Tejano Music Awards draws backlash for honoring Joe Lopez with … – San Antonio Report
The Texas Talent Musicians Association’s announcement that Jose Manuel “Joe” Lopez will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 43rd annual Tejano Music Awards has drawn sharp criticism from the Tejano music community.
Many point to Lopez’s 2006 rape conviction and assert he has taken undue credit for his former musical partner’s accomplishments as reasons why he should not be honored at the awards, which will be held at the Boeing Center at Tech Port on Oct. 21.
Lopez first won renown in Grupo Mazz, the group he formed with Jimmy Gonzalez in 1978. Lopez left the group in 1998 and now performs as Joe Lopez y Grupo Mazz. Gonzalez performed with Jimmy Gonzalez y Grupo Mazz until his death in 2018.
A Cameron County jury convicted Lopez on two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child after he raped his 13-year-old niece in 2004. He received concurrent sentences of 20 years, 8 1/2 years and four years, and served time in prison from 2006 to 2017. He was released on parole in March 2018 after time in a program for sex offenders and will remain on the Texas Public Sex Offender Registry for his lifetime.
Lopez and his family members have maintained his innocence. After his release, Lopez planned a “Freedom Tour,” including a debut concert in Houston. News outlets as far-flung as the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail noted that the singer’s parole conditions prevented him from entering Harris County, where the rape victim was said to reside, though a release was granted for the performance.
Recent concerts have been canceled due to community backlash, including scheduled performances in Fort Worth and Milwaukee and a 2019 Market Square concert. Concerns were raised prior to a 2021 festival in Rockport advertised as an “event for the whole family.”
A September Tejano Nation story on the controversy drew several reader comments condemning the choice of Lopez as an award recipient. One commenter wrote, “It will taint what Tejano music and what the Tejano community stand for. … Please reconsider giving this man such an honor.” Another commented, “No child molester should be honored for any award.”
A leading member of the San Antonio music community, who requested anonymity, told the San Antonio Report the decision to honor Lopez could cause a generational rift in the Tejano music community: “What message are we giving future generations of Tejano music fans when The Tejano Music Awards recognizes a man with this disturbing criminal history with a lifetime achievement award? … For our youth, for future generations to come, do better.”
Robert Arellano, a criminal lawyer who serves as board president of the Texas Talent Musicians Association, the organization that produces the Tejano Music Awards, said, “[Lopez] served his time. That’s the way our system of justice operates in this country. … We don’t believe in him being punished any longer.”
Asked how younger female musicians and fans might regard awarding Lopez given his conviction, Arellano said, “We’re not saying we condone it. … This man was an excellent musician and still is, and is one of the forerunners of the whole Tejano movement. And he did wrong, and he went and served his time. And he’s back and just trying to make it back into society.”
Tejano Conjunto Festival founder Juan Tejeda acknowledged that “it’s a tough situation” given Lopez’s status in the music community, but disagrees with the decision to honor Lopez.
“The Tejano music industry needs to take a stand at times. And in spite of the fact that he has been a major figure in the past and he’s served his time for this crime, I still don’t think that we should be giving him an award,” he said. “… I think that implicitly … it’s sending the wrong message.”
Cristina Ballí, executive director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center who now runs the annual Tejano Conjunto Festival, said in an email that she hopes the Tejano Music Awards reconsiders the decision to give Lopez an award.
“We are not sending a good message to Tejanas, especially young Tejanas,” Ballí said. “In the era of #MeToo Tejanos should know better than to give any awards and recognitions to a person who, although culturally significant, caused tremendous damage and hurt to individuals and failed his community with illegal and immoral acts. … He is no longer a role model.”
Other controversies have arisen out of the TTMA’s announcement of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The biography of Lopez released by the organization cites Grammy award nominations for two songs, “No Te Olvidare” and “Traicionera.” The official Grammy website cites two Grammy nominations for Mazz in 1991 and 1992 for the song “Amor Con Amor” and the album Para Nuestra Gente, but no nominations for the songs cited in Lopez’s biography are listed.
Jimmy Gonzalez y Grupo Mazz won one Grammy in 2004 and several Latin Grammy awards, and received multiple nominations, including a posthumous nomination for the album Porque Todavía Te Quiero in 2018, the same year Gonzalez died. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at that year’s Tejano Music Awards.
As reported by Tejano Nation, a group of Gonzalez supporters has claimed in a social media posts that the Lopez biography released by TTMA “allows Mr. Lopez to impersonate Jimmy Gonzalez and his career accolades.”
Hundreds of respondents posted replies, the vast majority critical of a perceived attempt to take credit for Gonzalez’s legacy. However, at least one respondent mentioned the rape conviction: “I will never attend another function put on by TTMA. Why in the world would anyone honor a convicted child rapist is beyond me.”
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