For Immediate Release

Campus to Welcome Dolores Huerta, Ramón Ayala  Tuesday 

BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – OCTOBER 3, 2012 – In preparation for his performance honoring the revered Hispanic community activist and 2012 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Dolores Huerta, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9, Norteño music legend Ramón Ayala  stopped by The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College to rehearse with the students in the String Ensemble.

The four-time Grammy Award-winning musician will perform on stage at The Arts Center with the students  during “A Conversation with Dolores Huerta,” an evening program with television personality Johnny Canales, who will act as master of ceremonies.

The program is free and open to the public. Overflow seating is available at El Gran Salón in the Student Union.  

Ayala’s set for the evening will include the song “Claro Que Se Puede”, a song written by Dolores Huerta and Alberto Kreimerman, CEO of Hermes Music Foundation, in the fall of 2010. Ayala famously recorded a version of the song that same year.

“This song signifies how we are indebted to what our Latino brothers who work in the fields,” said Ayala, translated from Spanish. “It is because of them that we can work in offices, work as artists and musicians, and we eat what they pick for us from the fields.”

“Claro Que Se Puede” has been performed by Carlos Santana, Los Lonely Boys, Ramón Ayala, Del Castillo, Elefante and in English by Willie Nelson.

“I feel very happy because this is the first time that I have worked with a student accompaniment from UTB,” said Ayala. “I congratulate these students because it all sounds very beautiful.”

This event marks the first time that Ayala has worked with a string accompaniment composed of university students. The other song they are expected to perform together is “Un Rinconcito en el Cielo”, a song made famous by Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte in the 1970s.

“It’s very cool being able to work with him,” said Jose Antonio Delgadio, 20, a junior music education major and violinist in the string ensemble. “You don’t often get to accompany an artist of his caliber every day. There’s a special significance of working with him in the Valley.”