About
Santiago Jiménez Jr. was destined to be tejano conjunto royalty at birth. El Chief was born in San Antonio, Tejas and is the son of the late, great conjunto pioneer Santiago Jiménez Sr. Santiago Jr. has an older brother whose name you might also recognize, Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez.
Santiago Jr. is a tejano conjunto legend in his own right. He is the keeper of his father's legendary style. Much like his father did, Santiago Jr. performs mostly with two-row button accordions. He also plays the bass portion of the accordion to accompany himself. This is a rarity within the genre today. Santiago is a past recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship and is a recent National Medal of Arts honoree. You can catch Santiago Jr. squeezin' box in the West Side of San Anto at Carnitas Uruapan most Sundays.
