Beltrán, Lola (1932–1996)

Lola Beltrán (María Lucila Beltrán Ruíz) was a Mexican ranchera singer who achieved superstar status. Known as "Lola la Grande" (Lola the Great), Beltrán was the most successful female ranchera singer after Lucha Reyes (1906–1944). She was born on 7 March 1932, in El Rosario, Sinaloa, like Reyes into a lower-class family. She was working as a secretary at a radio station (XEW) in Mexico City in the 1950s when she was discovered by the singer Matilde Sánchez. With the help of Sánchez and Miguel Aceves Mejía, she made her debut as a singer. During her career she recorded more than a hundred records, with hits such as "Cucurrucucúpaloma," "Huapango torero," and "Paloma negra." She also worked extensively in film, mainly musicals, including El tesoro de la muerte (1954), Cucurrucucú paloma (1965), and Una gallina muy ponedora (1982). In the 1970s she was in the television soap opera Mi rival. Besides her noteworthiness as a female singer in an otherwise male-dominated field, she is significant for bringing ranchera music, a traditional Mexican style related to mariachi, to the international stage, and is informally known as the "Ambassador of the Ranchera." She was the first ranchera artist to perform at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Beltrán influenced many singers working in the genre, including Rocío Dúrcal and Linda Ronstadt. She died suddenly on 24 March 1996, in Mexico City.

See alsoMusic: Popular Music and Dance .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Garcia-Orozco, Antonia. "Cucurrucucú Palomas: The Estilo Bravío of Lucha Reyes and the Creation of Feminist Consciousness via the Canción Ranchera." Ph.D. diss., Claremont Graduate University, 2005.

Nájera-Ramírez, Olga. "Unruly Passions: Poetics, Performance, and Gender in the Ranchera Song." In Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader, edited by Gabriela F. Arredondo et al., pp. 184-210. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.

                                     Caryn C. Connelly