Agustín Lara

AGUSTIN LARA

Agustin Lara is a composer who lives in the affective memory of every romantic. He was a musician that made the hearts of lovers tremble, back in the 40’s and 50’s, and who is still “alive”.
Lara, the Flaco de Oro (the Golden Skinny), as he was called, considered himself a “fruity” romantic, because he thought that this was like a magnet for women.
“I am ridiculously fruity and proud of it, because mine is a honesty that others run away from…shamefully. Every romantic has a fine sense of fruitiness and not denying it is a sign of intelligence.”
Besides music, his other passions were the state of Veracruz and women. He married seven times, one with the great Mexican actress Maria Felix.
His first wife was Angelina Bruschettra, and he always remembered her with deep affection. Bibi, as he called her, was the muse that inspired the song “Mujer”(woman).
According to the official biography, Agustin Lara was born in Mexico City on October 14th, 1900, but he always said to have been born in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, this is why everybody considers him Veracruzan.
He and his brethren, Maria Teresa and Pipo lost their mother while being very young. They lived with their father, who was a medic, but Agustin didn’t have a good relationship with him. So he went to Mexico City with his aunt Refugio, who was in charge of a retirement home in Coyoacan, in the southern part of Mexico City.
During this period Agustin makes his first contact with music. Refugio teaches him to play the piano, and seeing his natural talent, sends him to study in the Fournier School. Here he not only learns to play the piano, but also to speak French fluidly. He also discovers poetry by an old gardener, who shows him the echo of the Mexican romantic poets of the 19th century, such as Najera, Nervo, Acuña and Manuel M. Flores.
Romantic and restless, Lara decides to grow distant from his family while still very young. He starts working in bars and saloons since the age of 13, playing the piano and performing his first compositions. His love and musical life develops within the bohemian atmosphere of that time; but due to the fact that the then president Plutarco Elias Calles, orders the closing of bars and other recreational centers, Lara begins to broaden his artistic horizons, being forced to look somewhere else. Towards 1936, his first contracts appear, giving birth to his career as an artist. On the year 1940 begins a period of triumphs and acknowledgments, fame and women surrounds him; a period of squandering begins, but also of plenty of songs performed by the best singers of the time: Maruca Perez, his best friend and first performer, later substituted by Toña La Negra, and Pedro Vargas, his soul mate.
If radio supported his music, movies magnified his image. Movies recreating the nightlife of the 1940’s such as Aventurera, Sensualidad (Sensuality), Victimas del pecado (Victims of Sin), etc. show night clubs and dance clubs. The smoke filled places; the rumberas (exotic dancers) and the women marked by tragedy make up the atmosphere where the sensuous and romantic music of the Veracruzan author resounds.
On November 6th, 1970, dies the musician-poet, and his remains are buried in The Famous Characters Rotunda, in Mexico City. Nowadays, in the port of Veracruz, exixsts a nostalgic place for the Flaco de Oro’s followers: La casita blanca (The little white house). Museum and bohemian corner, the sea waves can be heard, and the romantic sense of the Veracruzans is made evident. New and old generations express their emotion while singing Piensa en mi (think about me), as a homage to someone that always loved our land.