Dusting off her grandmother’s 7-inch conjunto recordings from her San Antonio career in the Sixties and Seventies, singer-songwriter Estani Frizzell, known professionally as Estani, imagined a touching gift for Rosita Lopez’s 90th birthday.
She set out to re-record four preserved songs, but as Estani dug, more music, history, and questions about conjunto rose to the surface. Her 8-track record Tú De Mí Te Acordarás, out July 11 via Soviani Records, brings Lopez’s nearly lost recordings to new life with help from Grammy-winning conjunto group Los Texmaniacs, led by Max Baca. The artist’s interest in conjunto evolved into a documentary by the same name, that traces the genre’s roots from migrant workers in South Texas to a budding cultural moment.
“It was kind of a Buena Vista Social Club idea that I had in my head,” Estani explains, referencing the revival-sparking Cuban music ensemble. “But for South Texas conjunto music.”
Conjunto, characterized by the big button accordion and 12-stringed bajo sexto, has recently entered the broader cultural zeitgeist thanks to popular acts like Peso Pluma and Fuerza Regida drawing on regional arrangements of northern Mexico and the corrido format. Long before that, UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center began assembling their extensive Frontera Collection archives, giving recordings like Lopez’s a home among other regional Mexican American recordings.
Friends of Estani’s encouraged her to search for more of her grandmother’s work there. The four additional recordings she found surprised her, and helped her imagine a broader scope and audience for her birthday project.
“I’m always saying now: just go look,” Estani says. “If your uncle, grandfather, great uncle, mom, or grandmother played music and you know [that] they recorded, just maybe, they might be there.”
Through the archive, Estani learned that many of the songs her grandmother sang were written and composed for her by another woman, Anita R. Ovalle. The wife of another conjunto composer, Ovalle’s contributions to the genre were largely overlooked, as were most women working in the genre at the time of Lopez’s recordings. Estani hopes to bring some of these contributions to light through the documentary, which doesn’t yet have a release date (but watch an exclusive clip from the project, featuring Beto Martinez, below).
Estani’s reverent album pays homage to the compositions and the life her grandmother’s vocals brought to them. Tú De Mí Te Acordarás is interspersed with clips of Lopez reminiscing with Estani about her conjunto career. “I used to love that song and sing it,” Lopez says, laughing, about “Dejamé en Paz,” in the interlude titled “Para Mi Marido.” She breaks into it, finding the words and the melody perfectly in key.
“Without any type of chord prior, that’s a gift,” Estani says, her voice brimming with admiration.
Estani and Los Texmaniacs will perform Tú De Mí Te Acordarás July 26 at Regal Rooms.
This article appears in July 18 • 2025.