Toña la Negra - cantante de México - TT: Tona la Negra - TA: singer from Mexico

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2001 by Jesse Varela

Yo soy mulata y orgullo tengo tener la sangre de negro en mis venas.

Yo soy mulata y no me importa que me critican si yo tengo bemba.

Yo soy mulata y orgullo tengo te tener piel tostada...

Y no me importa si tengo nada yo soy mulata de verdad...

"Yo Soy Mulata" Toña la Negra

"It is no accident that the principal interpreter of Agustín Lara's songs was a native of both the city and state of Veracruz: "Toña la Negra," with her throaty voice endowed with erotic undertones, accompanied, besides, by the celebrated group Son Clave de Oro. Toña la Negra and this group were only the beginning of a phenomenon which soon became widespread in the Port, a musical trend that, due to the constant Cuban influence, still proliferates in the form of countless trios, quartets, sextets and larger ensembles like the sonoras, with such enduring results that, for example, at the end of this century the montuno son is still very much alive."

These are the words accompanying a photo of Toña La Negra by Joaquin Santamaría, a port-worker who from the 1930s-80s photographed the scenes and personalities of the gulf city where he was born. Toña became one of the Port's biggest stars and raised awareness about her black heritage and the Afro-Mex roots laced in the regions common folk know as "jarochos."

It is Mexico's most Caribbean city, with a popular culture that gave the country one of its most popular folk songs -- La Bamba.

It's not certain when María Antonia Peregrino Alvarez was born. Conflicting dates vary around winter of 1912, but "Toña La Negra," as the world would know her, became a star in the 1930s until the early 1960s. Rising up above the poverty of post-revolution Mexico, she is a vocal stylist best known for interpreting the works of renowned popular composer Agustín Lara.

Blessed with an emotionally packed delivery, Toña became a popular radio and film personality, singing torch bolero love songs now considered Latin American standards.

She started singing as a child and showed promise at an early age, winning amateur contests. Despite their humble means, her parents encouraged her and bought her a flowered dress for her presentations. Somehow they sensed she could rise above their impoverished condition. From a musical family that also included her brother Pablo (who played the Cuban tres guitar with Son Clave De Oro, the superb Veracruz son-combo), Toña developed a lifelong passion for music.

The influence of Cuban music was a determining factor in her musical development, thus providing her with a vehicle to showcase a voice whose articulation and passion far outweighed an extensive vocal range. Yet like American jazz singer Billie Holiday, the balance of timbre to emotion gave her a unique musical character. The power and intonation of her voice took her to Mexico City at age 15 with her brother Pablo and Ignacio Uzcanga as part of the Trio Peregrino at a time when the trova of María Teresa Vera and Guty Cardenas were giving new roots to the bolero.

In 1931, María Antonia abandoned her dream of medical studies and would live out a Cinderella story during "La Época de Oro" --Mexico's golden age. They came with stars in their eyes, performing at places like Centro de Dependientes and El Teatro Variedades. Legend has it she wanted to meet Agustín Lara but he was elusive. So she camped out in front of his house for days until he gave her the opportunity to audition. Impressed, Lara asked her to join the stable of artists he was cultivating to interpret his songs.

Yo naci con la luna de plata, y naci con alma de pirata

He nacido rumbero y jarocho, trovador de veras

Y me fui lejos de Veracruz.

"Veracruz" -- Agustín Lara

Agustín Lara (1900-1970), who was heavily influenced by Cuban music and jazz, is probably Mexico's greatest composer. Growing up in Mexico City, he began playing piano as a child. A wild kind of kid who was thrown out of the house at 12 and jailed not long after for stealing, he began playing piano in brothels to survive. When his father found out, he shipped him off to military school. In 1927 he was released and began working in a cabaret around the Colonia Santa María la Redonda, where a prostitute would scar his face for life. By 1929, he was writing the songs that set Mexico City buzzing.

In 1930, XEW became the capital city's first commercial radio station, and station owner Emilio Azcarraga offered Lara a program to showcase his songs with a superb cast headed by the popular Mexican tenor Pedro Vargas. With his songs performed daily on the radio, he became known as "El Músico Poeta" (the musical poet). He married film actress María Félix, and although they later divorced, it was during those years that he wrote some of his best songs, including the famous María Bonita.

Toña's first hit with Lara was Enamorada. On New Years Eve of 1932, she appeared at the Esperanza Iris theater singing Lamento Jarocho, a song Lara wrote especially for her. Her exciting and passionate voice tore the place apart with seven triumphant encores. The club management quickly hired her for 24 additional evenings. Soon after, she was singing at El Retiro backed by Lara (El Flaco de Oro) on piano with the orchestra of Alfredo Girón. There she flowered as "la sensación jarocha."