A Celebratory Sound at Centro’s Party : Culture: The 20th-anniversary festivities continue with a day of Norteno music, a mix of Northern Mexican and Northern European.

SAN DIEGO —  Norteno music is an unlikely fusion of Northern Mexican and Northern European styles introduced to each other in the mid-1800s by settlers of the region now known as South Texas. Not surprisingly, this combination of conjunto , with its emphasis on Spanish-guitar rhythms, and German-Slavic waltzes and polkas, which traditionally feature the small button accordion, makes for sprightly, effervescent music.

It is just such an effect that organizers were seeking when they put together “ Norteno Music Festival ‘91,” an all-day affair to be held today at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. The festival continues the yearlong celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Centro Cultural de la Raza, the hub of Chicano social and cultural life in San Diego.

“We wanted something that sounded celebratory,” said spokeswoman Eloise De Leon in explaining the decision to make norteno the focus of the event. “It’s really a music that is indigenous to the Chicano culture, and yet this is the first time we’ve used it extensively as part of our series of events. We’ve had a Chicano music festival and a Latin jazz festival, and we’re planning a salsa festival, but the norteno festival is the highlight program of our year.”

Today’s featured performers include headliner Esteban (Steve) Jordan of Texas, local groups Los Alacranes and Los Regionales, and Mexican acts Los Humildes, Yolanda del Rio and Hector Montemayor.

De Leon said the Centro is hoping to present a series of festivals every year and cited recent funding from the city of San Diego as a positive step toward that goal. “We’ve been having so much fun building these festivals that we want to do four or five of them annually,” she said. “And, with our developing partnership with the city, I think we can create something very special.”

The festivals would be presented as adjuncts to, but not in place of, the smaller-scaled, traditional Latino music shows at the Centro.

Food booths at the festival will feature traditional Mexican food prepared both by individuals and restaurants. Chicano crafts also will be on display.

Music, however, will reign supreme at this event, and the choice of norteno is especially significant given the Centro’s purpose of celebrating Chicano life.

Because of their relatively high concentrations of Chicano inhabitants, stateside communities along the Mexico-U.S. border are natural, rich reservoirs of Chicano culture. The same was true 150 years ago, when the northern Mexican border extended deep into what later became the state of Texas.

After a huge chunk of Mexico was annexed by Texas in 1848, those Mexican nationals who were assimilated into the Anglo social structure of this “Tex-Mex” region clung to their emerging bi-ethnic identity. The glue of this new culture was musica nortena .

This genre was formed as the fervently anti-Spanish Mexican-Americans sought to create a culture far removed from that of the Mexican Hispanic elite in Mexico City and came to incorporate the instruments and the folk styles of Texas’ European immigrants--especially Germans and Czechs--into their own musical traditions. Norteno continued to evolve, and its modern variants can incorporate drums and saxophones in the instrumental lineup.

“Norteno Music Festival ‘91” will be held today, from noon to 10 p.m., at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. A donation is requested for admission. Special guest Steve Jordan plays at 8 p.m. For more information, call 235-6135.