Flaco Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is a Tejano music legend from San Anton… Read Full Bio ↴Flaco Jiménez (born March 11, 1939) is a Tejano music legend from San Antonio, Texas. Jiménez's father, Santiago Jimenez Sr. was a pioneer of conjunto music. He plays the accordion. By the time he was seven years old, Flaco was performing with his father. He began recording at fifteen, as a member of Los Caporales. He played in the San Antonio area for several years, and then began working with Douglas Sahm in the 1960s. Sahm, better known as the founding member of the Sir Douglas Quintet, played with Jimenez for some time. Flaco then went on to New York City and worked with Dr. John, David Lindley, Peter Rowan, Ry Cooder and Bob Dylan. He appeared on Cooder's innovative world music album Chicken Skin Music. This led to greater awareness of his music outside America and after touring Europe with Ry Cooder he returned to tour with his own band, and on a joint bill with Peter Rowan.

Jimenez won a Grammy Award in 1986 for "Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio", a song of his father's. He was also a member of the supergroup Texas Tornados, with Augie Meyers, Doug Sahm and Freddy Fender. The Texas Tornados earned a Grammy Award in 1990, and Jimenez earned one on his own in 1996, when his Flaco Jimenez won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Performance. In 1999, Flaco earned another Grammy Award for Best Tejano Performance (Said and Done, Barb Wire Records), and one for Best Mexican-American Performance as a part of supergroup Los Super Seven. Jimenez has also won a Best Video award at the Tejano Music Awards and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from Billboard Latin Magazine for "Streets of Bakersfield" with Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens.

Rayito de luna
Flaco Jiménez Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Como un rayito de luna
Entre la selva dormida
Asi la luz de tus ojos ha iluminado
Mi pobre vida

Tu diste luz al sendero
En mi noche sin fortuna
Iluminando mi cielo como un rayito

Claro de Luna

Rayito de luna blanca
Que iluminas mi camino
Asi es tu amor en mi vida
La verdad de mi destino

Tu diste luz al sendero
En mi noche sin fortuna

Iluminando mi cielo como un rayito
Claro de Luna

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the song "Rayito de Luna" by Flaco Jimenez convey a powerful message about the transformative power of love. The opening line, "Como un rayito de luna entre la selva dormida" (Like a moonbeam in the sleeping jungle), creates a vivid image of the potential for love to illuminate even the darkest of places, giving hope and light to those who are lost or alone. The singer goes on to describe how the "light in [their] eyes" has illuminated his "poor life," bringing him out of the darkness and into the light.

The message of the song is particularly poignant in the context of the musical genre it belongs to: conjunto music, which originated in the Rio Grande Valley along the Texas-Mexico border. Conjunto music originated as a fusion of traditional Mexican folk music, African American blues, and German-Czech polkas and waltzes, and its lyrics often deal with themes of love, heartbreak, and the struggle for survival. "Rayito de Luna" captures these themes in a particularly beautiful way, using the metaphor of the moonbeam to express the transformative power of love - a power that is especially important to the working-class communities that make up the conjunto audience.

Overall, "Rayito de Luna" is a powerful song that speaks to the universal human experience of love, suffering, and the search for meaning in life. Its message of hope and transformation is particularly resonant in the context of conjunto music and the communities that it serves.

Line by Line Meaning

Como un rayito de luna
Like a ray of moonlight

Entre la selva dormida
Among the sleeping jungle

Asi la luz de tus ojos ha iluminado
Thus the light of your eyes has illuminated

Mi pobre vida
My poor life

Tu diste luz al sendero
You gave light to the path

En mi noche sin fortuna
In my night without fortune

Iluminando mi cielo como un rayito
Illuminating my sky like a little ray

Claro de Luna
Moonlight

Rayito de luna blanca
Little white moon ray

Que iluminas mi camino
That illuminates my path

Asi es tu amor en mi vida
That's how your love is in my life