2020-09-16

Belén Escobedo

Belén Escobedo (San Antonio, Texas)

Belén Escobedo plays rare and beautiful fiddle tunes in the South Texas-Mexican grass roots Tejano Conjunto tradition. Growing up on the south side of San Antonio and working as a professional fiddler since she was a teenager, Belén has preserved a unique style of fiddling that has all but disappeared from the Texas borderlands. Belén has a vast and unique repertoire, including tunes she learned from her grandfather’s whistling and a huge range of borderlands tunes from both sides of the border. The name of her trio, Panfilo’s Güera, honors her grandfather’s influence on her, the grandchild he called his güera, or “blondie.” Panfilo’s Güera is Belén, her husband Ramón Gutierrez (tololoche or double bass), and Stevie R. Vaveges (bajo sexto).

Interviewed by Raquel Paraíso, 09/16/2020.

Raquel Paraíso

Music; United States; Covid-19 Pandemic

San Antonio, Texas

Musicians in America during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Society for Ethnomusicology