“One way to look at it: Leonardo ‘Flaco’ Jimenez is our ‘Satchmo,’ the Alamo City’s Louis Armstrong,” Hector Saldaña wrote in 2019. “Both men pioneered distinct musical forms tied to their region, culture, race and ethnicity—and brought it to the world. Armstrong did it with his trumpet; Jimenez with a squeezebox.”

Flaco Jimenez, the legendary accordionist from San Antonio who won multiple Grammys and helped expand the popularity of conjunto, Tejano, and Tex-Mex music, died Thursday. He was 86.