One of the key guidelines for submitting art to the 30th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival’s poster competition was that no photos of real people could be used, due to copyright issues. Imagine my surprise when I saw a huge photo of legendary accordionist Narciso Martínez used in the $1,000-winning poster, designed by photographer Al Rendon and designer Robert Herzik. Beautiful poster but, with all due respect, WTF?
“Technically, you weren’t supposed to use an image of someone living, but we received so many fine submissions that violated that rule,” said festival coordinator Juan Tejeda on March 8 at the Guadalupe after the press conference announcing the winners. “So we discussed it with the judges and decided that, since this was such a special year, our 30th anniversary, we should go beyond the rules this time. We chose the winner and got permission from the family to use `Martínez’s` image. Since we’re honoring all the conjunto Hall of Famers this year, we thought it was appropriate to use Narciso’s image on the poster.”
“I went through dozens of photos from early conjunto festivals, and we chose Narciso because he was here at the very first edition, so it was very symbolic,” said photog Rendon.
Other winners included Robert Gonzales (Open Category), Carlos Pérez (UTPA, College Category), and Jesús Reséndez (Cornell Middle School, Middle School Category).
The 30th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival will take place May 10-12 at the Guadalupe Theater and May 13-15 at Rosedale Park.
