![]() ![]() Either way, XEW was central in launching Beltrán's career, and she told the Times in a 1988 interview, "Even now, every time I go by the station, I make the sign of the cross."īeltrán's impassioned vocal tales of down-and-out, yet ultimately redeemed, characters immediately captured the hearts of Mexican listeners poor and rich, unknown and influential. Once they relented, she so impressed station executives that she was awarded her own show. Soon thereafter, the Discos Peerless label released her first single, containing two songs popularized by singer José Alfredo Jiménez, "Cuando el Destino" and "Por un Beso."Īccording to the New York Times, however, Beltrán pestered XEW regulars the Mariachi Vargas to let her perform with them on air. A year later she won a contest to sing with Miguel Aceves Mejía on a weekly radio program at XEW, an opportunity that landed her a recording contract and saw her dubbed Lola Beltrán. While Guzmán did not immediately offer Beltrán her shot at stardom, he did hire her as his secretary. ![]() Rudely dismissed by the station executives, Tomás Méndez, a songwriter and singer with the group Los Diamentes, secured her an audition with the station manager, Amado C. According to The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music, Beltrán visited the radio station and pleaded for a chance to sing on the air. In 1953, after graduating from secretarial school, Beltrán and her mother left Rosario for Mexico City, seeking to make a name for herself singing in the tradition of the balladeers she admired.Īccounts vary as to how Beltrán secured a recording contract in Mexico City, although it is clear that radio station XEW played a crucial role. As a child she sang at mass and in the church choir, where her director introduced her to the romantic ballads of Pedro Infante and Agustin Lara. Upon her death in 1996, the entire country went into mourning, with her body lying in state in Mexico City, her songs played endlessly on the radio, and her musical films shown back-to-back on television.īeltrán, born Maria Lucia Beltrán Alcayaga, was raised in the rural town of Rosario, one of seven children of Maria de Los Angeles Ruíz del Beltrán, a homemaker, and Pedro Beltrán Felix, a miner. Known for perfecting the art of the Mexican ranchera, a genre akin to American country-and-western music, Lola Beltrán was perhaps Mexico's best-loved singer. Born Maria Lucia Beltrán Alcayaga on March 7, 1932, in Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico died on March 25, 1996, in Mexico City married Alfredo Leal children: one daughter, María Elena Leal. ![]()
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