Exhibitions

Ruben Ramos was born on February 9, 1940 in Fort Bend County between Sugarland and Richmond where his parents had moved from Austin. When Ruben was 9 years old his family returned to Austin. His father worked for a lumber company so Ruben and his brothers would not have to miss school by having to pick cotton.When he was 16, Ruben joined his brother Alfonso, who started a band, which also included his brothers Joe and Roy and his cousin Jesse.

In the early sixties, as younger people began to request songs sung in English, Ruben was encouraged to sing and they reached even larger audiences. late 1960s Ruben began singing with the Mexican Revolution, a group started by members of Roy Montelongo’s band.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, they remained very popular, recording with labels including JCP, Freddie, Joey and their own company, Revolution Records. 1998, Ruben teamed up with other successful and well-known musicians to form the group Los Super Seven, who earned a Grammy award for Best Mexican American Performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards.

Ruben Ramos has received many distinguished awards over his long career, including an additional Grammy for Best Tejano album, again as part of the Mexican Revolution group. 
He has released 35 albums and sold concerts Across Latin and North America. Ruben Ramos maintains a full schedule of live performances and remains a very popular and respected musician in Texas, nationally and internationally.

Manuel “Cowboy” Donley has had a career for over fifty years of performing and recording around Austin. Born in Mexico on July 26, 1927, he moved to Austin in 1939. He began playing guitar as a youth and by the time he was eighteen he was drawing good crowds. In 1956 he formed his band Las Estrellas a loud, rocking Orquesta. That same year he cut his first record with Valmon and began a recording career that has included recordings on Torrero, Ideal, Disco Grande, Corona, Nopal, Crescent, Rosina, Serape, and Estrella. His musical inspirations include Little Richard, Fats Domino and Elvis Presley. Because of his love of rhythm and blues and rock and roll, Cowboy’s sound includes a fusion of Orquesta and the new sounds he was hearing. He started in the clubs on Austin’s Sixth Street at places such as the Green Spot, El Gato Negro, Las Fuentes, and the Austin Bar. He eventually 

played at large dance halls like Avalon, Skyline, Dessau, or the City Coliseum. The band also played country songs, and because he fronted the band and played electric guitar, he got the nickname “Cowboy,” by which he became known.

In 2014, Manuel Donley was the recipient of a national Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship for his contributions to Ethnic American Music Tradition. He is also recognized as a talented composer having written the classics, “Porque Me Dudas” and

“Adios Chiquita,” which have been recorded by many other artists.

In 1976 he and his orquesta performed at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife. In addition to other festivals, he has continued to work out of Austin, playing regularly at Alejandro’s and the Pan-American Club. His band consisted of Alex Ramirez and Eduardo Coronado on trumpets, Jerry Silva and Martin Rios on saxophones, drummer Roy Roceza, and Cowboy’s sons, Lupe on keyboards and vocals and Philip on bass. He passed away June 28, 2020.

For decades Little Joe Hernandez has been one of the most popular band leaders, successful recording artists, and top drawing performers on the Tejano cires. Little Joe was born Jose Maria Hernandez in Temple where he has lived most of his life. Little Joe began his musical career in 1955 when he joined David Coronado and the Latinaires. By 1960, the group was known as Little Joe and the Latinaires and they later became known as Little Joe y La Familia.

Touring extensively throughout Texas and the Southwest, they have also become a major attraction in California, Florida, and elsewhere. Over the years Little Joe has had numerous hit records including

“Amor Bonito”, “Isabelle”, “Ella”, and the classic, “Las Nubes”. One reason that Little Joe’s popularity has been so widespread and enduring is that in addition to his superb band, charismatic performance, and colorful stage show, he presents the audience with an impressive variety of musical styles. With a strong Tejano flavor, he has incorporated rock, jazz, country, soul, latin music, and contemporary pop sounds into a unique fusion that has great appeal beyond the traditional Tejano audience. He has won many awards and citations over the years, and is recognized as one of Texas’ foremost performers.

Street People was organized by Leonard Davila in 1978. The original members of the group included Leonard, Gilbert Gonzalez, Joe Ramos, David Martinez and Pete Alcocer. At the same time, Leonard and Joe were playing with the Alfonso Ramos Orquesta, David Martinez was playing with Manny and the COs, and Pete Alcocer was playing with rock groups. Gilbert Gonzalez, previously played with Alfonso Ramos but had returned to Seguin. The group organized to fill the need for a Tejano group to play disco music but soon found their audience often requested Tejano music.

Rapidly the group became very popular and they played at such venues as the Casino Ballroom and Saturday night dances at the Austin Coliseum. They recorded their first 45-rpm record for Chicano Records of America by Albert Esquivel. The first songs were “Cariño de Mi Vida” and “Juro Que Nunca Volvere”. They then recorded many 45’s for Teardrop Records as well as three albums.

The group considered various names and finally chose “Street People” by drawing a slip of paper with that name from a hat containing a variety of other possible names.

“Street People” became so popular that they were booked two years in advance. Since the musicians could all read music, they were invited to open for many famous groups such as Ernest Tubb, Johnny Rodriguez, James Brown and Jose Feliciano. In the mid-1980s, travel became difficult due to a gasoline shortage and reduced speed limits and Leonard began a full-time job for the US Postal Service. Joe and David went with Ruben Ramos and the Mexican Revolution. Pete joined W.C. Clarke’s Blues band and Gilbert returned to Seguine to play with his brothers. After 28 yrs Leonard returned with street people and released a new CD “Rejuvanation” Leonard is currently working on a second CD. The recordings attest to the talented musicians who make up Street People.

This outstanding duet was made up of Mary, born on March 16, 1943 in Austin, Texas and Petra born February 27, 1938 in Round Rock, Texas. They were born into the second cluster of a total of fifteen children in a musical family. Their older siblings performed with a conjunto group, “Los Hermanos Gonzalez.” The group was made up of brothers Frank (accordion), John Jr. (guitar), Isabel (telaoche), their sister Lupe (vocalist) and family friend Lupe Sandoval (guitar). Los Hermanos Gonzalez played for dances in Michigan, Indiana, Oklahoma or any place they found themselves while on the migrant trail with their parents. Occasionally they would also wake up very early and play at local radio stations. The first family group broke up as some of the members married and began working.

The family moved to San Antonio for three to four years where John Jr. started a new band “Rosalito Conjunto” with sister Petra as the vocalist. Around 1955 or 1956 the group came to Austin to sing on radio station KTXN with announcer Margarita Muños. The family encouraged Mary to also sing with the group. This began the duet of Mary and Petra Gonzalez.

The second family band broke up but the sisters stayed together and continued to perform with their mother and father on the migrant trail throughout the Midwest. Mary and Petra recorded several songs. The first recording was released on Valmon Records with Ben Garza’s “Los Alegres Gavilones.” Both songs were composed by Las Hermanas Gonzalez-side A “Falso Amor” and side B “Ame y Perdi.” Side A of a second recording “Anda Vete” was composed by their brother Juan Gonzalez. Side B “Is It Too Late” was composed by Mary and Petra. This was also recorded on Valmon Records with

“Roy Montelongo y Su Orquesta.”

The sisters sang with many well- known groups such as Mingo Saldivar’s later group “Cuatro Espadaz,” with Agapito Zuniga, Isidro Lopez, Ramon Ayalla and others. During the 1970s and 1980s, the sisters sang mostly in their churches and at special events. After Petra died in 2006, Mary continues to sing in Round Rock at St. Williams Catholic Church.

Johnny Degollado is the premier conjunto accordionist, bandleader, and songwriter. Johnny was born on November 24, 1935 in Travis County. Johnny has written over one hundred songs, received numerous awards, and is a member of the Tejano Music Hall of Fame. When Johnny was a young boy, he would go to dances with his family and listen to Camilo Cantu, the most famous of the early Austin area conjunto accordionists. Johnny’s father wanted him to learn to play accordion, and bought him a two-row button accordion for forty dollars.

Johnny began playing about 1952 and Camilo Cantu gave him some instruction and taught him to repair and tune accordions. Another early influence on Johnny’s style was Valerio Longoria.

 In 1952, at age fifteen, Johnny played his conjunto with his neighbor, Vicente Alonzo, who played bajo sexto with him. In the late fifties, and in the sixties, there was not much work for conjuntos in Austin because of the popularity of orchestra music. Around 1970, Johnny got a break when the orchestras began to play his songs. Because of the exposure for his songs, Johnny’s conjunto became more and more successful and in 1973, he was given an award for Songwriter of The Year.

Later on, he added a saxophone player to his conjunto Jesse Botello. This resulted a distinct, modern conjunto sound. in 2014 he was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame. In

2022 he recorded a new CD with JJ Barrero in the music style of his mentor Camilo Cantu. During his 60 Year career he sang 500 different songs and performed 10,000 Gigs.

Currently retired in Austin.

The popular Latin-rock band formed in 1990 as a family group, the Vallejo Brothers, with vocalist-guitarist A.J. Vallejo took the lead, both musically and eventually in business. A.J. first teamed up with his twin, drummer Alejandro, and younger brother, bassist-vocalist Omar Vallejo in Alabama, far away from their Texas roots. The twins were born in Wharton in 1969, and raised in El Campo, a small town southwest of Houston, by a Guatemalan mother and a Mexican-American father who encouraged his sons to take band in high school, in hopes the boys would become the next Tijuana Brass. Once the family moved to Birmingham, the young musicians were greatly influenced by the Southern rock scene by such favorite rockers as Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, and especially Santana.

As their musical skills matured by playing at high school dances and other gigs, A.J. and his brothers began to experiment, varying the steady rock beat with the Latin rhythms of their native state.

The decision to move to Austin in 1995 was prompted by the realization that the “live musical capital” would provide the most receptive audience for their developing sound. With gigs on Sixth Street at Steamboat, Vallejo soon attracted a loyal following–and in 1996, after shows at South By Southwest, they were offered a recording contract with New York’s TVT Records Other recordings followed steadily, priming audiences throughout the South and the West Coast.

In the early years of the new century Vallejo is a solid act with the 3 original band members joined by guitarist-vocalist Heath Clark and percussionist Jeff Hartsough. Equally skilled at the business aspect of musicianship, A.J. and the band have formed their own recording and management company, VMG, and are fostering the careers of other up-and-coming groups. Vallejo can be heard locally at such Austin clubs as Antone’s and La Zona Rosa.