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San Antonio Congressman Joaquín Castro is making a push to highlight Texas artists who have shaped the music industry.
Castro announced an inaugural call for nominations of Texas artists to be included into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.
The National Recording Registry was established in 2000 with a goal to preserve recordings with cultural, historic, and aesthetic significance to life in the U.S. Less than 4% of artists from Texas make up the 675 recordings that are currently a part of the National Recording Registry.
Casto said he made the call after noticing the lack of Texas artists on the list.
"There was a dearth of Texas artists who have been inducted for their album or song," he said. "There's so much music that is uniquely Texas and so many incredible artists that have contributed songs and music that really has left an incredible impression on the country."
Current Texas artists in the registry include Bob Will’s “New San Antonio Rose” (1930), Mance Lipscomb’s “Texas Sharecropper and Songster” (1960), and Narcisco Martinez and Santiago Almeida’s “La Chicharronera” (1936).
Castro said the call for submissions comes at a time when music can be used as a unifying force.
"There's a lot of intense and very heavy things going on in the country, in the world," he said. "I think that music is something that regardless of people's politics, I think it unites us and it's something we should celebrate."
Submissions of songs and album titles from Texas artists of all genres — from Tejano to jazz — can be made to castro.house.gov/texasmusic until Sunday, Sept. 21. Suggested titles must be at least 10 years old.
This is the first year Castro has made the call to highlight Texas artists. For the last three years, Castro has requested nominations and curated an annual list of Latino artists who could be added into the registry.
Inducted titles to the registry from his lists of public suggestions include Vicente Fernández's cover of "El Rey," Juan Gabriel’s “Amor Eterno,” Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” and the Hamilton album.
Castro also releases a similar list of Latino film nominations to be included into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry and improve the recognition of Latino contributions to American art and culture.
