Global Sounds on the Hill Featuring Mexican and Tejano Fiddle with Belen Escobedo
About
Belen Escobedo is a 2026 NEA National Heritage Fellow, the nation’s highest honor for folk and traditional arts. Curated and hosted by iconic DC impresario and musician Jim Thomson Belen Escobedo is a South Texas fiddler whose music reflects the layered soundscape of the Texas–Mexico borderlands. Her playing draws from early Mexican and Tejano fiddle traditions once common in South Texas string bands, a repertoire that has largely disappeared. Through decades of performance, Escobedo has helped sustain this traditional style, bringing renewed attention to an important and often overlooked musical tradition. Escobedo’s musical roots reach back to her childhood in San Antonio, Texas, shaped by memories of her grandfather’s late nights whistling while listening to borderland radio stations. Though she received formal training as a classical violinist, she began working professionally at a young age as a mariachi musician, out of necessity to support her education. Moving between formal music training and the everyday musical life of South Side San Antonio, she developed a style grounded in technical skill and local tradition. Escobedo specializes in Mexican and Tejano fiddle tunes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, music deeply rooted in the cultural exchange of the Texas borderlands. In keeping with traditional Mexican American string band practices, she performs on fiddle accompanied by sexto, a 12-string bass instrument played by her husband, Ramón Gutiérrez. I n re
