Ralph Amado Chavarria

Musician; cotton gin operator; mechanic for the City of Phoenix, c1948-1980.

Arrived in Tempe as a child in 1918.

He attended the Eighth Street School ant the Tenth Street School, but dropped out at age 14 to work.

He worked for the J. G. Boswell Ginning Company as a cotton gin operator. For this part-time job, he worked 10 hours a night and earned 10 cents per hour. He started his career as a musician when he was 9 years old, playing violin at La Casa Vieja.

He later played with Valdemar Carbajal.

He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, 1943-1946, and was stationed in San Diego, where he played in the military band. He then enrolled in a vocational training program in auto mechanics at Arizona State College, which was paid for by the G.I. Bill. He worked as a mechanic for the City of Phoenix,

c1948-1980.

His musical career took him on tours throughout the United States. He played with the Chanito Acerudo Band at the Alianza Hispano-Americana Night Club in 1940. He was a member of that band for 17 years. In 1963, Acerudo disbanded his group and

Chavarria organized under his own band, the Chapito Chavarria Orchestra. He played at many well-known Phoenix resorts, and at the Calderon Ballroom in Phoenix.

BIO-Chavarria

Pablo Chavarria obit, TDN, 17 Aug 1973

Pablo Chavarria obit, AR August 1973

Paul Chavarria, genealogy notes

Ralph Chavarria, genealogy notes