Flaco Jiménez -- "Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio" (1986)

Por que supe que tenias otro amante

Y en Laredo ya tenias otros dos

For those of you who don't speak Spanish, here's an approximate translation of those lines:

I knew that you had another lover

And in Laredo, you had two others

In other words, this guy's girlfriend not only had another lover in San Antonio, but two additional lovers -- an other other lover, and an other other OTHER lover -- in Laredo.

I spent a lot of time walking or biking along the San Antonio River Walk (or Paseo del Rio) on a recent family trip to the Alamo City.

One mode of transportation I didn't utilize to explore the River Walk was a river taxi.  River taxis are very popular with San Antonio sightseers:

You can hail a river taxi at numerous locations:

There's even a lock to enable the river taxis to access the "Museum Reach" section of the Paseo del Rio:

One of the more interesting things you can access via a River Walk water taxi is Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 76, "The Oldest Post in Texas," which was founded in 1917 by veterans of the Spanish-American War.

VFW Post 76

Post 76 is housed in a neoclassical-style mansion with wrap-around verandas, Corinthian columns, and lots of stained-glass windows.  It was built for lumber magnate Van Petty, who hired a prominent local architect, Atlee Ayres, to remodel it in 1904.

Post 76 at night

Ayres was the official state architect for Texas for several years, and drew up plans for several county courthouses, including the old Cameron County Courthouse in Brownsville, TX:

He also designed the 30-story Tower Life Building, which was the city's first skyscraper:

But his most intriguing of his buildings is the Administration Building at Randolph Air Force Base, which is known locally as the "Taj Mahal":

The entrance to Post 76 is guarded by this World War II-vintage M1 57mm anti-tank gun and a bunch of signs.

But once you get past that, Post 76 is a very friendly place.

Unfortunately, I came upon Post 76 on an early-Sunday-morning stroll along the River Walk.  So I missed out on some tasty and reasonably-priced grub.

("Sasauge"?)

The bar at Post 76 closes at 2 AM "or when everyone has left -- whichever comes first."  If when everyone has left comes first and you are one of the last to leave, I'd suggest hailing a river taxi.

Leonardo "Flaco" Jiménez is a conjunto tejano accordion player from San Antonio who has played with the Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakam, Ry Cooder, and many other musicians, but whose primary musical collaborator was Doug Sahm.

Los Texas Tornados: Flaco Jiménez, Doug
Sahm, Freddy Fender, and Augie Meyers

Jiménez is prominently featured on the Doug Sahm and Band album, and he and Sahm were among the founders of the Texas Tornados, a very successful Tex-Mex group whose often mixed English and Spanish words.  (The group's eponymous debut album was released in both English and Spanish versions.)

"Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio" was written by Jiménez's father, who was a pioneer of conjunto tejano music.  Flaco's recording of it won a Grammy in 1986.

Here's "Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio":

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: