SAN ANTONIO — Jesse Garcia loves preserving local garage royalty musica, or oldies for the folks who aren’t familiar with that genre.
His Mexico-style home is basically a museum filled with artifacts.
“Some of the dances that Henry Pena has sponsored. This has Monroe Powell, the Platters, Joe Bravo, J. Jay & the Dell-tones, Los Blues, LA 45, Steve Salas, Patsy Torres,” Garcia said.
He preserves this era of music alongside his partner in crime Henry “Pepsi” Pena on the SA Oldies radio show on KEDA.
Like every other San Antonian, Garcia is very welcoming.
“You want to go to the nostalgic vault?” Garcia asked.
As Garcia flipped both light switches his 10,000 records, thousands of photos and hundreds of old live-music posters were visible.
“Well, where do we start?” he asked.
Garcia grew up on San Antonio’s Southside and was a standout athlete at Harlandale High School. After getting his master's degree from Texas A&M Kingsville, he returned to Harlandale ISD and spent 35 years as an educator and administrator.
Along the way, his buddy Eddie de la Rosa got him into collecting records.
“There was no such thing as a DJ at the time, so we would get our records, everybody had their records and the little record player,” Garcia said. “And if you had a dance at somebody's house, you got invited and we called them house parties.”
The larger his collection grew, the more he wanted to know about these artists and their stories, so in the '80s and '90s, he would interview them.
“I went to their houses and they told me their stories and I would write them down and get the information. They would even have a picture or two or three and they would allow me to make copies,” Garcia said.
These intimate conversations allowed Garcia to display his knowledge of music. A quick example was when San Antonio West Side artist Dimas Garza, who played with the legendary Chicano soul group the Royal Jesters, stopped by the nostalgic vault in 1986.
“We started talking and I said, ‘Hey, I’ve compiled music from the early '50s to the '80s,’” Garcia said.
Garcia named songs that Garza didn’t even remember recording. He’s a walking encyclopedia with a cachucha [hat] and glasses. Give him a black and white photo and he can name each person and explain every band they played for. Garcia also shared a detailed story about Tejano music icon Sunny Ozuna.
“The other PE (physical education teacher) always made fun of Sunny Ozuna because he was always singing in the PE class and Joe said, ‘No, keep singing, Sunny,’” Garcia said. “And this little kid (Ozuna), out of Burbank High School, would go downtown on the bus and go to the Tiffany Lounge and watch some of the cats — he was too young to go in — but through the door he could hear these bands and he had to leave by 10 o’clock at night because that was when the last bus [was] going to the Southside.”
Garcia said Ozuna would run home from school to watch Dick Clark’s "American Bandstand," a 1950s show that propelled young musical acts.
“He was able to go from the halls of Burbank High School in 1963 to Dick Clark’s 'American Bandstand' on Nov. 9, 1963," Garcia said.
It’s almost like Garcia grew up with these artists, but he credits his note taking ability that cements these details in his brain.
Garcia says its not about having a wealth of knowledge — it’s about preservation and bringing people together.
“And there’s nothing like playing that one song. If somebody says ‘Man, I haven’t heard that song since the dance,’” Garcia said. “And it just makes you feel like you’ve done something to bring someone else’s happiness.”
That’s all it took for Garcia to win over the love of his life, Belinda, on Feb. 14, 1971.
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“And the song ends ‘I Do Love You,’ and there was a slight pause, and the first thing I heard on the other side of the phone was 'Will you marry me?’” Garcia recalled.
Jesse Garcia said yes.