Antonio Aguilar - Biography
Antonio Aguilar, "El Charro de México," is an iconic actor, producer, charro and ranchera singer/songwriter. Over a career that spanned fifty years he appeared in 167 films and recorded over 150 albums which sold approximately 25 million copies.
José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Barraza was born on May 17th, 1919, in rural Zacatecas. He was one of seven children (Jose Roque, Salvador, Guadeloupe, Tomás Luis Mariano and Josefina) born to his parents, Maria de los Angeles and Jesus Aguilar, who lived in Tayahua Casa Grande, a hacienda built in Tayahua in 1596. Antonio's mother sang in church in Villanueva and young Antonio followed her lead, albeit singing in the saddle. In 1940, he illegally entered the US and settled in Los Angeles where he worked as a waiter, trying to save money to pay for singing and acting lessons. Shortly after, he relocated to Tijuana. He moved to Mexico City in 1945 and initially pursued a career in opera. However, during an appearance in Puerto Rico, someone convinced him to sing popular music. In July, 1950, Antonio Aguilar appeared on Mexico City's XEW-AM and shortly after on Channel 2's Música a Bordo.
In 1952, he made his film debut, in Un rincón cerca del cielo, in which he appeared alongside matinee idols Pedro Infante, Marga López and Sylvia Pinal. By 1956, he was starring in his own films, beginning with Tierra de Hombres. During the 1950s, he acted in forty more films, writing and singing many ranchera classics along the way. His popularity only grew in the 1960s and he co-starred with his wife, actress/singer Flor Silvestre (born Guillermina Jimenez) in many more films. On August 7th, 1968, the couple gave birth to their son, Pepe, who went on to become a famous singer in his own right. The following year, Aguilar returned to the US and co-starred with John Wayne and Rock Hudson in The Undefeated. Unfortunately, the film's stereotypical depiction of Mexicans deeply offended him and he declined all subsequent offers to appear in Hollywood films.
With the decline in popularity of films about singing vaqueros, Aguilar's popularity too declined. In the 1970s, he nonetheless acted in twenty films. In the 1980s, he experienced a resurgence after his song, "Triste Recuerdo" became a hit. After that, he remained a popular concert draw, breaking records in 1997 by selling out New York City's Madison Square Garden for six consecutive performances. His final tour of the US came in 2006. The following year, after a long bout of pneumonia, he died in Mexico City on June 19th, 2007- aged 88. He was buried in Tayahua, at his family's "El Soyate" ranch.
