{"id":130518,"date":"2025-08-09T01:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T01:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130518\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T01:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T01:39:10","slug":"a-musical-farewell-for-san-antonio-legend-flaco-jimenez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/130518\/","title":{"rendered":"A musical farewell for San Antonio legend Flaco Jim\u00e9nez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for TPR Today<\/a>, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n

The man who is widely considered to be conjunto music\u2019s most prolific and talented performer died last week. A memorial for legendary accordion player Flaco Jim\u00e9nez was a joyful look back. <\/p>\n

The gathering was held Thursday night at The Carver Community Center\u2019s Jo Long Theater<\/a>. It was standing room only. Every seat was filled, and people stood along the walls of the theater. <\/p>\n

Singer and songwriter Shelly Lares served as emcee. She offered comments about Flaco Jim\u00e9nez, noting his influence on her. Her comments helped begin the stream of remembrances and praise that continued all night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s obviously touched people globally, and we are proud that he represented us all over the world,\u201d Lares said.<\/p>\n

Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez<\/a> spoke, citing native American beliefs of the far north.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey believe that we all live through our souls and our spirits eternally, our bodies are just vessels, and when we’re done with our vessels, we rise to the heavens above,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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flag ceremony wherein the military presents the Jimenez family a flag<\/p>\n

Sailie Aranda<\/p>\n

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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Screenshot 2025-08-08 173026.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Host Shelly Lares<\/p>\n

Sailie Aranda<\/p>\n

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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Screenshot 2025-08-08 172838.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Flaco’s daughter Rachel, and his son-in-law Javier<\/p>\n

Sailie Aranda<\/p>\n

There were many such heartfelt sentiments shared throughout the evening.<\/p>\n

Hector Salda\u00f1a<\/a> noted that while Flaco Jim\u00e9nez’s work was done, the work of his fans isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us in this room bear the responsibility of keeping his memory and his music legacy alive,\u201d Salda\u00f1a said. “As a friend, a musician, a journalist, a historian, I stand on the shoulders of those who helped amplify the stories of our community. Flaco helped tell that story of the West Side of San Antonio, and he did take it to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The originator of the Tejano Conjunto Festival<\/a>, Juan Tejeda<\/a>, noted that the list of those who have won Grammys includes Jim\u00e9nez, and notes that the number of Grammys says a lot about his talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s the only conjunto artist to have won six Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award,\u201d Tejeda said.<\/p>\n

Tejeda notes that while Jim\u00e9nez is gone, his music isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

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Max and Josh Baca with their band Los Texmaniacs<\/p>\n

Sailie Aranda<\/p>\n

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Congressman Joaquin Castro<\/p>\n

Jack Morgan<\/p>\n

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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Screenshot 2025-08-08 172858.jpg\n <\/p>\n

The Guadalupe’s Cristina Balli<\/p>\n

Sailie Aranda<\/p>\n

\u201cHis accordion may be silenced. The music \u2014 and he left over 100 or more recordings in all different formats \u2014 will live with us forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Congressman Joaquin Castro was greeted warmly by the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood evening, everyone. Wonderful to be with you to celebrate an incredible legend and icon,\u201d Castro said. \u201cI think it’s fair to say that Flaco\u2019s music was San Antonio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jimenez\u2019s own son, Arthur, spoke highly of his father.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I wasn’t born with the gift of playing accordion, but I did what I could, and he believed in me, and I’m going to miss him,\u201d Arthur said.<\/p>\n

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Former mayor Ron Nirenberg and his wife Erika Prosper<\/p>\n

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Shelly Lares sings with Los Texmaniacs<\/p>\n

Jack Morgan<\/p>\n

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\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0Screenshot 2025-08-08 173009.jpg\n <\/p>\n

Flaco’s beautiful blue accordion<\/p>\n

Jack Morgan<\/p>\n

Jim\u00e9nez had lived the last few months in the home of his daughter Rachel, and his son-in-law Javier. Rachel said that during the last months of his life, he became highly aware of the birds in their backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo bird-watching was his thing, you know, these last few months. So his favorite was the red cardinal. ‘There’s a big, bright red bird I want you to see!'” she said, recalling her father’s words.<\/p>\n

Former poet laureate, Andrea Vocab Sanderson, took to the stage to animate the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat an honor to be here to speak and sing to the memory of such an amazing man,\u201d Sanderson said.<\/p>\n

She noted his good nature and segued to a moving performance of “Amazing Grace.”<\/p>\n

When Max Baca and Los Texmaniacs went before the crowd, they filled the stage with musical friends, and plenty of conjunto. Many performers stepped up to the mic and sang along. <\/p>\n

Juan Tejeda summed up what was on everyone\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of our greats, you know?\u201d he asked \u2014 to a great response of enthusiastic consensus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio’s newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":130519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-130518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114996259274765209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}