Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond was an influential Cuban artist that paved the way for many others. She was also known as La Lupe and La Yiyiyi. She was born in the barrio of San Pedrito, Santiago de Cuba. She was born into a poor family. Her father worked at a Bacardi distillery. In 1954 during her teenage years, La Lupe entered a singing radio contest. The radio contest invited people to do a cover of their favorite artist songs. She chose to sing "Mienteme" by Olga Guillot's and won the contest. She was able to meet Olga Guillot in person and perform for her. In 1955, La Lupe’s family decided to move to the capital of Cuba, Havana. Here she enrolled at the University of Havana. Her family wanted her to go to school to become a teacher. Going to school for a teaching degree was very common for women around this time. Though singing was her passion, La Lupe still listened to her family and got a degree in teaching. Three years later in 1958, La Lupe married her first husband, Eulgio Reyes. He was a Cuban percussionist. Their marriage was very short-lived but during their time together they created a group called Los Tropicuba and had a son. The members of the group were La Lupe, Eulgio Reyes and Agustina del Pilar (tina). They performed songs from genres like guaracha and cha-cha. They performed at some of the most famous nightclubs in Havana and even traveled to Mexico to perform.
La Lupe was and has always been strong spirited and very expressive when performing. La Lupe and Tina had many disagreements that soon led to Tina kicking La Lupe out of the group. In that same year, she also divorced her husband Eulgio. With the odds stacked against her, La Lupe persevered and built a solo career from the ground up. She became very successful and well-known as a solo act in the cuban nightclub scene. Her first performance at La Red in 1958 is what led her to fame. She was known for telling the pianist, Homero Balboa, to go “faster, faster”. During her performances she would also try to find little gestures the crowd likes, she would nudge and hit on the pianist and percussionist. She was also known for belting “Ay Aieeyye”, throwing her clothes into the crowd, beating her chest, pulling her hair, among other things. In 1959, Fiedel Castro overthrew the Cuban government. Cubas’ image completely changed. Fidel had plans for education, healthcare and improving his citizens lives. He did not particularly like a female singer that performed so vivaciously, it was not good for the image of cuba. He had La lupe fired from two nightclubs and also took away the club she bought. He tried to make it hard for her to pursue her career in the country. Nevertheless, La Lupe record her first album called Con el diablo en el Cuerpo in 1961. She was fed up with Fidel and living in a country that clearly did not agree with her performance style. She was not going to change for anyone! La Lupe moved to Mexico but that didn’t do well for her career so she decided to move to New York City in 1962. New York was a fresh start, La Lupe looked to Celia Cruz for guidance on who to work with. Celia Cruz recommended famous Cuban musician, Mongo Santamaria. La Lupe met him and ended up recording the album that made her career take off, "Mongo Introduces La Lupe". She also met other new friends to make music with. She met the famous Tito Puente. Tito took La Lupe under his wing and coached her; they ended up producing four successful albums together. This was a big part of her legacy.
In 1964, La Lupe married her second husband, William Garcia. They ended up having a daughter named Rainbow Garcia. In 1965 and 1966 La Lupe was voted best singer by Latin Press. La Lupe had a big following in the gay community due to her crazy performances. Her career was going very well for a while but it started to decline in 1975. She was banned from television in Puerto Rico for a provocative performance at an awards show where she tore her clothes off. Then Tito Records (now owned by Fania Records) decided to end their contract with La Lupe to focus on their more promising and significantly less controversial female artist Celia Cruz. With a new female artist on the come up, La Lupe was left in the dust. She officially decided to retire in 1980. In 1984, La Lupe fell and injured herself while doing housework, her accident left her spine severely injured. This placed her in a wheelchair and she eventually was able to use a cane. Due to medical bills, donations to the Santeria religion, and a house fire, La Lupe and her family ended up homeless. La Lupe lost everything. She chose to turn to religion. She converted to Pentecostalism. In 1991, she held a concert in New York, she only performed her new Christian material. She preached and told her story in Pentecostal churches until she died in 1992. She died of a heart attack at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. In 2002, New York City renamed east 140th st as La Lupe Way in recognition of the famous singer. Fania record decided to release her albums after her death, they went platinum.
Comentarios