Oro Norteno

Norteño music -- a lively, infectious, hot-blooded mixture of Mexican ranchera and German polka -- was created in Texas by Mexican-Americans, who were exposed to the polka beat that German immigrants had brought to the Lone Star State from Europe. But the popularity of norteño (which is also known as Tex-Mex or conjunto) certainly isn't limited to Austin, El Paso, or San Antonio; there are plenty of norteño bands in northern Mexico as well as the Pacific Northwest and the southwestern region of the United States. California, which has a large Mexican-American population, has b...