Mexican director Fernando Vargas made a documentary about Tavira in 2002, and two years later cast him in the fictional film "The Violin." With no previous experience, Tavira won an acting award at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival for his role as the patriarch of a family of street musicians who support an armed rebel movement. In the documentary, Tavira describes the frustrations of learning how to play with one arm, saying he often wanted to hurl his violin to the floor.
"Just seeing myself tied to the bow, I only wanted to cry," he said. "I started practicing again just like I was learning to play."
Tavira was committed to traditional calentana music from his native Pacific coast state of Guerrero. He taught music to school children and led the Hermanos Tavira Banda folk band. At 60, he enrolled in the Music Conservatory of Morelia in Michoacan state, studying musical scoring in the hopes of preserving calentana for future generations. "He is a man who fought his whole life to keep the music of his region alive, teaching new generations and doing it with only one hand," Vargas said in a statement released by the National Arts Council. Tavila is survived by his wife and 12 children from two marriages.