The waltz "Sobre las Olas" (or "Over the Waves") is the best known work of Mexican composer Juventino Rosas (1868–1894). It "remains one of the most famous Latin American pieces worldwide," according to the "Latin America" article in The Oxford Companion to Music.

It was first published by Rosas in 1888. It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has also found its way into New Orleans Jazz and Tejano music.

The song remains popular with country and old-time fiddlers in the United States.

A Mexican film titled "Sobre las Olas" was released in 1933.

The Mexican film biography of Juventino Rosas, released in 1950 and starring Pedro Infante, is entitled Sobre Las Olas.

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 1868 – 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and violinist.

Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later renamed into Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, and still later into Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas. Rosas began his musical career as a street musician and playing with dance music bands in Mexico City. In 1884/85 and 1888 he matriculated into the conservatory, both times leaving it without taking any examination.

Most of Rosas's compositions—among them "Sobre las Olas" ("Over the Waves")—were issued by Wagner y Levien and Nagel Sucesores in Mexico City.

In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to be a member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked in Michoacán. In 1892–93 he was around Monterrey, before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour through the USA. During this tour the group played also at the World Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1894 he went for a several-month tour to CubA with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came down with major health problems and had to stay behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a result of spinal myelitis he died there at the age of 26. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico.

Avi Ostrowsky is a music director originally from Israel. He studied with Gary Bertini and Mordechai Seter in the Rubin Academy of Tel Aviv. He then studied with Hans Swarowsky in the Music Academy of Vienna and with Franco Ferrara in Italy. While studying in Vienna his talent was rapidly recognized by his teachers which permitted him to coast through the three year programme in only two years. In 1968, he won the first prize in the Nikolai Malko contest in Copenhagen. That same year he became artistic director of the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, position which he held until 1972. In 1970 he established the Israel Kibbutz Orchestra, which he directed until 1974 and again from 1998 to 2003. In 1973 he founded the Beer Sheva Sinfonietta and directed it until 1978 when he was named director of the Antwerp Philharmonic Orchestra, position which he held until 1984. Form 1989 to 1993 he led the Radio Norway Symphonica. Since then he has been invited to conduct many orchestras around the world. London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, UNAM Philharmonic Orchestra, Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, South African National Youth Orchestra and Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra (Philharmonica Hungarica) are among the ones interested in his working with them. He toured Australia with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He has recorded Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps and Petrushka as well as the Mahler and Schubert symphonies and Berlioz's "Symphonie fantastique", among others. He currently lives near Tel-Aviv and occasionally resides in Brussels. He often travels to Mexico City where he is frequently invited to conduct the OFUNAM.

José Pedro Infante Cruz (November 18, 1917 – April 15, 1957), better known as Pedro Infante, is one of the most famous actors and singers of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema and is an idol of the Latinamerican people, together with Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís, who were styled the Tres Gallos Mexicanos (the Three Mexican Roosters). Infante was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico. He was raised in Guamúchil. He died on April 15, 1957, in Mérida, Yucatán, in a plane crash during a flight that he was piloting himself en route to Mexico City.

His film career began in 1939 with him appearing in more than 60 films, and starting in 1943, he recorded about 350 songs. For his performance in the movie Tizoc, he was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.

Son of Delfino Infante García, who played the double bass in a band, and Refugio Cruz Aranda, he was the third of fifteen children, of which nine survived. Although the Infante Cruz family stayed for some time at Mazatlán, in the early 1919 they moved to Guamuchil. Later in 1920, they moved to Rosario, Sinaloa.