A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from March 31, 2007
Norteño

“Norteño” (Spanish for “north” or “northern”) means the people and the culture to the north of Mexico, near the Texas border. The musical culture is called “musica norteña.”
   
         
Wikipedia: Norteño (music)
Norteño (literally meaning “northern” in Spanish; also known as conjunto) is a genre of Mexican music. The accordion and the bajo sexto are norteño’s most characteristic instruments. This genre of music is extremely popular in both the United States and Mexico among the Mexican community. Though originating from rural areas, norteño is highly popular in urban as well as rural areas. Many norteño bands will have either “Los…del Norte,” “Los…de (Sinaloa, Michoacán, etc.),” or “Conjunto” as part of their name. Examples include Los Tigres del Norte and Conjunto Primavera.
 
Some of the most popular norteño artists include Los Tigres del Norte, Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte, Esteban Jordan, Los Gavilanes, Carlos y Jose, Los Alegres de Terán, Los Huracanes del Norte, and Los Tucanes De Tijuana. Thanks to the popularity of radio stations playing regional Mexican music, many norteño artists have become widely popular among the Mexican-American community. Local radio stations have continued to be a major influence in popularizing norteño. 
     
Internet Movie Database
Plot summary for
Chulas Fronteras (1976)
“Chulas Fronteras” is a documentary about the music of the Mexican community on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border, particularly of migrant farmers. It includes material about the roots of the music, but devotes principal attention to the music as a form of social protest against oppression and racism. Written by George Schneiderman.
 
(Oxford English Dictionary)
norteño, n. and a.
[< Spanish norteño (noun) northerner, (adjective) northern (1884; < norte NORTH n. + -eño, suffix forming nouns and adjectives from place names.] 
 
A. n.
1. A native or inhabitant of northern Mexico.
1953 H. F. CLINE U.S. & Mexico I. vi. 111 He set forth ideals to which most norteños would still subscribe when he claimed that these Northerners are ‘..naturally the most inclined toward all the moral and political virtues’.
2. = MUSICA NORTEÑA n.
1992 Tucson (Arizona) Weekly 27 May 17/2 Bayou Seco, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, plays a mix of cajun two-steps and waltzes, cumbias, Norteño and old-time fiddle tunes.
1992 City Limits 2-9 July 47/2 Known as the ‘Texas squeezebox master’ Ponty Bone actually combines the influences [of] dance music found in Texas like Mexican Norteno with a passion for the Cajun and Zydeco music of Louisiana, and 50s R & B.
 
B. adj. Of or belonging to northern Mexico; spec. designating or relating to musica norteña.
1970 Amer. Folk Music Occas. No. 2. 73/1 Texas not only has Czech and German polka music but it is also the center of Mexican ‘Norteno’ music which, although imported from northern Mexico, as its name implies, has developed a very definite Texas sound and style.
1979 J. S. ROBERTS Lat. Tinge vii. 179 Far more radical changes got underway as younger musicians began reworking the norteño style under the influence of country music and rhythm-and-blues, in a development reminiscent of the New York bugalú.
     
7 March 1943, Harlingen (TX)

, pg. 12 ad:
“Trio Norteno”
   
29 September 1944, Deming (NM) Headlight, pg. 4 ad:
TUESDAY
Spanish Feature
“El Norteno”
 
29 April 1969, Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram, pg. B7:
Joe Flores, considered one of the best interpreters of norteno music;...
 
25 July 1976, Oakland (CA) Tribune, pg. 7E:
The scenes with Lydia Mendoza and the Jiminez family, however, are the only ones in “Chulas Fronteras” which present on film the development of Norteno music.
 
29 September 1976, Oakland (CA) Tribune, entertainment section, pg. 27:
The two films are “Chulas Fronteras,” Les Blank’s film on the Norteno music of the Texas-Mexican border area,...

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Saturday, March 31, 2007 • Permalink


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