Tony de la Rosa: Guerillero del Acordeon
In early June, the Mexicano community in South Texas lost a cultural
treasure when Tony de la Rosa, a Conjunto music pioneer, succumbed to
medical complications.
Born in 1931, de la Rosa became a pioneer in the Conjunto music genre
with an innovative pyrotechnic accordion style and the first use of amplified
instruments. his innovations allowed the transition of the genre from the cantinas
to the dance halls throughout the underground communities of migrant and immigrant
workers thought the United States. De la Rosa honed his skills following the
secret army that built the economy of the southwest and keep the super markets
full of produce.
He provided the music that was often the only moments of joy for migrant workers that were forced to live in sub human conditions and often found whole families working dawn to dusk picking the fruits of the factory farms. The dance halls were he performed, were those island of humanness that reminded the migrants of their culture and of homes where they were more than "wetbacks" or "meskin". It was a ritual of identification that resisted assimilation into a world that accepted them as workers, but created an otherness that justifies their exploitation.
Today, his music still fills the migrant camps thought the agricultural belt
of the United States. His music mixes in with the Banda music and Cumbias
that provide the soundtrack for a workforce that is often forgotten but
crucial to the American economy.
In the thousand of dance halls in Texas and throughout the United States, working
class couples still fill the dance floors when the first notes of "Atotonilco"
by Tony de la Rosa is played. With the smoothness of skaters on ice, they dance
the unique shuffle style of the taquachito into the wee hours of the
night.
This is where Tony de la Rosa's legacy was born, and ultimately, where it will
live on.
De la Rosa was the classic organic intellectual that defines a working class
culture that is well aware of the nature of its exploitation. He was a cultural
guerillero whose weapon was the acordeon.