Editor’s note: The San Antonio Report is pleased to feature the weekly bigcitysmalltown podcast hosted by Robert Rivard, co-founder of the Report. We’ll be publishing a brief synopsis of the podcast each Tuesday.
The Tejeda family has roots in San Antonio tracing back at least nine generations, according to current-day family members. The legendary surname is prominent in the music, education and political landscape of the city.
Juan Tejeda, a musician and founder of the annual Tejano Conjunto Festival, has authored a family memoir and biography of his brother Frank Tejeda Jr., a decorated Vietnam veteran who entered state politics and ultimately rose to represent Texas’ 28th Congressional District.
Mi Carnal Frank, published by Flowersong Press in McAllen, traces the remarkable life of a disadvantaged teen who overcame a poor early academic record to achieve degrees in law and public administration from St. Mary’s University, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard and Yale.
About a decade after his older brother’s death from cancer in 1997, Juan Tejeda realized no one had yet written a biography of a man who fits the mold of an American hero, having earned a Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Silver Star, then becoming an influential politician dedicated to his hometown community.
Mi Carnal is not only a story about the local roots of a family whose surnames also include Martinez, Cisneros and Lopez, but about growing up in San Antonio as the empowering Chicano Movement emerged.
“It’s a story of the importance of education that Frank really put a lot of his faith in,” Tejeda said, “in saying you need to be well educated to to be able to make it in this society. And he modeled that for all of us.”
Tejeda also reflects on his brother’s dedication and will to succeed, and reveals the pugnacious former congressman’s instrumental role in the conversion of the old Brooks Air Force Base into what has become the Brooks development.
That success is commemorated by a public sculpture greeting visitors at the west entrance of Brooks by San Antonio artist Cruz Ortiz, who called the former congressman “the ultimate representative” of the South Side.
Visit bigcitysmalltown to listen to Episode 41 with Southside native and retired Palo Alto College music professor Juan Tejeda, or listen at the link below.
