Neto's Tucson: Granddaughter's corrido touching

But none of those plaques and parchments - as special as they are - carried nearly the meaning of the moment when his granddaughter, Araceli Valenzuela, recognized his dedication by serenading him with a song she wrote in his honor.

I'm going to sing the corrido

Of a man who has inspired

The hearts of many children

Both beloved and admired.

To begin with, he is my grandpa

Alfredo Valenzuela is his name

Who would have ever imagined

That Thatcher, Arizona, would give us his fame.

Araceli, a student at Pueblo Magnet High School, sang her corrido alongside Mariachi Rayos del Sol from Tucson Magnet High School, whose director, Alberto Rangel, composed the music. She wrote it in Spanish, and it was translated into English by Wendy Burk of the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

The corrido is a popular and old musical form widely heard in our borderlands. Corridos tell us stories of heroes - men, women, children, horses - and sometimes of lost love and bandits. The corrido, in its pure, traditional form, is a ballad, a story. They document history, and many are kept alive in popular culture.

The young Valenzuela, who plays violin for Mariachi Aztlán at Pueblo, sang her song a week ago at the poetry center's annual High School Bilingual Corrido Contest. Her corrido was judged the best by Nogales-born poet Alberto Rios, a professor at Arizona State University.

He was born a humble cowboy

In '45 on June 22

His mother brought him up religious,

Friendly, hardworking, and true.

He was a musical genius

And his dream was to help

Poor children learn to play music

So he educated himself.

"I was filled with tremendous emotion," Valenzuela said two days after the event. He said listening to his granddaughter's words and seeing her sing "ranked right up there" with other special moments in his life.

Like a newspaper clipping or a video, the corrido enshrined Valenzuela's accomplishments:

At Davis School he founded

Mariachi Las Aguilitas

And played all over the community

With Músicos del Barrio Anita

Because of our town's geography and history, Tucson has a proud Mexican musical history. Several Tucsonans have contributed to developing, maintaining and reviving Mexican musical forms.

Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, born in Barrio Viejo, was a leading figure for half a century, giving voice to trios, mambos and rancheras. Linda Ronstadt, the granddaughter of a Mexican-born Tucson pioneer who went on to become a popular rock singer, took mariachi music coast to coast in the mid-1980s. And there have been others.

But thousands of students - first at Mission View and Hollinger elementary schools, and now Davis Bilingual Magnet School - have been touched by Mr. V's passion for mariachi music.

For his many years of teaching

He received an honorary degree

Now and from this day forward

They'll call him "Dr. V."

Many of his young students went on to participate in Tucson's multiple youth mariachi ensembles, which have made Tucson a center of mariachi music in this country. Several became professional mariachis.

Valenzuela himself is the father of three educators, two of whom are mariachi instructors as well.

Valenzuela, 64, is proud yet humble about his accomplishments. But he doesn't need to sing his own praises.

We have a corrido for that.

Now we'll sing "Estrellita"

Dedicated to Evangelina, his wife

There's no one else like you, Grandpa

I'm so lucky you are in my life.

Ernesto Portillo Jr. is editor of La Estrella de Tucsón. Contact him at 573-4187 or netopjr@azstarnet.com