Beto Villa

The father of this historic Texas musician was a tailor and by the time he was established in this profession, he obviously never had to search for the eye of a needle. But it surely wasn't that easy the first time he tried sewing, just as his son, Beto Villa, had to go on a search of his own before discovering what his real musical destination would be. He got his first saxophone at the age of 10 and began playing in school bands two years later. When he organized his first band in 1932, the group was playing American big band music and was named the Sonny Boys. His father had not been just any old tailor; his business had prospered, and the family was quite well to do. A social dynamic was already established in Villa's consciousness that became an important part of what he developed in the genre of Tejano music. Villa became the first to create an artistic resource from what would become the newly forming musical interests of a new class of Tejanos. When he was a young man, the Hispanic population of South Texas was beginning to somewhat share in the upward economic swing resultling from oil and gas discoveries and increased agricultural production in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Yet it was slow going at first. Villa was still in high school while the second World War intensified and had to wait until the hostilities settled before he could really get a career break. By 1946, he had ditched the Anglo big band music and was trying to blend aspects of that style with the traditional Mexican genre known as "musica ranchera" or ranchera. This was a musical style that had been developed by the Mexican mariachi bands and the subsequent conjunto ensembles which became the most popular type of combo formation in the Southwest. The conjunto was traditionally a trio of...