Pepe Garza

Even in the Tejana-and-ostrich boots world of regional Mexican music, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wears more hats than Pepe Garza.

Born José Francisco Garza Durón in Monterrey, México, the radio DJ, songwriter and singer has been hailed by The Los Angeles Times as both a "starmaker and tastemaker." In a little over decade, Garza went from being a small-town rock en Español DJ in México to making Los Angeles' Que Buena 105.5 become one of the most successful radio stations in California.

As Que Buena's program director, Garza broke local and underground artists like Lupillo Rivera, Los Razos, Jenni Rivera, El Chapo de Sinaloa and Akwid. The self-described pop-rock fan also put narcocorridos on the radio when they were still "taboo." Despite his reputation as a tastemaker, the 43-year-old is reluctant to give himself all of the credit for helping acts go national: "I put the music on the radio, but the movement was already there."

Garza has also flexed his creative muscle, helping create popular characters like El Morro and "Don Cheto" and writing music for Bronco, La Banda Limón, Los Terrícolas, Los Rieleros Del Norte and Yolanda "La Potranquita" Pérez.

Garza, who sometimes performs pop-rock under the name Durón, is also an immigrant rights advocate. One of the organizers of the May Day immigration rights march in 2006, Garza says he feels a commitment to "[It] saddens me, because I know how hard they work, the hardships they go through, and how their contributions [to the U.S.] are ignored."