June 6, 2025 • 26 mins
Long before Latin music ruled the airwaves and charts, Tejano was king… and there was one man at the center of it all: Johnny Canales.
His impact on the music industry is undeniable. Johnny helped Selena Quintanilla skyrocket to success and he helped make many other Tejano artists highly visible.
In this episode, Maria Hinojosa sits down with Adrian Arredondo and Myrna Perez, the directors of “Take It Away: The Rise and Fall of Tejano Hollywood,” a new documentary that looks at the life of Canales and his legacy.
Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Some of the biggest global hits in music over the
last few years have come from Latinos and Latinas. There
is of course Bad Bunny Group of Frontera and Tokisha,
(00:25):
and that's just to name a few. These Latino and
Latina artists are not afraid to push the limits of
the US music industry, including singing en Espanol. But before
today's musical explosion in Latini Dave, there was another era
(00:46):
where Latinos and Latinas were highly visible. It was just
a few decades ago, actually, in the eighties, during what
was known as the Decade of the Hispanic.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
From coast to coast.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
However, they are America's fast growing minority.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Hispanic spend more than thirty billion dollars on consumer goods
each year.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Our wide ranging cultures, demographic shifts, and consumption power were
being noticed back then, and there was one musical genre
that demonstrated all of these forces in one It was Dejano.
Dejano music was evolving from regional roots music to global sensation,
(01:33):
and there was one man at the center of it.
He was behind and on the screens as well. He
was helping to turn aspiring Tejano artists into De Hanno superstars.
His name Johnny Canales minis partisan. Johnny debuted the Johnny
(01:54):
Canales Show in nineteen eighty three and it would eventually
be played on Univicion so Aalez. And it was one
day in nineteen eighty five when a little known corpus
Christy teenager would visit the Johnny Canalis Show for the very.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
First time permanent pat Okay Scucendo and Mexico.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Los pat.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Her name was Selena Quintana, her band Los Dinos. It
would be the first of many appearances of Selena on
Johnny Canalis Show.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Are we Ready?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We're ready for you?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
How about Bitty Bitty bomb.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Take it away? Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Johnny would end up being a key figure in Selena
rising to become the biggest star of the Hanno music.
Dejano was on top of the world and Selena was
its shining star. But we all know how Selena's life
was cut short.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We have a woman ran in the lobby, and.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Some say that de Hanno music died with Selena, But
if you look more closely, it's a lot more complicated
than that, because the story of de Hano is also
in a way, the story of migration of cultures coming together,
of the tension of assimilation or the resistance of it
in the United States and de Hanno. It paved the
(03:42):
way for the musical genres that are taking over the
charts today, from regaton to Latin pop. Johnny Canalis died
last year on June twelfth, but a new film about
his life and the industry of Pejano music is helping
to keep his legacy alive.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Today, you got it, Take it Away, Let's see.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You from Fuduro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm
Maria Josan. Today we're going to take a look at
the origin of the evolution and the legacy of the
(04:24):
Hanno music and the impact that Johnny Canalis had on it.
Adrian Aredondo and Midna Bets are the co directors of
the film Take It Away, The Rise and Fall of
the Hanno Hollywood. Adrian and Midna joined me today for
(04:46):
a conversation about the impact of the Hanno music and
the outsize role that Johnny Canalis played in it. Adrian
Aredondo and miRNA Beets, welcome to Let You Know, USA.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Maria.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Thank you many. It's an honor to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So here's my relationship with dejano music. Basically, as a
little girl, starting from the time that I was like seven,
our family would get in a car in Chicago and
we would drive all the way to Mexico, and that
meant we had to drive through the state of Texas.
And once we got through the second southern half of
(05:29):
the state, immediately when I'd be fiddling with the radio dial,
you'd start to hear music in Spanish. And so for me,
this relationship was estamo serga Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
We are near Mexico.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
South Texas is where you hear music in Spanish on
the radio, and in our family we called it mussi, grancera,
all of it. So can you just give us the
definition of Tejano music, because you start your documentary by saying, hey,
(06:04):
it's American music.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, I think to do that we have to talk
about Mexican music as a whole. As you'll see in
the film, the accordion is not a Mexican instrument. It's
an instrument that came from polka's from Germany, from the
Czech Republic.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And what ends up happening in.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
The United States when you have all these migrant communities
is that you have German and Czech immigrants who are
also in these migrant towns with Mexican immigrants, and in
order for all of them to have the sense of
home and nostalgia, they start creating music at cantinas and
from there they end up mixing all the instruments together
and this genre is born. It has the sort of
(06:50):
the underlying elements of Mexican music, where you have a
corrillo it's telling you a story, pabrancheedai it's very folky.
You have certain elements for mariacci. But then you also
have because it's Tejano music and it's American, you have
this influence of country, of blues, of rock and roll,
and that's what creates Tejano music. It's almost like this
(07:12):
reflection of what America is. It's a melting.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Potan Because you grew up on the border, maybe you
can take us to the first time that you remember
hearing the music and how you understand it now.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
My first experience with the Hano music was in Las
Pulgas deal in South Texas. I would go to the
flea markets over there, we call them bulgas, and usually
while you're there shopping, there's a lot of food and
there's a lot of music. And I recall seeing the
Tejano bands at the bands at Las Boulgas and they
(07:50):
would play, and I recall seeing accordions for sale and
just thinking that they were the most beautiful thing I've
ever seen. But the older I get, I stopped going
to I start moving out of Texas for work, and
those themes and motifs sort of stayed with me, right
And when we got to making this film, outside of
(08:10):
talking about how do we present Johnny Canals, how do
we present the music, Miran and I had a lot
of conversations as to how do we present the spirit
of what this culture and this community really is. And
so in the movie, we visit a lot of flea markets,
all of the bolagas. We have an o to the accordian.
Our entire movie is composed with music from accordions that
(08:33):
we use as orchestral instruments and present them differently. So
all of these first memories really lend themselves to be
the spirit of the movie.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So, miRNA, one of the things that you documented is
the so called migrant farm worker circuit, right, and these
are mostly Latino and Latina migrant farm workers, which we're
moving from crop to crop, from state to state. But
the music, they had this whole thing going on. They
(09:04):
were making connections, playing making people happy after a long
week at work. So can you talk about the migrant
farm workers circuit and how this actually made the music
grow because it was always moving from one place to another.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
The migrant circuit is actually one of my favorite parts
of the entire film. I think it's fascinating how you
have this group of people that's following the path of
farm workers. And I also think that there is something
to be said about the joy and beauty that come
from these communities. So much of the narrative and the
(09:44):
media about these communities is these are the people that
pick our fruits, our food. We have to be grateful
for them, and that's the end of it. But I
think what's fascinating about the migrant circuit is that it
almost humanizes the people at our border of that do
these jobs that potentially traditional Americans don't want to do,
and it adds a completely different layer to them. And
(10:07):
so I love that this was a story that was
part of making the genre as big as it became
because it's so unexpected and not something that happens today.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
When we come back, we hear from Adriana and Midna
about the lasting impact that Johnny Canalis had on the
industry and where Spanish language music is headed. Now stay
with us. Hey, we're back and I'm going to continue
(10:51):
my conversation now with and mietn up it is. They
are co directors of the film Take It Away. The
Rise and Full of the Hannah Hollywood. Another one of
my favorite moments in the film. It's the part where
you show how Johnny Canalez expanded beyond South Texas. He
(11:13):
was now being seen on Univision and people would make
posters and they would be holding up the posters and
it would say we love you to our family in
someplace in Michigan and it would turn out to be
a prison. Or there's one that you capture, which is Saluday,
(11:34):
which is holding up a sign that says we love
you Paraguay. It was literally making a poster saying a message,
holding it up while you're in the audience when the
camera comes to you. I mean, it's just such a
beautiful moment. That captures again, it's not just about the music,
it's about everything that goes around the music.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
The johnniy G Cannilis Show was almost religious in the
way that communities would come out every single Sunday. It
was like a church service, right and you went there
to see Johnny be the outstanding entertainer that he was.
You would go to see Selena or like your favorite artist,
but you also would go there to see your best friend,
your cousin, your dia, your deal, make new friends, and
(12:18):
also you would go there to have yourself be seen
by the rest of the communities around the world who
were there to watch the show. And over time the
show gained this amazing reputation for being not just an
inner place for entertainment, but a place for community. In
our film, we were able to meet with one mother
(12:41):
who grew up going to the Johnny Gannallis show, and
while she was at the Johnny Gannallis show, her father
who was in prison. They weren't quite able to communicate,
but through the show she was able to make signs
and she was able to hold them up to the
cameras and communicate with him. Because everybody at the prison
was watching the Johnny Gannallis Show, and they were able
(13:02):
to not only talk to each other, but spread messages
of love of support. And it's just an amazing thing
to know that the show expanded beyond Johnny gnas himself.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So can you talk a little bit about Johnny Canalez
And you know he makes this transition from playing at
Cantinas himself to basically becoming the opera of Tejano music.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
He really was ahead of his time and he is
the American dream. Johnny Canalis started his life as a
farm worker with his father, out in the fields, and
he ended his life a star maker. He introduced the
world to Selena, He introduced the world to Bronco, he
introduced the world to Bobby Bulilo, he introduced the world
to Ramonayala. And now you have all of these superstars
(13:52):
who thirty years ago, nobody quite knew who they were,
where they were going to go. But Johnny did because
he was not only a vagrant worker. He was a musician,
He was a hustler, he was bilingual, he was a
very loving, kind person, and once he reached a sort
of level where he could have a platform, all he
(14:13):
did was bring other people in and he did so
at a cost that he assumed himself. Nobody paid him
for his TV show. I mean, the man added to
the show himself. Eventually he would make it a family
show with Nora and his children, who would help them
bring artist's book, artists clean the stages, turn on the lights.
And in our film, I think many people see the
(14:35):
level of quality that he was presenting and they just assume,
oh my god, this must have been some type of
Univision production from the beginning. But that was only ten
years into his show. Fifteen years into his show.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So I want to take a step back for a
moment to understand the reach of Tejano music. Because there
were so many music labels, there were award shows that
were happening in South Texas, entire radios stations dedicated to
this genre. It was the farm Workers Circuit, it was
the Johnny Canals Show. Even though the rest of the
(15:08):
United States didn't quite know that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It always has been everywhere.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I just don't think people have acknowledged it visibly in
the way they do today. So for example, today you
have artists like Beyonce, who was on her major tour
supporting her new work but her tour is very much
at the Hanaud tour. If you look at the visuals,
the language, the presentation of it, it's exactly what was
(15:35):
being presented thirty years ago by Johnny Canal. If you
look at artists like Grupra Fromtta today, they are the
children of the producers who made Selina's music. It was
really amazing to see how it was everywhere, not just
in Texas. I think Techcanods were just really proud to
finally have something that was sticking to the larger culture.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So I am Mexicana, raised in Chica, then I end
up in New York. I mean, honestly, the eighties were
all the salsa music. There were not many Mexicans in
New York City at this time, so Selena for me
comes a little bit later. I'm wondering, did you learn
anything new about his relationship even with Selena while you
(16:20):
were working on the documentary, Because Johnny Canalis played a
big role, frankly, in getting Selena out there.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think most people know that Johnny was the first
person that brought Selena to Mexico. I think also a
lot of people know that he was the one that
led her to learn to speak Spanish. You can see
it on the show when he kind of teases her, Selena,
if you want to be an international star, you have
to learn how to speak Spanish.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well. Selena soalava and Espanola.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The narrow, the narrow, I would have. Maybe the thing.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That people didn't know about Selena and Johnny is that
they had this really beautiful relationship where he almost felt
like a mentor to her with this theo energy.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And you can tell.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
How much her passing affected him in the homage that
he created for her in the tape where he talks
about her passing and he says goodbye to her.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know that you will goodbye, He will see you later.
Who got it? They get away.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The thing about Selena's passing is that it leads to
a big shift in Tejano music.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
A lot of record labels lost interest.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
There was this sense that as more Latinos, more Mexicanos
are coming in, that music should be quote unquote pure,
it should be a hundred percent Mexican. And all of
this created tension among artists who had depended on Johnny
Canalis and his sponsorship and the public walk us through
(18:10):
this time period because people were mourning the death of Selena,
but her death was actually having a huge impact on
what was happening commercially with this music.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
It took us about five years to make this film.
You know, about three and a half years we were
fully with Johnny Canalis, the latter half of the part.
Johnny Canalis passed away, so there was a lot of
i think unopened doors that sort of revealed themselves and
opened up throughout his passing, as did when Selena passed away,
(18:44):
visiting Selena Auditorium where Johnny had his funeral, his public funeral,
being there to film that attracted so many of the
same people and fans and audience members who were at
Selena's funeral as well, and the way that the community
embraced both of these artists, I'm positive is something I
(19:05):
would ever experience in my life again. It felt political,
it felt musical, it felt cultural, and it felt really heavy.
A lot of people felt like they knew Selena and
Johnny Canalis personally, even though they may have never met them,
(19:26):
maybe just because they were in the audience so many
times watching them.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
They were impacted by their stories and their musicality.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
And when they passed they've really felt like they lost
the part of themselves. So for me, something I learned
about Selena was the real truth of the impact that
she had on the community the North Star, that she
was not just for Johnny, but for so many of
the artists who were on his show, who were inspired
to be musicians because they would see her performing at
(19:54):
his show. Even when we interviewed Abraham Gintania, Selena's father,
for our film, he still holds a lot of heaviness
in his heart when it comes to the role that
Johnny Canalis played in her career. So for me, it
was really eye opening to connect with the spirit of
Selena through Johnny Cannalis, through the archival research, through watching
a lot of the behind the scenes footage that the
(20:15):
world has never seen that we include in our movie.
After Selena passed, you know, Bobby Boulito in the film
really really sort of goes into it and he talks
about how the industry collectively got depressed.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
The record labels got a little.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Bit of that wind punched out of their gut because
the most visible person all of a sudden was gone.
The rug got pulled out from everybody at the same time,
and at the second that that happened, the larger, broader
audience immediately moved away to the next big thing, and
so many Tihano artists were feeling like, hold on, she
was just one of a thousand of us, What about
(20:54):
the rest of us?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And Johnny canals.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
At the same time, his television shows arted to be
programmed a little bit more globally nationally, and he started
introducing a lot of Mexican artists, artists from Latin America,
So really the Takano artists had this one to punch
where they lost Alena. The television show started to migrate
to more international music. Technology started to come up and
the Internet started to dominate airwaves, and our film really
(21:21):
goes into that sort of twenty year black hole where
Takana was figuring itself out up until today where it's
started back up to being at the top of the charts.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
You did get a chance to spend some time with
Johnny Gannaliz himself. You saw him when he was towards
the end of his life. He was sick, kind of
abandoned and ignored, which is really really sad. So tell
us what it was like to be with Johnny and
what you take away from spending that time.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
It did feel like Johnny was forgotten to a certain extent,
But I think more than it being sad, I think
there was something actually really beautiful about who he was
at the end of his days and who he's always been.
And I think the most beautiful thing about Johnny is
that the person that you see in the archival tapes,
not just the times where he's talking to the camera,
(22:19):
but the times he's talking to the audience honestly about
what's happening and he's not even paying attention to the cameras,
is the same exact person that he was days before
he passed away. He never changed who he was, the
values that he had of being the kind of person
who is for the people and cares about people. That
(22:40):
never changed and that was really cool to see when
we were interviewing him the last few times before he passed.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
How do you see Dejano music now? And I assume
that's why you wanted to make the documentary. You wanted
to say, hey, in case anyone has any doubts, is
he huge and it's not going anywhere at the end?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Oh completely Latin music. I would say even more so
in the condo music. Latin music today is peak pop.
Bad Bunny's number one, fort that is number two. These
are the biggest chart topping artists in the world. But
we both, in our discussions about making this movie agreed that, hey,
this didn't just happen overnight. Latin artists and the visibility
(23:25):
of what we're doing didn't just appear out of nowhere
and all of a sudden we're number one. No, it
actually started about thirty forty fifty years ago, and prior
to technology, prior to all of these distribution companies who
now are pouring millions of dollars into marketing strategies and
into live streams and into concerts and festivals, there was
(23:46):
Johnny Connalist who was doing all of those on his own.
And our film makes the argument that had Johnny Cannialists
not started the Johnny Gonnalist Show and lived his path
of truth through his experience as a migrant person, none
of these artists today would be number one. And if
you watch the film, you can see exactly how culture, immigration, politics,
(24:10):
telecommunication network changes and deals, how all of those things
were navigated by Johnny to create a platform that gave
a generation a voice and then once that platform disappeared,
those artists got less visible and a little bit lost.
And today, now that platforms exist again, they're able to
be back on top, which just reinforces our argument that
(24:33):
if you give Latinos a platform, we will reach the top.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Adienne Nitna, thank you so much for speaking with me
on Latino USA.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And congratulations, Thank you so much, Maria. We're so happy
to be here and talking to Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
That was Adrian Arredondo and mi Na Beets. They are
co directors of Take It Away, The Rise and Fall
of s Dejano Hollywood. Johnny Canalis passed away last year
on June twelfth in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was eighty
one years old. May he rest in peace in pastisconce.
(25:30):
This episode was produced by Renaldo Leanos Junior. It was
edited by Andrea Ropez Crussoo. It was mixed by JJ Carubin.
The Latino USA team also includes Roxanna Guire, Julia Caruso,
Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Dominique Inestrosa, Stephanie le Beau, Luis Luna,
Julietta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales Garcia, Dasha Sandoval, Mour
(25:56):
Saudi and Nancy Trujillo Fernanda. It is our managing editor,
Bennide Ramirez, Maria Garcia and I are co executive producers
and I'm your host Mariano Possa. Join us again on
our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on
social media. Pamin stagra yatu savis esta approxima no yes.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation, creates a brighter future for the nation's children
by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
The Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines
of social change worldwide, and the John D. And Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation,
Some of the biggest global hits in music over the
last few years have come from Latinos and Latinas. There
is of course Bad Bunny Group of Frontera and Tokisha,
(00:25):
and that's just to name a few. These Latino and
Latina artists are not afraid to push the limits of
the US music industry, including singing en Espanol. But before
today's musical explosion in Latini Dave, there was another era
(00:46):
where Latinos and Latinas were highly visible. It was just
a few decades ago, actually, in the eighties, during what
was known as the Decade of the Hispanic.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
From coast to coast.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
However, they are America's fast growing minority.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Hispanic spend more than thirty billion dollars on consumer goods
each year.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Our wide ranging cultures, demographic shifts, and consumption power were
being noticed back then, and there was one musical genre
that demonstrated all of these forces in one It was Dejano.
Dejano music was evolving from regional roots music to global sensation,
(01:33):
and there was one man at the center of it.
He was behind and on the screens as well. He
was helping to turn aspiring Tejano artists into De Hanno superstars.
His name Johnny Canales minis partisan. Johnny debuted the Johnny
(01:54):
Canales Show in nineteen eighty three and it would eventually
be played on Univicion so Aalez. And it was one
day in nineteen eighty five when a little known corpus
Christy teenager would visit the Johnny Canalis Show for the very.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
First time permanent pat Okay Scucendo and Mexico.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Los pat.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Her name was Selena Quintana, her band Los Dinos. It
would be the first of many appearances of Selena on
Johnny Canalis Show.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Are we Ready?
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Are you ready?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We're ready for you?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
How about Bitty Bitty bomb.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Take it away? Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Johnny would end up being a key figure in Selena
rising to become the biggest star of the Hanno music.
Dejano was on top of the world and Selena was
its shining star. But we all know how Selena's life
was cut short.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
We have a woman ran in the lobby, and.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Some say that de Hanno music died with Selena, But
if you look more closely, it's a lot more complicated
than that, because the story of de Hano is also
in a way, the story of migration of cultures coming together,
of the tension of assimilation or the resistance of it
in the United States and de Hanno. It paved the
(03:42):
way for the musical genres that are taking over the
charts today, from regaton to Latin pop. Johnny Canalis died
last year on June twelfth, but a new film about
his life and the industry of Pejano music is helping
to keep his legacy alive.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Today, you got it, Take it Away, Let's see.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
You from Fuduro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm
Maria Josan. Today we're going to take a look at
the origin of the evolution and the legacy of the
(04:24):
Hanno music and the impact that Johnny Canalis had on it.
Adrian Aredondo and Midna Bets are the co directors of
the film Take It Away, The Rise and Fall of
the Hanno Hollywood. Adrian and Midna joined me today for
(04:46):
a conversation about the impact of the Hanno music and
the outsize role that Johnny Canalis played in it. Adrian
Aredondo and miRNA Beets, welcome to Let You Know, USA.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Maria.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Thank you many. It's an honor to be here with you.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
So here's my relationship with dejano music. Basically, as a
little girl, starting from the time that I was like seven,
our family would get in a car in Chicago and
we would drive all the way to Mexico, and that
meant we had to drive through the state of Texas.
And once we got through the second southern half of
(05:29):
the state, immediately when I'd be fiddling with the radio dial,
you'd start to hear music in Spanish. And so for me,
this relationship was estamo serga Mexico.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
We are near Mexico.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
South Texas is where you hear music in Spanish on
the radio, and in our family we called it mussi, grancera,
all of it. So can you just give us the
definition of Tejano music, because you start your documentary by saying, hey,
(06:04):
it's American music.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, I think to do that we have to talk
about Mexican music as a whole. As you'll see in
the film, the accordion is not a Mexican instrument. It's
an instrument that came from polka's from Germany, from the
Czech Republic.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
And what ends up happening in.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
The United States when you have all these migrant communities
is that you have German and Czech immigrants who are
also in these migrant towns with Mexican immigrants, and in
order for all of them to have the sense of
home and nostalgia, they start creating music at cantinas and
from there they end up mixing all the instruments together
and this genre is born. It has the sort of
(06:50):
the underlying elements of Mexican music, where you have a
corrillo it's telling you a story, pabrancheedai it's very folky.
You have certain elements for mariacci. But then you also
have because it's Tejano music and it's American, you have
this influence of country, of blues, of rock and roll,
and that's what creates Tejano music. It's almost like this
(07:12):
reflection of what America is. It's a melting.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Potan Because you grew up on the border, maybe you
can take us to the first time that you remember
hearing the music and how you understand it now.
Speaker 5 (07:30):
My first experience with the Hano music was in Las
Pulgas deal in South Texas. I would go to the
flea markets over there, we call them bulgas, and usually
while you're there shopping, there's a lot of food and
there's a lot of music. And I recall seeing the
Tejano bands at the bands at Las Boulgas and they
(07:50):
would play, and I recall seeing accordions for sale and
just thinking that they were the most beautiful thing I've
ever seen. But the older I get, I stopped going
to I start moving out of Texas for work, and
those themes and motifs sort of stayed with me, right
And when we got to making this film, outside of
(08:10):
talking about how do we present Johnny Canals, how do
we present the music, Miran and I had a lot
of conversations as to how do we present the spirit
of what this culture and this community really is. And
so in the movie, we visit a lot of flea markets,
all of the bolagas. We have an o to the accordian.
Our entire movie is composed with music from accordions that
(08:33):
we use as orchestral instruments and present them differently. So
all of these first memories really lend themselves to be
the spirit of the movie.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
So, miRNA, one of the things that you documented is
the so called migrant farm worker circuit, right, and these
are mostly Latino and Latina migrant farm workers, which we're
moving from crop to crop, from state to state. But
the music, they had this whole thing going on. They
(09:04):
were making connections, playing making people happy after a long
week at work. So can you talk about the migrant
farm workers circuit and how this actually made the music
grow because it was always moving from one place to another.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
The migrant circuit is actually one of my favorite parts
of the entire film. I think it's fascinating how you
have this group of people that's following the path of
farm workers. And I also think that there is something
to be said about the joy and beauty that come
from these communities. So much of the narrative and the
(09:44):
media about these communities is these are the people that
pick our fruits, our food. We have to be grateful
for them, and that's the end of it. But I
think what's fascinating about the migrant circuit is that it
almost humanizes the people at our border of that do
these jobs that potentially traditional Americans don't want to do,
and it adds a completely different layer to them. And
(10:07):
so I love that this was a story that was
part of making the genre as big as it became
because it's so unexpected and not something that happens today.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
When we come back, we hear from Adriana and Midna
about the lasting impact that Johnny Canalis had on the
industry and where Spanish language music is headed. Now stay
with us. Hey, we're back and I'm going to continue
(10:51):
my conversation now with and mietn up it is. They
are co directors of the film Take It Away. The
Rise and Full of the Hannah Hollywood. Another one of
my favorite moments in the film. It's the part where
you show how Johnny Canalez expanded beyond South Texas. He
(11:13):
was now being seen on Univision and people would make
posters and they would be holding up the posters and
it would say we love you to our family in
someplace in Michigan and it would turn out to be
a prison. Or there's one that you capture, which is Saluday,
(11:34):
which is holding up a sign that says we love
you Paraguay. It was literally making a poster saying a message,
holding it up while you're in the audience when the
camera comes to you. I mean, it's just such a
beautiful moment. That captures again, it's not just about the music,
it's about everything that goes around the music.
Speaker 5 (11:55):
The johnniy G Cannilis Show was almost religious in the
way that communities would come out every single Sunday. It
was like a church service, right and you went there
to see Johnny be the outstanding entertainer that he was.
You would go to see Selena or like your favorite artist,
but you also would go there to see your best friend,
your cousin, your dia, your deal, make new friends, and
(12:18):
also you would go there to have yourself be seen
by the rest of the communities around the world who
were there to watch the show. And over time the
show gained this amazing reputation for being not just an
inner place for entertainment, but a place for community. In
our film, we were able to meet with one mother
(12:41):
who grew up going to the Johnny Gannallis show, and
while she was at the Johnny Gannallis show, her father
who was in prison. They weren't quite able to communicate,
but through the show she was able to make signs
and she was able to hold them up to the
cameras and communicate with him. Because everybody at the prison
was watching the Johnny Gannallis Show, and they were able
(13:02):
to not only talk to each other, but spread messages
of love of support. And it's just an amazing thing
to know that the show expanded beyond Johnny gnas himself.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
So can you talk a little bit about Johnny Canalez
And you know he makes this transition from playing at
Cantinas himself to basically becoming the opera of Tejano music.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
He really was ahead of his time and he is
the American dream. Johnny Canalis started his life as a
farm worker with his father, out in the fields, and
he ended his life a star maker. He introduced the
world to Selena, He introduced the world to Bronco, he
introduced the world to Bobby Bulilo, he introduced the world
to Ramonayala. And now you have all of these superstars
(13:52):
who thirty years ago, nobody quite knew who they were,
where they were going to go. But Johnny did because
he was not only a vagrant worker. He was a musician,
He was a hustler, he was bilingual, he was a
very loving, kind person, and once he reached a sort
of level where he could have a platform, all he
(14:13):
did was bring other people in and he did so
at a cost that he assumed himself. Nobody paid him
for his TV show. I mean, the man added to
the show himself. Eventually he would make it a family
show with Nora and his children, who would help them
bring artist's book, artists clean the stages, turn on the lights.
And in our film, I think many people see the
(14:35):
level of quality that he was presenting and they just assume,
oh my god, this must have been some type of
Univision production from the beginning. But that was only ten
years into his show. Fifteen years into his show.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
So I want to take a step back for a
moment to understand the reach of Tejano music. Because there
were so many music labels, there were award shows that
were happening in South Texas, entire radios stations dedicated to
this genre. It was the farm Workers Circuit, it was
the Johnny Canals Show. Even though the rest of the
(15:08):
United States didn't quite know that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
It always has been everywhere.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
I just don't think people have acknowledged it visibly in
the way they do today. So for example, today you
have artists like Beyonce, who was on her major tour
supporting her new work but her tour is very much
at the Hanaud tour. If you look at the visuals,
the language, the presentation of it, it's exactly what was
(15:35):
being presented thirty years ago by Johnny Canal. If you
look at artists like Grupra Fromtta today, they are the
children of the producers who made Selina's music. It was
really amazing to see how it was everywhere, not just
in Texas. I think Techcanods were just really proud to
finally have something that was sticking to the larger culture.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
So I am Mexicana, raised in Chica, then I end
up in New York. I mean, honestly, the eighties were
all the salsa music. There were not many Mexicans in
New York City at this time, so Selena for me
comes a little bit later. I'm wondering, did you learn
anything new about his relationship even with Selena while you
(16:20):
were working on the documentary, Because Johnny Canalis played a
big role, frankly, in getting Selena out there.
Speaker 4 (16:27):
I think most people know that Johnny was the first
person that brought Selena to Mexico. I think also a
lot of people know that he was the one that
led her to learn to speak Spanish. You can see
it on the show when he kind of teases her, Selena,
if you want to be an international star, you have
to learn how to speak Spanish.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Well. Selena soalava and Espanola.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
The narrow, the narrow, I would have. Maybe the thing.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
That people didn't know about Selena and Johnny is that
they had this really beautiful relationship where he almost felt
like a mentor to her with this theo energy.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
And you can tell.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
How much her passing affected him in the homage that
he created for her in the tape where he talks
about her passing and he says goodbye to her.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You know that you will goodbye, He will see you later.
Who got it? They get away.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The thing about Selena's passing is that it leads to
a big shift in Tejano music.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
Right.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
A lot of record labels lost interest.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
There was this sense that as more Latinos, more Mexicanos
are coming in, that music should be quote unquote pure,
it should be a hundred percent Mexican. And all of
this created tension among artists who had depended on Johnny
Canalis and his sponsorship and the public walk us through
(18:10):
this time period because people were mourning the death of Selena,
but her death was actually having a huge impact on
what was happening commercially with this music.
Speaker 5 (18:21):
It took us about five years to make this film.
You know, about three and a half years we were
fully with Johnny Canalis, the latter half of the part.
Johnny Canalis passed away, so there was a lot of
i think unopened doors that sort of revealed themselves and
opened up throughout his passing, as did when Selena passed away,
(18:44):
visiting Selena Auditorium where Johnny had his funeral, his public funeral,
being there to film that attracted so many of the
same people and fans and audience members who were at
Selena's funeral as well, and the way that the community
embraced both of these artists, I'm positive is something I
(19:05):
would ever experience in my life again. It felt political,
it felt musical, it felt cultural, and it felt really heavy.
A lot of people felt like they knew Selena and
Johnny Canalis personally, even though they may have never met them,
(19:26):
maybe just because they were in the audience so many
times watching them.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
They were impacted by their stories and their musicality.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
And when they passed they've really felt like they lost
the part of themselves. So for me, something I learned
about Selena was the real truth of the impact that
she had on the community the North Star, that she
was not just for Johnny, but for so many of
the artists who were on his show, who were inspired
to be musicians because they would see her performing at
(19:54):
his show. Even when we interviewed Abraham Gintania, Selena's father,
for our film, he still holds a lot of heaviness
in his heart when it comes to the role that
Johnny Canalis played in her career. So for me, it
was really eye opening to connect with the spirit of
Selena through Johnny Cannalis, through the archival research, through watching
a lot of the behind the scenes footage that the
(20:15):
world has never seen that we include in our movie.
After Selena passed, you know, Bobby Boulito in the film
really really sort of goes into it and he talks
about how the industry collectively got depressed.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
The record labels got a little.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
Bit of that wind punched out of their gut because
the most visible person all of a sudden was gone.
The rug got pulled out from everybody at the same time,
and at the second that that happened, the larger, broader
audience immediately moved away to the next big thing, and
so many Tihano artists were feeling like, hold on, she
was just one of a thousand of us, What about
(20:54):
the rest of us?
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And Johnny canals.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
At the same time, his television shows arted to be
programmed a little bit more globally nationally, and he started
introducing a lot of Mexican artists, artists from Latin America,
So really the Takano artists had this one to punch
where they lost Alena. The television show started to migrate
to more international music. Technology started to come up and
the Internet started to dominate airwaves, and our film really
(21:21):
goes into that sort of twenty year black hole where
Takana was figuring itself out up until today where it's
started back up to being at the top of the charts.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
You did get a chance to spend some time with
Johnny Gannaliz himself. You saw him when he was towards
the end of his life. He was sick, kind of
abandoned and ignored, which is really really sad. So tell
us what it was like to be with Johnny and
what you take away from spending that time.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
It did feel like Johnny was forgotten to a certain extent,
But I think more than it being sad, I think
there was something actually really beautiful about who he was
at the end of his days and who he's always been.
And I think the most beautiful thing about Johnny is
that the person that you see in the archival tapes,
not just the times where he's talking to the camera,
(22:19):
but the times he's talking to the audience honestly about
what's happening and he's not even paying attention to the cameras,
is the same exact person that he was days before
he passed away. He never changed who he was, the
values that he had of being the kind of person
who is for the people and cares about people. That
(22:40):
never changed and that was really cool to see when
we were interviewing him the last few times before he passed.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
How do you see Dejano music now? And I assume
that's why you wanted to make the documentary. You wanted
to say, hey, in case anyone has any doubts, is
he huge and it's not going anywhere at the end?
Speaker 5 (23:02):
Oh completely Latin music. I would say even more so
in the condo music. Latin music today is peak pop.
Bad Bunny's number one, fort that is number two. These
are the biggest chart topping artists in the world. But
we both, in our discussions about making this movie agreed that, hey,
this didn't just happen overnight. Latin artists and the visibility
(23:25):
of what we're doing didn't just appear out of nowhere
and all of a sudden we're number one. No, it
actually started about thirty forty fifty years ago, and prior
to technology, prior to all of these distribution companies who
now are pouring millions of dollars into marketing strategies and
into live streams and into concerts and festivals, there was
(23:46):
Johnny Connalist who was doing all of those on his own.
And our film makes the argument that had Johnny Cannialists
not started the Johnny Gonnalist Show and lived his path
of truth through his experience as a migrant person, none
of these artists today would be number one. And if
you watch the film, you can see exactly how culture, immigration, politics,
(24:10):
telecommunication network changes and deals, how all of those things
were navigated by Johnny to create a platform that gave
a generation a voice and then once that platform disappeared,
those artists got less visible and a little bit lost.
And today, now that platforms exist again, they're able to
be back on top, which just reinforces our argument that
(24:33):
if you give Latinos a platform, we will reach the top.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Adienne Nitna, thank you so much for speaking with me
on Latino USA.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
And congratulations, Thank you so much, Maria. We're so happy
to be here and talking to Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
That was Adrian Arredondo and mi Na Beets. They are
co directors of Take It Away, The Rise and Fall
of s Dejano Hollywood. Johnny Canalis passed away last year
on June twelfth in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was eighty
one years old. May he rest in peace in pastisconce.
(25:30):
This episode was produced by Renaldo Leanos Junior. It was
edited by Andrea Ropez Crussoo. It was mixed by JJ Carubin.
The Latino USA team also includes Roxanna Guire, Julia Caruso,
Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Dominique Inestrosa, Stephanie le Beau, Luis Luna,
Julietta Martinelli, Marta Martinez, Monica Morales Garcia, Dasha Sandoval, Mour
(25:56):
Saudi and Nancy Trujillo Fernanda. It is our managing editor,
Bennide Ramirez, Maria Garcia and I are co executive producers
and I'm your host Mariano Possa. Join us again on
our next episode. In the meantime, I'll see you on
social media. Pamin stagra yatu savis esta approxima no yes.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
Latino USA is made possible in part by the Annie E.
Casey Foundation, creates a brighter future for the nation's children
by strengthening families, building greater economic opportunity, and transforming communities.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
The Ford Foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines
of social change worldwide, and the John D. And Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation,
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