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All Songs Considered

Alt.Latino: Accordions!

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.43.2K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The influence of Eastern Europe immigration in Latin America can be heard in the way the accordion was adapted and adopted in countries like Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and beyond.

This week we take a deep dive into those traditions with our guide, Eduardo Díaz, former director of Latino cultural information for the Smithsonian Institution.

Featured artists and songs:

• Narciso Martínez, "Nix"

• Carlos Vives, "Hijo de Vallenato"

• Los Corraleros de Majagual, "La Pollera Colorada"

• Luis Gonzaga, "Asa Branca"

• Grupo Alma Serrana, "Puerto Tirol"

• Francisco Ulloa, "El Farolito"

• Tatico Henriquez, "La Invasión de Deiziseis"

Credits
Audio for this episode of Alt.Latino was edited and mixed by Simon Rentner. Our project manager is Grace Chung. NPR Music's executive producer is Suraya Mohamed. Our VP of Music and Visuals is Keith Jenkins.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

This message comes from Scholastic with the new novel El Nino, an entrancing adventure from

0:05.8

beloved and award-winning author of Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan. Jason Reynolds calls it a

0:11.8

brilliant amalgamation of myth, nature, sport, and loss. I've never read anything like it. El Nino

0:18.3

is available wherever books are sold.

0:22.4

Hey, Anna, did I ever tell you about the time when I was in high school, when I played in an accordion

0:27.6

band? Many, many, many, many times.

0:33.2

You didn't think I was going to say that, did you?

0:38.8

Sorry, let me run that back.

0:40.2

I don't know, Felix.

0:41.1

That doesn't even ring a bell.

0:42.3

Tell me more.

0:46.3

From NPR music, this is all Latino.

0:48.8

This is all Latino.

0:50.0

I'm Felix Contredas.

0:52.0

Okay.

0:52.6

So then if you've already heard it, I will share it with the listeners.

0:55.8

So when I was in high school, this is in Sacramento, California, my uncle, my dad's brother,

1:01.0

and for a long time he had this Conjuto, a Mexican accordion band.

1:04.9

And I was playing drums in this little band in high school.

1:08.2

And he asked my dad if I could fill in a couple of his dates.

1:13.9

I was exposed to these accordion players, these great musicians who were at the time, I just sort of

1:22.3

discounted because they were my parents' music, right? Like, oh, that's kind of rinky dink, old stuff.

...

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