "I have to write a corrido myself" because we are intelligent. Not every women wants to write corridos but ive always liked them and I have many corridos that are unkown though I plan to bring them out some day. When a corrido becomes famous I want to have more material to keep writing corridos. I'm writing many, all about women of the haciendas, women with valour that also make mistakes like men do.