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Jon Dee Graham: The native of Quemado, a small town on the Rio Grande between Del Rio and Eagle Pass, grew up hearing plenty of Spanish, especially renditions of the song "Volver Volver," the "Sweet Caroline" of south Texas. The gravel-voiced Graham recorded the tune on his 2002 album Hooray for the Moon, and if you've ever wondered what might have happened had Tom Waits learned Spanish and grown up in southwest Texas, this might give you an idea. (Graham was also in the True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo, one of the most influential and revered Mexican Americans in underground rock and roll history.)

Ted Kennedy: The Know Nothing nation nearly exploded when clips of the Massachusetts senator singing in Spanish on El Piolín's show hit the Internet and when he sang again at various campaign stops for Barack Obama. They theorized Ted was drunk, that he was butchering some romantic serenade, but the lovable liberal lush actually did a pretty good job with "¡Ay Jalisco, No Te Rajes!" ("Jalisco, Don't Chicken Out!"), a mariachi song immortalized by Javier Solis and made popular in los Estados Unidos when it appeared in Disney's 1944 propaganda effort, The Three Caballeros.

Big Walter Horton and Ronnie Earl: All you hear about nowadays is that Mexicans and blacks hate each other. Both sides should shut up and listen to the cross-­cultural love that surfaces when these two blues legends do an awesome version of "La Cucaracha," a rendition so great, I dare say it's the greatest "La Cucaracha" not played out of a car horn.

Robert Ealey: Also in this black and brown, two-tone vein, we have late Fort Worth bluesman Robert Ealey's "Tica," which finds the north Texas boogie king declaring his love for a fair señorita in what sounds very much like, but is most definitely not, actual Spanish. "Siño no noma tita," Ealey begins. "Sico camba ñe-yeeer." Later he shouts some even more garbled faux-Spanish encouragement to his guitarist. The whole thing is too sweet-natured and funny to cause offense.

Write Your Comment show comments (1)

  1. orale pues!! wana hear a cool version of volver volver? go to google video and enter keyword /freddy fender flaco jimenez/.. its a live sung by both a'la texican rock - in espanol of course, but the kicker is that ol' willie nelson is tagging along.. sheck it out.

    Comment by jose "bruno" sanchez — June 3, 2008 @ 05:38PM

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