NEW YORK — Emilio Navaira, a Tejano singer from Texas who successfully straddled borders both musically and geographically, died on May 16 in New Braunfels, Texas, near San Antonio. He was 53.
His brother, Raulito, told the Associated Press that he might have suffered a heart attack after jogging. Family members found him unresponsive at his home.
Mr. Navaira, known to his fans simply as Emilio, was one of the leading voices in Tejano music, an accordion-based blend of polka, Latin pop, and country with origins along the Texas border. He found enthusiastic audiences in Mexico and the United States, lifting the Tejano style to greater prominence in the United States while breaking into the wider country music landscape in the 1990s.
Over a recording career that began in the 1980s, he released numerous albums, in Spanish and English, including “Acuérdate,’’ which won a Grammy in 2003. Often seen in a black cowboy hat and roper boots, Mr. Navaira had a country hit in 1995 with “It’s Not the End of the World,’’ which reached No. 27 on the Billboard country singles chart.
Getting American country music fans in the 1990s to embrace a Mexican-American crooner who sang in Spanish and English was not easy. But record executives bet that he could do it, and sponsors lined up behind him. He would go on to promote Wrangler jeans and Stetson hats, and the name of his first English-language country album, “Life Is Good,’’ was a tie-in with a Miller Lite advertising campaign.
Mr. Navaira was born in San Antonio on Aug. 23, 1962, and majored in music at Texas State University. He grew up listening to the contemporary country music of Willie Nelson and the western swing of Bob Wills and hoped to sing country music, but he could get gigs on the south side of San Antonio only by playing Latin music, he told The New York Times in a 1996 interview.
In that interview, he disputed the idea that a Spanish-language artist could not find mainstream success in the United States.
“Hey, man,’’ he said. “I was born in America, too.’’
In March 2008, Mr. Navaira was in a car accident that left him with severe brain trauma, and he later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor driving while intoxicated. He did not perform for several years while recovering.
In addition to his brother, he leaves his wife, Maru; his mother, Mary; three sons; two daughters; and his sister.
