Remembering La Lupe

Remembering LA LUPE

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2000 by Max Salazar

Courtesy of Latin Beat Magazine

"During the sixties, Tito Puente recorded a number of significant LPs with two important female vocalists, Celia Cruz and La Lupe.

Among the Tico recordings with Lupe were Puente Swings, La Lupe Sings (1965), Tu Y Yo (1965), Homenaje A Rafael Hernández (1966), and El Rey Y Yo (1967). La Lupe actually became the featured vocalist and performer. She was highly instrumental in enhancing the role of women not only in Puente's orchestra but also in Latin music generally. Although Celia Cruz has been a more dominant personification of this aspect of Latin music, La Lupe's contribution to the arts should not be underestimated" (page 15, Tito Puente And The Making Of Latin Music, authored by Dr. Steven Loza, Professor of Music, UCLA, University of Illinois Press released, May 1999).

While she was alive La Lupe was not just another female vocalist existing in the shadow of Celia Cruz. She made sure of this by being her own press agent. She was different. At times she sounded like the legendary French vocalist Edith Piaf. Lupe was uninhibited. On stage she would remove clothing and display her voluptuous body which pleased her appreciative male audience. She spoke broken English on the popular TV talk shows of David Frost, Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett and Merv Griffin. She was written about in every Spanish language newspaper and magazine.

In 1964 the santeria candles she lit burned her house clown then and also an apartment 20 years later. During the '70s she won the lead female role in the Broadway play Two Gentleman From Verona opposite Raul Julia. Lupe's tenure on the Latin music scene lasted 14 years (1963-1977) because of 25 hot selling albums. Her mega hits were Que Te Pedí and Oriente. She got my attention in 1966 with her arousing rendition of Los Carreteros, found in the Tito Puente Tico LP Homenje a Rafael Hernández. Her delivery of this Hernández tune is emotional, capable of raising blood pressures, and inducing tears in display of Puerto Rican pride.

Guadalupe Victoria Yoli Raymond of French descent was born on December 23, 1942, in San Pedrito, Oriente, Cuba. As a child she listened to the recordings of Olga Guillot and Celia Cruz and wished one day to be a vocalist. After winning a singing contest at age 12, she traveled to Havana for tutoring. Four years later she landed a job singing with a trio directed by Eulogio Reyes, whom she married. Before 1958 ended Lupe was separated and singing as a soloist at Cabaret La Red. She was paid $28 per week for which she had to perform ten sets a day, each set of 45 minutes duration. Her repertoire consisted mostly of Spanish translations of American pop hits sung by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Tom Jones and Elvis Presley.

In 1962, Lupe arrived in New York City and began singing immediately at the Cuban cabaret La Barraca in midtown Manhattan. Months later while reading the Cuban magazine Bohemia, Cuban bandleader Mongo Santamaría read about a Cuban female vocalist who would get possessed by the devil while on stage. Curiosity guided Santamaría to La Barraca, where upon spotting him, she introduced herself.

On December 17, 1962, Riverside Records recorded Mongo Introduces La Lupe. The album's liner notes written by Dr. Eligio Valera read, "In this album Mongo has had an opportunity to do something that always gives him the greatest satisfaction -- to introduce new talent. This time it is La Lupe! I would describe her as an untamed but sincere musical artist. This fortunate addition to Mongo's group was born in San Pedrito (Oriente province), a town so small that before La Lupe's debut in show business it was unknown even to most Cubans. Lupe comes from a very poor family. Was for a time a school teacher but felt more attracted to music than by the classroom. When I hear her sing on this album, I have to feel the change was for the best."

The tracks Besitos Pa Ti, Canta Bajo and This Is My Mambo were the reasons for La Lupe's instant national recognition. When Santamaría's band performed at the Apollo Theatre, Club Triton, Palladium Ballroom and every prominent club, Lupe was a featured star act. Before a tour of Puerto Rico started, Lupe told Mongo she could not go, that she was carrying Puerto Rican vocalist Willy Garcia's baby (whom she married) and that she had signed an exclusive contract with Tito Puente.

In 1964 Lupe debuted with the Puente orchestra at the Bronx's Loews Boulevard Theatre. Months later Lupe visited El Torero, a Cuban cabaret-restaurant located at Broadway between 162 & 163 Street in Washington Heights. Entertaining the diners was the Julio Gutierrez Quintet which consisted of José "Chombo" Silva on tenor sax; Marcelino Valdés on conga; Izzy Feliu on bass; Julio Gutierrez on piano and Hector Fernando, Robertico Lozano, Willy Chirino and Carlos Oliva, four vocalists who alternated weekly. At one moment during the evening Gutierrez's pianissimo introduction of an arousing lush ballad was joined by the soothing wails of Chombo Silva's tenor. Hector Fernando, a tall handsome Cuban vocalist contributed to the sensuous atmosphere by cooing the lyrics of Jugue y Perdí, a song whose lyrics are about a lost love due to an error in judgment. The music and lyrics composed by pianist-flutist bandleader Lou Pérez is a musical depiction of one of his life's experiences. About one minute into the tune, the chatter and din appeared to have subsided and the place was quiet. Lupe stopped speaking and focused her eyes on the vocalist. When the tune ended she walked over to the singer, said something to him, then she spoke to Gutierrez.

During a break, Hector Fernando gave Lupe a piece of paper. She sat down and said, "I'm going to record this." At the beginning of the following set, Gutierrez introduced Lupe who was going to sing a duet with Hector Fernando. While she was singing, she kept looking down at the paper with lyrics while she harmonized Jugue y Perdí It was a memorable performance, a moment in Latin music history which went unrecorded and untalked about until now. Fernando recorded Jugue y Perdí for the Pop Art label in 1965. For unknown reasons Lupe never recorded it. Instead she recorded a melodic Jugue y Perdí soundalike titled Que Te Pedí with Tito Puente which eventually became her best selling recording.

After a few successful Tico recordings with La Lupe, Puente could no longer tolerate Lupe's antics and unpredictable temper tantrums. In 1968 he fired Lupe and this firing was perpetuated on vinyl during their recording of the tune Oriente in which she sang Ay ya yay Tito Puente Me Botó. In an effort to keep her in the limelight, Tico President Morris Levy had the Machito orchestra back her on November 16, 1968, the night Levy crowned her the Queen of Salsa. After the dance Lupe faded into obscurity.

Nine years later Lupe returned to the New York entertainment world and learned she was still the favorite of many record buyers. This writer attended her comeback and the following are my notes on her performance.

"On Sunday, January 30, 1977, four thousand Lupe fans ignored the freezing five degree weather, paid $4 each and filled every seat at the Bronx's Puerto Rico Theatre which was about twenty degrees warmer than it was outside. From the second La Lupe appeared on stage until the moment she ended her act, the crowd was hers. Shortly after, Machito and his orchestra had the people swaying in their seats to his vocals on Buena Noche Cha Cha, Lupe was introduced as the Queen of Latin Soul. Out of the wings she strutted in a regal white gown and queen's tiara. For the following 45 minutes her performance warmed up the people who were so cold they would not remove their coats, hats and gloves. She sang Latin-Rock tunes in English, also Que Te Pedi and A Benny Moré; she ad-libbed jokes (especially about the cold temperatures in the theatre), she changed clothes on stage and lifted the skirt of her expensive black backless gown to show she was keeping warm with wool gray knee socks. To the tunes Oriente and Virgen Del Cobre, she bem-bed all over the stage.

Lupe showed class when she sincerely praised Machito's son Mario Grillo (who directed the orchestra) for the excellent job he was doing. She praised "El Gran Machito" who was one of the pioneers of New York's Latin music popularity and Bobby Rodríguez y La Compañia who warmed up the audience with his outstanding orchestra.

Toward the end of the show Tito Puente made an unexpected guest appearance and brought the audience to its feet with a thunderous ovation. Lupe, with a surprised look on her face, began crying uncontrollably when Puente embraced her in a bear hug, looked at her and said a few words to her. The raucous bedlam continued for minutes. Two musicians who had a falling out...who did not speak to each other for years, put aside their differences and gave Latin New Yorkers a happy moment. Puente took over the timbales from Mario Grillo and played to Oriente with La Lupe and they smiled at each other as she sang Ay Ya Yay Tito Puente Me Botó.

In the February 4, 1973, Sunday New York Times, reporter Don Dove wrote:

"The housewife in Englewood, New Jersey, who shops the local supermarket with her mother is also the official 'Queen of Latin Song' with partisan audiences that stretch from New York's 'barrio' to Venezuela and beyond. She also has no agent and she answers her own phone. She is Lupe Garcia known as La Lupe to her fans and she was one of the headliners Friday night at the 2nd Festival of Latin Music at Madison Square Garden. In 1962, Lupe visited Mexico. After two weeks she relocated in Miami, bought a car that transported her to New York City. New York was not better at first, and part of La Lupe's metropolitan experience was living on welfare. But eventually she was offered a job singing and recording with Tito Puente. It was the start of a lucrative partnership for both. On stage Lupe is nothing if not energetic. She will pull her hair...stamp her feet until they are swollen and even scratch her face in the emotion of the moment. Lupe calls the moment 'espiritu santo'! She said, 'when I sing I get goose bumps...in Cuba they called me crazy...they didn't understand at first -- that was part of the trouble...but now with this Latin festival, with all these new clubs opening...this is a chance we've never had before in America...it makes me very proud.'"

Months later, another Latin music concert was staged on June 18, 1977, at Madison Square Garden. The following is an abbreviated report of what reporter Pete Hamill wrote for the June 20 Daily News edition.

LEAN, MEAN LA LUPE IS BACK...ELECTRIFIES AFICIONADOS. "Here she comes across the stage: dressed from chin to toe in orange chiffon, glittering with gold rings and glass baubles, her skin the color of cappuccino coffee. She begins to sing, and 15,000 people in Madison Square Garden on a Saturday night rise as one. After many years away, La Lupe was back in town. 'I was scared to death,' she said,' this is a comeback for me...I been away...I not know how they like me anymore.' She was 125 pounds now, lean and mean. On the final number, she pulled out all the stops: moaning, making a chattering sound with her voice, her right hand kneading her breast, whipping the dress around her, tearing at her hair, the sound orgasmic and huge as the band moved to the end and the song stopped and she was gone."

In 1974, Jerry Masucci, president of Fania Records, assumed control of Tico, Alegre and Mardi Gras artists such as Tito Puente and Ricardo Ray. He was not interested in La Lupe but recorded her to avoid a legal suit. Her album, One of Kind, released in 1977, was not promoted and received very little air play. By the beginning of 1980 she was living with her children in an apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan. She was under a doctor's care for depression. Overweight, poor, haunted by the rumors of drug abuse and the pain of losing her niche in the Latin music world hierarchy, was overwhelmingly cruel. La Lupe died on February 28, 1992, some say at peace because she had turned to Christianity. Thousands of mourners lined up behind police barricades waiting for a chance to view the open casket at La Iglesia De Dios (Gods Church) at 138th Street and Cypress Avenue in the Bronx.

On Friday, November 26, 1999, Puerto Rican artists La India, Eddie Palmieri, Cheo Feliciano, Andy Montañez and Roberto Avellanet came together for Homenaje A La Lupe (Homage To La Lupe). The Tribute staged at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in Hato Rey reverberated with a few unforgettable Lupe recordings for three hours. La Lupe's diehard fans hope there are more tributes to come.