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

Latin Beat Magazine, Feb, 2001 by Jesse Varela

Canta raza, raza de bronze, raza jarocha, que el sol quemo...

A los que sufren, a los que lloran, a los que esperan, les canto yo...

"Lamento Jarocho" (Agustín Lara)

The golden age of Mexican music and cinema ran from 1920-1945. It fueled an unparalleled renaissance in the capital with a vibrant youth culture that rose with the advent of radio in 1923, (when the first station began transmission), records (RCA Victor opened for business in 1930), and singing cinema stars like Pepe Guizar (Alla En El Rancho Grande, 1936). It helped fuel the urbanization of the country as automobiles led to spectacular growth in Mexico City. The use of alcohol also became more widespread as Mexicans laughed at prohibition in the United States.

By the early 1940s, Toña had achieved widespread popularity and traveled to perform in Cuba and the U.S., especially in California and Texas, where a youthful Pachuco zootsuit generation embraced her. The Sunday afternoon "tardeadas" at Sweets Ballroom in Oakland promoted by Guadalupe Carlos used a popular song Toña interpreted, Santa, as the break tune for the orchestra of Merced Gallegos. Appearing regularly on XEW, she became one of the first stars of the romantic songs known as "boleros" and did a succession of much-remembered performances at the Politeama Theater with Pedro Vargas.

Much like the proliferation of the Latin musical in the U.S., Mexico experienced a similar phenomenon of musical comedies and dramas. Toña performed songs in numerous films that began in 1938 with Aguila o sol, the starring-role debut of Mario Moreno "Cantinflas."

That was followed in 1943 with two prominent films, Maria Eugenia (with Maria Félix, where she sang Alma De Veracruz) and Konga Roja (where she appeared in a supporting role with Pedro Armendariz and Maria Antonieta Pons and sang the bolero Eternamente).

She recorded for Peerless and RCA Victor and worked with the best composers, orchestras and arrangers of Mexico. Her earliest recordings were done for Peerless Records, where she collaborated with the orchestras of Noé Fajardo, Absalón Pérez, Orlando Contreras and Antonio Escobar. She recorded the songs of Agustín Lara and the celebrated Puerto Rican composers Rafael Hernández (who lived in Mexico from 1932-1947) and Pedro Flores.

Pintor nacido en mi tierra, con el principe extranjero,

Pintor sigues el rumbo de tantos pintores viejos,

Aunque la virgin sea blanca, pintame Angelitos negros...

During her tenure at RCA Victor, she worked with la Orquesta Gigante de Chucho Zarzosa, Juan Garcia Esquivel and the conjunto of her brother Pablo Peregrino. She was one of XEWs biggest stars alongside Lara, Vargas, and Francisco Gabilondo Soler-Cri Cri and many others. In 1946, her rendition of Angelitos Negros made a social statement and showcased a prodigious fountain of talented women artists of the era, like singer Lucha Reyes, painter Frida Kahlo and composers Maria Grever and Consuelo Velásquez.

Toña La Negra remained a popular artist until the 1960s. She has influenced generations of Latín American singers as well as the filin movement of Cuba and its superb vocal talents, such as Elena Burke and Omara Portuondo. Many felt La Negra sounded best when accompanied by the Veracruz band Son Clave De Oro with her brother Pablo "El Negro" Peregrino on tres guitar.