Leonardo ‘Flaco’ Jiménez, legendary Mexican American accordion player and singer-songwriter who expanded the reach and popularity of conjunto and tejano music and was also known for his contributions to norteño, died Thursday, July 31, his family announced. He was 86.
“It is with great sadness that we share tonight the loss of our father, Flaco Jimenez. He was surrounded by his loved ones and will be missed immensely,” on his family wrote on Facebook.
“Thank you to all of his fans and friends—those who cherished his music. And a big thank you for all of the memories. His legacy will live on through his music and all of his fans. The family requests privacy during this time of sadness and grievance.”
Jiménez learned to play accordion from his father, Santiago Jiménez Sr., NPR reported. “He (my dad) liked it that much that he got hold of a one-row accordion somehow and started learning how to copy the German polkas,” he told the news service in 2003. “Then he started playing around the neighborhood where he lived, just local house dances.”
In another interview with NPR years later, Jiménez said he picked up the instrument that would come to define his life’s work without his father’s approval. “I wanted to grab the accordion because dad is still at work. He came home early. All of a sudden he just opens the door and I said, ‘Oh man, I’m going to get it,’” he explained.
But it turned out his dad couldn’t have been happier. “The first thing he did, he went straight to me, he gave me a big, big hug and then started crying. See, he was so proud of my self-taught playing.”
That self-motivation propelled Jiménez to cities and stages around the world. He won five competitive Grammys and was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Known affectionately as Flaco (which means “skinny” in Spanish), the performer once told Chris Strachwitz he gained the nickname in his early teens. “When I was a young kid, thirteen, fourteen years old I used to be real, real skinny, real thin,” he explained in a 1973 interview.
“Here in a TV show, this radio announcer, he was Master of Ceremonies though, he used to play with me all the time. Flaco, and Flaco here, and Flaco there, so when I started recording when I was 16, the name Flaco now. It wasn’t Leonardo Jimenez which is my name.”
His most popular songs include “Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio” (“Ay, I Leave You in San Antonio”), “El Mojado Sin Licencia” (“The Wetback Without a License”) and “En el Cielo no Hay Cerveza” (“There’s No Beer in Heaven”).
“People used to regard my music as cantina music, just no respect,” Jiménez said in an interview with the Library of Congress in 2021 after he was added to the National Recording Registry. “The accordion was considered something like a party joke…I really give respect to everyone who helped me out on this record and I’m flattered by this recognition.”
Leonardo ‘Flaco’ Jiménez was born on March 11, 1939, in San Antonio, Texas. He put together his first band, Los Caporales, when he was 15 and went on to collaborate with Ry Cooder, Les Blank, Dwight Yoakam, Buck Owens, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and more.
He is survived by his wife Adela and their children Arturo, Gilbert and Cynthia Jiménez and Raquel Fernandez, as well as by his brother, Santiago Jiménez Jr.
