Trinidad Concha

In 1889 a crowd that sang "Down Went McGinty" at Dan Reckhardt and O. T. Heckleman's assay office on San Francisco Street planned a desert picnic, and Peg Grandover painted their buckboard with signs reading "Hunting for McGinty." The McGinty Club grew to more than 300 members, among them three mayors, three bankers and several judges. With help from the Fort Bliss bandmaster, its marching band played at nearly every civic event of the 1890s, and a cannon at "Fort McGinty" woke the town for each one. By 1902 the club had faded away.

What the plaque says

Trinidad Concha Trinidad Concha (1862-1933), the "singing cobbler," impacted popular music culture by creating and cultivating various bands in the El Paso area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Concha, whose music has been described as a synthesis of traditional Mexican folk and contemporary orchestra, served as the assistant director of Mexican President Porfirio Diaz's Touring Military Band in 1893 and 1894. He deserted the Mexican Military while performing in the United States. Unwilling to risk prosecution in Mexico after his desertion, Concha settled in El Paso and accepted an invitation to join the McGinty Band. In 1897, he formed Concha's Mexican Concert Band. By 1907, the band was comprised of forty members, including a dozen former members of Diaz's Military Band. Concha's music was favored by a diverse audience. His band performed regularly at El Paso's Cleveland Square and at various building dedications, weddings, funerals, balls, and parties. His repertoire consisted of Mexicanized European operas, polkas, and waltzes, which were popular with music loving El Pasoans. Concha, who supplemented his income working in shoe stores, was also a leader in the musical development of the community. St. Ignatius Church of El Paso hired him in 1905 to assemble a young women's orchestra that, by 1908, began performing public concerts. Notably, Concha composed two original pieces and performed during the historic meeting of U.S. President William Howard Taft and Mexican President Porfirio Diaz at the El Paso-Juarez border on October 16, 1909. Concha's most celebrated performance took place on April 27, 1911, when he entered Mexico for the first time in fifteen years to serenade several hundred Maderista Revolutionaries. Concha continued to influence the music of the southwest until his death. 175 YEARS OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE * 1836-2011

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 0.6 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.7 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 10.0 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Tigua Indian Cultural Center, Ysleta del Sur Pueblo — 11 mi
  The cultural center of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo, the Tigua nation that has lived in the Mission Valley of El Paso since 1682 and keeps its own history here.

More markers nearby

• Douglass Grammar and High School — 0.2 mi
• Houchen Community Center — 0.3 mi
• Bowie High School — 0.3 mi
• Robert Ewing Thomason — 0.4 mi