Tejano Music Legend ‘Little Joe’: His Improbable, Amazing Journey

*The King of the Brown Sound. “Chicanisimo” … truly an American success story. VL

By Juan Castillo, NBC News

AUSTIN, TX — His story is the stuff of Hollywood scripts, the ones too good to be true. One of 13 children, born on a dirt floor garage in Temple, Texas, who becomes the man of the house when his father is sent to prison. A shy kid at 15, he picks up a guitar, realizes it beats picking cotton, and strikes a match on a trailblazing musical career spanning more than 50 years, which takes him around the world, produces a friendship with Cesar Chavez, wins him accolades and five Grammys and makes him, like Chavez, an iconic figure among his fellow Mexican Americans.

But Jose Maria Deleon Hernandez – you might know him simply as Little Joe — pondered that story, his own, and declared he couldn’t imagine anyone would be interested in it.

Oh, that was just Joe being Joe, his friends say. Humble. A giver, not a seeker of the spotlight.

Now, his improbable story is coming to the big screen.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Carlos Lowry/Flickr]