Don’t be fooled. This one’s a bummer, too. It’s got that jaunty Norteña thing and Doug Sahm sings it kinda wry, but this story of a Tejano boy who no hable Mexicano but “went down to Guadalajara town, pretty soon ended up at Lake Chapala” ends badly. It’s not a death or anything, but it’s also not that much fun to think about. First off, wouldn’t you know what happens to him down there; the prettiest girl he ever seen said “I’ll take you home to meet my mother.” Ok, nice. Met a pretty Mexican girl and got to meet the family, too. Well, the mother asks him to have her daughter home by siete and it doesn’t get done. Ok, youths, right? But the chorus is “He is a Tejano and he speak no Mexicano.” Meaning the chorus is the daughter’s description of him to her family - othering, apologetic, foreboding. But it’s fun enough still. Jovial. It has that Tex-Mex wink that you kinda expect from someone like Sahm. So a couple choruses-full goes down easy.

But sure enough all the dust in the air between the U.S. and Mexico swirls into a storm the second it’s time for him to go back to Texas: she said “Mister, please take me with you. Yeah, I hear it sure is great back there in the States.” Oof. Ooooof. Now we’re straight-up busied with the life of a young Mexican girl who will cling to even a stranger in order to make it outta Mexico. Which heaps a whole legacy of unpleasantness on this little story that was supposed to be (?) kinda cute - Texas boy who gets run outta Mexico by the brothers of a young girl. But what if it’s all true: what if the girl has to apologize to her family for being interested in a Gringo; let’s also say she’s so desperate to leave Mexico that she’s willing to almost be Coyoted back to San Antonio by this dude; further let’s say her brothers are so angry about this that they basically chase this dude outta the country under threat of actual street violence. It’s cultural warfare, socio-economic discrepency, it’s xenophobia, it’s straight-up border violence. This funny little tale coulda ended up a news story that got the U.S. State Department involved.

Flaco’s fun, though! Here’s “He is a Tejano,” off of The Texas Tornados’ 1991 A Zone of Our Own.

MAPPING IT

Lake Chapala, the site of budding romance and, nearly, a murder in the street.

HEARING IT