SAN BENITO — More than 20 years after Rey Avila’s dream, his family is ready to unveil a treasure trove of artifacts he collected from pioneers of the folk genre born in the city he called “the birthplace of conjunto music.”
On Saturday, Feb. 18, Peter Avila and his family are opening the new Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum in the city’s historic Aztec Building, displaying many artifacts after years of languishing in storage while featuring a recreation of the legendary Ideal Records studio.
“The biggest goal is to preserve, promote, archive and display artifacts of the original conjunto pioneers because that story can’t be lost,” Peter Avila, Avila’s son, said. “It hits us in the heart. These folks sacrificed so much so we could have our own regional music that started right here in the Valley. These stories have to be told.”
From 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, the Avilas will open the revamped city landmark on Robertson Street for the grand opening expected to draw some of the museum’s 70 inductees who pioneered the music, including bajo sexto master Ruben Garza, now playing with Los Dos Gs.
“There are going to be a handful of inductees,” Peter Avila, a county appraiser, said, referring to his guest list.
The family’s guests will include country music pioneer Tex Ritter’s family, he said.
“It becomes a party after a while,” he said.
The world’s only conjunto museum is drawing a widespread following, Avila said.
“I call it the cosmos of conjunto — we’re trying to get to that,” he said. “We‘re drawing interest from the state of Texas and beyond.”
These folks sacrificed so much so we could have our own regional music that started right here in the Valley. These stories have to be told.
Taking the stage
The museum’s grand opening will feature live music, with singer Marlissa Vela, the daughter of late conjunto pioneer Ruben Vela, taking the stage while Hilda Lamas, billed as the “Queen of Latin Soul,” will be closing the show, with conjunto legend Linda Escobar sharing the spotlight.
At the podium, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez is set to speak while Rick Garcia, chief executive officer of Harlingen-based CHR Records, will serve as master of ceremonies.
“We’re getting real good response,” Avila said, referring to interest surrounding the grand opening. “We’re humbled and we’re floored.”
Expanding exhibits
In 2007, Rey Avila launched the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum at the city’s Community Building, displaying a limited number of artifacts in a 650-square-foot area.
In 2019, he died waiting to move his museum into a new home where he could display his wide collection of artifacts, including relics from Ideal Records, one of the biggest recording companies producing the music tracing its roots to the city’s cantinas and dance halls like the famed La Villita, across the street from the new museum on Robertson Street.
Late last year, San Benito city commissioners entered into an agreement with Avila’s family, allowing the museum to move into the iconic Aztec Building’s first floor after the city funded a $35,000 renovation project.
For three months, Peter Avila and his family have been designing the museum’s exhibits, dipping into the nonprofit’s savings while counting on donations to finance the $15,000 project.
“We’ve been trying to lay out the museum,” he said.
Meanwhile, the family has been moving a collection of artifacts that has languished in storage into the museum, unveiling a wide array of exhibits across the Aztec Building’s 2,500 square-foot first floor.
“Now we have the space to tell the story,” Avila said. “We probably brought eight trailers of artifacts that my father had collected and stored over 20 years.”
Recreating Ideal recording studio
We tried to recreate the studio using my dad’s sketches the closest we could. It was literally like putting together a puzzle.
Rey Avila’s dreams are coming to life in the new museum.
Among his artifacts is a treasure trove of relics from Ideal’s recording studio, where the genre’s pioneers including Narciso Martinez, the master accordionist from La Paloma, cut many of conjunto’s classics before the studio closed about 60 years ago.
The artifacts include two Finebilt record presses which once turned out as many as 1,500 records a day for distribution in the United States, Mexico and Central America and two Ampex Corporation recording machines that captured many of conjunto’s classics on reel-to-reel tapes.
“It’s all the equipment that was used to record at Ideal Records,” Avila said. “Time’s stood still since they closed.”
For weeks, he and his family have been working to recreate the recording studio based on his father’s photographs and sketches, Avila said.
“He took pictures and then did sketches of the recording studio,” he said. “We tried to recreate the studio using my dad’s sketches the closest we could. It was literally like putting together a puzzle.”
Collecting conjunto’s history
Across the museum, exhibits include accordions and bajo sextos passed down from the families of conjunto’s pioneers like Gilbert Perez, Pedro Ayala and Ramiro Cavazos.
Now, his family is working with some of the last conjunto pioneers and the families of many of the genre’s legends to display their artifacts, Avila said.
“We’ve been making phone calls to the families of inductees and we’ve been contacting the conjunto pioneers,” he said. “Eventually, we want to get to a point where we’re rotating exhibits.”
Among his father’s artifacts are about 300 aluminum acetate discs from which Ideal cut the recordings of legends such as Valerio Longoria and Tony de la Rosa, including about 45 of hometown hero Freddy Fender’s early records, Avila said.
During his early years in the business, Fender worked at the studio, Avila said.
“He basically lived there,” he said of the Grammy Award-winning singer. “There was a cot that he would sleep in. He would do most of the cleaning and sweeping.”
Teaching the music
As part of the museum’s programs, conjunto pioneer Martin Zapata and band leader Fruty Villarreal are offering accordion classes, Avila said.
“We want to teach how the music first started,” he said. “We want to take back today’s youth to understand how the sounds originated.”
