The flavor of George Soto in Hispanic Music

George Soto was born en El Barrio de Newton Avenue in the great city of Seguin, Texas. George didn't have a dad; His dad died in the war in Europe in early 1943 before George was born. His mom lived in San Antonio, Texas. He was raised by his abuelitos or grandparents. Adding to his sense of family was a black lady, Mrs, Redix, who lived next door and often asked George to stay and eat. He felt so close to her he called her aunt.

 In 1949 at the age of six George was enrolled at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School in Seguin, Texas. In 1955 George graduated from said school. George also lost his grandmother Leoner Martinez in the middle of 1955 and only George and his grandfather were left. Next school he attended was Joe F Saegert Jr. High and he graduated from that school in 1958. In 1955 George started playing Football, Basketball, Track, Baseball and Gymnastics. All that ended in 1960 at Seguin High School after passing to the eleventh grade, George left school.

George and Munchie (Ramon Salazar Jr.) were old friends. One day he watched Munchie's brother, Rudy, play the harmonica and guitar. George sensed a flicker in his blood. "To me Rudy was more of an inspiration than anybody else," remembers George. But of the Salazar brothers, Munchie was George's buddy. When Munchie bought a guitar in 1958 and began to practice, George's musical ambitions heated up. "When Munchie bought that guitar, it even inspired me more because we were always together," recalls George. "I also bought my own guitar, and we started practicing together." Several months went by and Ramon Salazar Jr. left and joined Charles McIntyre and his band while George stayed practicing by himself. Another Two or three months went by and Ramon requested to rejoin George. For the record George Soto never played with Charles McIntyre or any other band!!

In 1958 George Soto and Ramon Salazar Jr. formed a Rock-N-Roll band and named themselves the Playboys, a popular name at that time. Sometime between 1960 and 1961 the Playboys became the Broken Hearts. George started developing a special gift that he didn't know he had. George stated, "If I knew a song it changed when I started playing it, my feelings took over and the song came out different. My feelings controlled every song that I played." George who had the talent and his own original style also arranged (Rhythm-Lead) many of the group's recordings, and broke new ground in tejano music with the guitar arrangement of Las Cuatro Milpas, an instrumental recorded in 1964, featuring George on guitar. Las Cuatro Milpas Became a Hit for the Broken Hearts.

Concerning Las Cuatro Milpas, Lupe Gonzales of Tierra Tejana in 2011 stated, "On that polka, George Soto played those famous pasadas on his guitar that no one to this day can duplicate"! A Littlefield, Texas fan in 2011 also stated "You forgot the best Broken Hearts song...Las Cuatro Milpas....played by George Soto....I watched him in Littlefield, Texas in 1964." Sergio Martinez posted to George Soto B H; "George it is my pleasure to meet you through FB. You are indeed a legend in Chicano music. My best to you," Sergio! Joe Ybarra stated "Your one of a kind George, especially in "Las Cuatro Milpas" we don't have bands like that anymore, I mean playing with your Heart! We do have great Bands now & I like to change with the times music wise but back then...well it's hard to explain, you know what I mean George! Del Corazon, Great Memories. God bless you my friend". Margie Gonzales on Las Cuatro Milpas, "Great Song, love it"! Luisa Medina Arteaga stated on facebook, "Hi George! I just finished reading your story in the "About" section. It is a VERY impressive story...you are a true Tejano Legend. To be honest with you I have not heard of you or the group Broken Hearts. I just listened to the videos you uploaded on YouTube and you are an extraordinary guitarist. I just wanted you to know that I'm honored to be part of your friends." Raul Sanchez" WOW! That's a great story, GEORGE SOTO "EXTRAORDINARY GUITARIST" April 11 at 12:54pm 2014. "To George a very dear friend & one of the greatest Lead Guitarist I've ever had the pleasure of knowing" by Chepe Ramirez

George Soto's guitar riffs were highly original. The manner in which he combined different musical genres in his guitar riffs was truly remarkable. Those "pasadas" could imitate a "bajo sexto" or imitate a "requinte" and a "keyboard" as well. What the guitarist (George Soto) in "The Broken Hearts" did was a make up for the instruments they may have lacked and accentuate the instruments that they did have as well as the vocalist in their band. Their "sound" was unlike any other band of that era. Every song George recorded had a Rock N Roll and Jazz Flavor. He was one the first Guitarist to combine Rock N Roll and Jazz into Hispanic Music.

At the beginning of 1967, George Soto left the Broken Hearts. On June 2, 1969 George invited Jesus Christ into his heart and asked Him to forgive his sins and the Lord saved him, changed him and gave him eternal life. George became a complete new person in Christ. Soon thereafter, he met Angelita Ramirez Cervantes and on October 29, 1971 she became his wife. George never finished high school so he started his quest for education by getting his GED and then getting diplomas as a Medical Laboratory Technician, Accounting, Electronics, Communications, Land Titles and etc. George became Responsible Head of a Blood Bank and Laboratory in San Antonio, Texas. That lasted for over twenty years. After that, he became a Customer Service Representative specializing in surveys for a title company.

George did his most important work serving the Lord with his wife. They ran a Sunday School Bus Ministry, bringing over 150,000 (after thirty years of service) children and adults to church and overseeing their lives many of whom are now serving the Lord. In 1969 George was appointed Choir Director at Bethel Mexican Baptist Church. That lasted until 2005 at another Baptist Church. George also served the Lord as a Lay Preacher, Bus Director, Sunday School Director and Usher. George and Angelita are still serving the Lord by presenting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost world and have a Ministry called "JESUS ONLY" in Facebook.

George Soto is a member of the National Hispanic Music Hall of Fame inducted February 1, 1991 in El Paso, Texas and Tejano Roots Hall Of Fame inducted January 05, 2013 in Alice, Texas. 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Las Cuatro Milpas

The Starliners were from Rockport, Texas. Initially, it was a Rock-N-Roll Band. The Jim Crow Laws of those times restricted us to the places we could play and those that would hire us wanted us to play Mexican Music as well as Rock-N-Roll Music. Not all of us were happy about the idea, but we all agreed that it was necessary. Rudy Ramirez (no relation), the leader of the band asked me if I knew how to play any polkas because in his opinion we needed to be able to play at least one polka and I asked him what that was. Now, those who grew up with me usually point out that they happen to know that my grandparent took me to the Mexican dances they went to, so how could I not know what a polka was. It's true. They did take me to the dances that they went to. The thing is that I "heard" Mexican Music, but I had never "listened" to it. In those days anyone could've told me that a bolero was a polka or that a ranchera was a corrido and I would've believed it because I knew absolutely nothing about Mexican Music. About an hour after practice, Rudy came by my house to drop off two records that had "polkas" on them. One was "Las Cuatro Milpas" by The Broken Hearts and the other was "Atotonilco" by The Latineers. I knew who Little Joe and The Latineers (later La Familia) but I had no idea who Sixto Sanchez and The Broken Hearts were. I started out trying to play "Atotonilco" by The Latineers. It just so happened that Rudy called me in the middle of it and asked me how I was coming along and I told him that I was working on "Atotonilco". He asked me what I had thought of "Las Cuatro Milpas". I told him that I hadn't listened to it but I told him that I would since he asked to at least listen to it if nothing else. After we finished talking on the phone, I put the record on intending to listen to it and then taking out "Atotonilco". I heard it once, then twice. The following day at practice, Rudy asked me if I had "Atotonilco" and I told him and I shook my head saying, "No." I took out "Las Cuatro Milpas" instead. "Las Cuatro Milpas" was the first Mexican song that I learned and we used it as the opening and closing song for aproximately six (6) months.

At the time I learned to play "Cuatro Milpas" I never realized nor is there any way that I could've known that it would be one of the polkas that I would play with one band or another thoughout my time as a working musician which lasted all the way until the early Eighties ("80's").

Some People who have heard this story before have asked me how I heard of Little Joe and The Latineers if I didn't listen to Mexican Music? The thing is that Little Joe and The Latineers and Sunny and The Sunliners had English recordings that were played on local Rock-N-Roll radio stations. I had heard "Ramona" and "All Night Worker" (to name a couple of songs long before I heard "Atotonilco" by them). The very name "Latineers" gave me a good idea that they were Mexican. By contrast, Sunny and The Sunliners gave no hint of that fact. I heard "Talk To Me", "Golly Gee", "Judgement Day"(to name a few). Had I ever heard "A Thrill Upon A Hill" or "Slowly, Slowly But Surely" or "Crying Over You" (to name a few of their songs) on those stations, I would've heard of them. "Las Cuatro Milpas" was not only the first polka that I ever "listened" to but it was also the song that I ever heard from The Broken Hearts.

Sometimes, I shake my head when I hear that the "accordian" is "Our Roots". I agree that it is "our" roots but it's a just part of "our" roots. I've read writers who write about "Chicano" Music and wonder if they have ever bothered to look at the instrumentation of those "old" groups of yesteryear? If they have none of them have ever bothered to question the fact that bands like Sunny and The Sunliners, Little Joe and The Latineers, Sixto Sanchez and The Broken Hearts bear little resemblence to the instrumentation of conjuntos or the "old orquestas" of that era. While the old orquestas bore a resemblence in the horn section there wasn't a keyboard nor bass guitar in those groups. In both conjuntos and the "old orquestas" it was the bass violin that was the mainstay of those groups. However, if anyone will look at the instrumention or bands like "Fats" Domino, Little Richard, Anthony and The Imperials anyone can see that it is the same instrumentation of these very bands that evolved into "Chicano" Music.

Yes, the accordian is a part of "our" roots but equally true is that so is the electric guitar. If the "roots" of the accordian can be traced to Narciso Martinez, Flaco Jimenez, Sr. and Valerio Longoria, so can the "roots" of the role the electric guitar within "Chicano" Music be traced to the emergence of Rock-N-Roll on the American scene. Although Little Richard, Anthony and The Imperials, "Fats" Domino or Chuck Berry and the rest of the Mainstream Rock-N-Roll Musicians couldn't play Mexican Music anymore than Los Guadalupanos, Los Pavo Reales or Los Alegeres de Teran could play Rock-N-Roll Music.
However, bands like Sixto Sanchez and The Broken Hearts could play both genres of music. I once asked someone if they knew who the "Old Guard" were and the response I received was that they were Chicanos who could play Rock-N-Roll. It could be said that way, but the fuller truth was that they were Rock-N-Roll Musicians who could play Mexican Music!

Back in the Late Seventies (70's) I happened to tune in to a "Chicano" radio station that was playing "A Blast From The Past" music. I heard a couple of Sunny and The Sunglows ( not The Sunliners, but The Sunglows) songs, Little Joe and The Latineers, Rudy and The Reno Bops and then I heard the D.J. mention Sixto Sanchez and The Broken Hearts. The first song he played was "Plegarias Falsas" in it I heard the bluesy riffs of the sax. It accentuated Sixto's voice just like George Soto's guitar riffs had accentuated the saxophones in "Cuatro Milpas". As luck would have it the other song that was played from The Broken Hearts was "Las Cuatro Milpas". Once again I heard George Soto's pasadas on guitar and a sudden realization hit me. George Soto was imitating a bajo sexto with a guitar!! Any musician can copy a song but it takes a very talented musician to make his instrument sound like another instrument. Way back in the Sixties (60's) when I was a kid trying to play "Las Cuatro Milpas" and struggling to learn Mexican Music there isn't any way that I could've told anyone that because I didn't know anything about Mexican Music. The only thing that I could've told anybody about George Soto's guitar riffs was that they didn't detrack from the melodyline instruments but rather those pasadas accentuated the saxophones in that song. ----Chepe Ramirez

 

 

 

 

 

Synopsis of "The Broken Hearts"

In 1958 a group of young men from Seguin, TX. collaborated to form a Rock-N-Roll band under the leadership of Ramon Salazar,Jr. and its principal lead guitarist, George Soto. At first they were known as "The Playboys" but eventually at some point in time the group's name evolved into "The Broken Hearts". How and why the name changed is uncertain but it would prove to be an excellent choice because of the soulful love ballads that proved to be their trademark. However, the song that best exemplefies the band is the polka, "Las Cuatro Milpas". I say this because it accentuates the band rather than a lead vocalist. The listener gets to hear the band and the guitar riffs of their arranger, George Soto which is imitating a bajo sexto's riffs. In their music the listener gets a range of spectrum of the multi-cultural influences of "La Raza". The Mexican Music that the group played had a wide range of influences in them. In some songs there is a distinct bajo sexto sound, in others, George Soto's guitar riffs mimic the requinte of the "Trios' sound", while in still other songs there is the distinct "Rock-N-Roll sound" of the electric guitar which was the trademark of what has become known as "The Oldguard". No other guitar player of that era combined so many styles as did George Soto.

Sixto Sanchez is the lead vocalist most associated with The Broken Hearts and yet, he wasn't the only talented vocalist the group had. The Broken Hearts did some great recordings with vocalists like Gilbert Gonzales and Mike Gonzales among other vocalists that they featured as lead singers. This band had a talent for highlighting the best in the vocalists that worked with them and accentuating their vocal range.

The forgotten "roots" of Tejano Music which is the electric guitar is best exemplified in the guitar riffs of George Soto and in the diverse nature of the music recorded and played by The Broken Hearts. This was undoubtably one of the most infuential bands of that era which combined "our" cultural heritage with "our" American birthright and blended it into what became known as "Chicano" Music which has "evolved" into what is now known as "Tejano" Music.

Their induction into The National Hispanic Music Hall of Fame is very well deserved. The Broken Hearts contributed much to this style of music. Their unique comingling of one genre of music with another genre exemplifies the talent and imagination these musicians possessed. The Broken Hearts aren't the only band to do this but they were among the first. Their music caputures the heart of the diversity of our culture and birthright. What they did in their day has been a foundation for the rest to follow. Many thanks is owed to them. ----Chepe Ramirez