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Antonio De La Rosa

Oct. 31, 1931 - June 2, 2004

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Accordionist Antonio “Tony” De La Rosa helped to reshape the modern Mexican American *conjunto* sound with his staccato fingering style, by adding drums and replacing the upright bass with the amplified instrument. Photograph by Alan Govenar
Antonio De La Rosa, ca. 1940s, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Antonio De La Rosa, Riviera, Texas, 1998, photograph by Alan Govenar
Antonio De La Rosa, Riviera, Texas, 1998, photograph by Alan Govenar
Antonio De La Rosa, Riviera, Texas, 1998, photograph by Frank Estrada, courtesy National Endowment for the Arts
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa
Vintage Tony De La Rosa album cover, courtesy Antonio De La Rosa

Antonio "Tony" De La Rosa was born in Sarita, Texas, a worker's hamlet on the sprawling King Ranch. He was among twelve children in a family of field laborers. "All of us, my brothers and I, went out with my father," he said. "Tell me about cucumbers, hoeing, tomatoes, onions -- we did it all."

When he was 6, De La Rosa's mother taught him to play the harmonica. "Then," he said, "I heard the accordion on the radio. We were living on a hacienda where my parents worked, and I heard the accordion come from a radio in the kitchen. I got hold of one and learned to pick out the chords."

At first, he imitated the recordings of pioneer accordionist Narciso Martínez. At age 16, Tony went to nearby Kingsville and played in the small taverns there. "I spent a lot of time with my accordion on one side of me and the shoeshine box on the other," he said.

In 1949, De La Rosa made his first recording, featuring two polkas, "Sarita" and "Tres Ríos," for the Arco label in Alice, Texas. The next year he joined the Ideal label. By the mid-1950s, his band, or conjunto, was the most popular in Texas. By that time, too, he had codified the instrumentation that endures to this day: button accordion, amplified bajo sexto (a type of twelve-string guitar used as a rhythm instrument), electric bass and drums.

By adding drums and replacing the upright acoustic bass, or tololoche, with the amplified instrument, De La Rosa changed the music itself. The polka tempo slowed, ushering in the new tacuachito dance style with the slow, gliding movements of the possum (tachache). The accordion and bajo sexto players were freed to develop more stylistic nuances, and De La Rosa's accordion playing was marked by a more staccato, deliberate character. His much-imitated 1956 instrumental rendition of the song "Atotonilco" hastened acceptance of these changes.

Conjunto De La Rosa, which has included two of the leader's brothers, toured constantly all over the United States. It recorded more than seventy-five albums and many single discs. Tony De La Rosa was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in San Antonio in 1982.

Bibliography
Peña, Manuel. The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working Class Music. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985.)

Discography
De La Rosa, Antonio. Atotonilco. Arhoolie 362.
______. Mejor Solo. Hacienda 0401.
De La Rosa, Antonio, et al. 15 Early Tejano Classics. Arhoolie 109.
______. San Antonio's Conjuntos in the 1950s. Arhoolie 376.
______. South Texas Polka Party. Arhoolie 9005.

Watch

Masters of Traditional Arts kiosk video, produced by Documentary Arts

Listen

Antonio De La Rosa, audio biography, produced and recorded by Alan Govenar, edited by Andrew Dean, narrated by Bob Ray Sanders

Tony De La Rosa, 'Adios Amor' (Bolero), Antotonilco, 1993, Arhoolie CD 362

Tony De La Rosa, 'La Polomilla' (Polka), Antotonilco, 1993, Arhoolie CD 362
www.arhoolie.com

Tony De La Rosa, 'Los Tiliches' (Huapango), Antotonilco, 1993, Arhoolie CD 362

Tony De La Rosa, 'Mi Brazos Te Esperan' (Ranchera), Antotonilco, 1993, Arhoolie CD 362

Tony De La Rosa, 'Paloma Sin Nido' (Ranchera), Antotonilco, 1993, Arhoolie CD 362