In Austin, Texas, you will likely hear “flour or corn?” as often as “paper or plastic?” That simple request starts out many a restaurant order there. “Tortillas are such a part of the food and culture that you’re asked right off which one you want with your meal,” explains Charanga Cakewalk’s Michael Ramos. “Everyone knows you’re going to have tortillas, it’s just which kind you want.”

The CD cover of Charanga Cakewalk’s Chicano Zen—released by Triloka Records on March 28, 2006—features a tortilla-fied yin-yang symbol adorned by iconic flaming Mexican Sacred Hearts. This album—following in the footsteps of last year’s Loteria de la Cumbia Lounge—puts forth Ramos’ unique multicultural vision of feel-good grooves, this time including special collaborations with the kindred musical souls of Lila Downs, Ruben Ramos, Patty Griffin, Martha Gonzalez, and Davíd Garza.

For the making of Chicano Zen, Ramos thought about what was important to him. “I had achieved all of the goals I had set for myself as a young kid: becoming a successful session musician, recording my own CD, owning my own home, performing on TV and radio, but at the core I realized that what was central growing up as a young Latino was the same as anyone going after the American dream. A home, loved ones, kids. It all boils down to what everyone wants… happiness.” Ramos has also found happiness acknowledging the variety of cultural influences with which he grew up. Musical styles have been blended and reformed as often as the food in the American Southwest. A patchwork of the countless forms of music that influence Ramos’ Cumbia Lounge-style sound are stitched together in the track “La Mimosa” where the singer Davíd Garza intones the styles Michael pulls together: Tejano. Flamenco folklorica. Merengue. Garage. Ska. Reggaeton. Charanga Cakewalk is an amalgamation of sounds from all the years of rock and session music seasoned with fresh tortillas and rice, listening to the radio with his mother in the kitchen. “We sat down to record this and Davíd started reciting what Charanga Cakewalk is to him… and it became the lyrics of the song.” Ramos has toured with the folk-rock chanteuse Patty Griffin and has produced songs for her albums. “I had been imagining Ruben Ramos, the epitome of a Latin singer, singing ‘No Soy Feliz,’ but when Patty asked me if there was a song on my new album that she could sing on, I immediately had an image of her and Ruben performing this song as a duet,” says Michael. Ruben Ramos, known as “El Gato Negro,” is a member of the Tejano Hall of Fame and part of the group Los Super Seven. Brought together on the Jose Feliciano track, the pair soars with the past and present combined.