After winning an accordion competition, Rodriguez branches out to mariachi

 Six months after sweeping the top prize in a Texas accordion contest, Heriberto Rodriguez is changing his tune.

“It’s an ironic story,” said Rodriguez, 16, a junior at Edcouch-Elsa High School.

In June, Rodriguez won Texas Folklife’s Third Annual Big Squeeze in Houston, a competition that showcases the state’s top young accordionists.

On stage, his accordion pumped conjunto tunes that raptured the judges at the Accordion Kings and Queens showdown at Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston.

Now he’s moving toward mariachi music, the classic art form he’s studied since seventh grade at school, Rodriguez said.

“I’ve turned away from conjunto toward mariachi,” he said. “I wanted to explore that side of me.”

After years of classroom study, he’s taking up the vihuela, the small-bodied guitar steeped in tradition, he said.
“It’s a little more high-pitched than the guitar,” he said.

Rodriguez said he’s turned to influences like Mariachi Sol de Mexico, a California-based group.

“I started listening to composers and arrangers on the top level,” he said.

Now, he’s got a new band-- Los Arrieros del Valle, he said.

“I love it,” he said. “You play classical music, you play boleros. The sound is awesome.”

But he’ll keep playing the instrument that helped him win the state’s top accordion competition, Rodriguez said.
“I’ll still play accordion,” he said. “I’m sure I won’t leave conjunto.”

Rodriguez, a basketball star and cross country runner whose studies ranked him third in his class, plans to study computer engineering at Texas A&M University.

But he wants to minor in music, he said.

“I’m into a lot of things,” he said. “I’ve accomplished a lot.”