Oscar Chavez

Óscar Chávez Fernández, known as Óscar Chávez (Mexico City, March 20, 1935-Mexico City, April 30, 2020), was a Mexican singer, actor, composer, music researcher, theater director and poet, considered one of the greatest exponents of new singing in his country. In July 2019, he was recognized by the Mexico City Ministry of Culture, as Living Cultural Heritage of Mexico City, at the Fiesta de Trova y Canción Urbana Cantares.

He was characterized by composing, interpreting and researching various genres of Mexican and Latin American popular music. Politically assumed to be on the left, he was known in his country for his protest songs, directed mainly against the government and the right, among which "La casita" stands out. He musically supported the movement of the Zapatista National Liberation Army, and was regularly accompanied in its presentations by the Trio Los Morales. He was known as El Caifán Mayor , due to his participation in the film Los caifanes , by Juan Ibáñez.

Biographical information

Scream the desire of memory,

You'll tie the words with your knot,

with the aura of his shield

And you're going so wild in history.

Language will always be your noria;

succinct to the end, but never mute,

You'll wear the naked mood

with the tenacious anguish of your Eurofia.

Nothing refused you. Go honey,

from hulls and lumps,

with victors, fanfaries and laurels,

the temples of the last Quixote,

that to be, deserves a bunch of carnations

And a purple bunch of epazote.

(Poem of November 1998 by Óscar Chávez "For Juan José Arreola in his eighty years, waiting for full health.")

Born in the Portales neighborhood of Mexico City, his father was originally from the state of Zacatecas and his mother was a descendant of Spaniards who settled in the State of Mexico. He spent most of his childhood and adolescence in the Santa María neighborhood the Ribera. Later, he moved to the Roma Sur neighborhood, where he lived until his death.He began his working life in a bank, but discovered a taste for theater studying for a year and a half at the Seki Sano actor's academy. His first play was in 1958 A ritmo de juventud , directed by Enrique Lizalde. In 1960, he entered the Theater School of the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBAL), where he took classes with professors such as Salvador Novo, Emilio Carballido, Pilar Souza and Sergio Magaña, among others. In 1961 he started working at Radio Universidad (XEUN) as an actor-announcer and producer of radio drama programs, of which he recorded more than 200 productions. Around 1962, he began his career as a musician, researcher and interpreter of popular Mexican music, initiative of the researcher Lilian Mendelssohn, who saw in Chávez a singular style of revaluation of ancient Mexican pieces. She contacted him with the Polydor label, which recorded his first album Herencia lírica mexicana, with the musician José González Márquez. The success of the recording would motivate Polydor to record a second volume under the same theme.

As a theater director, his first plays were Un hogar solido and Ventura Allende, both by Elena Garro, in 1963. His work in music continued and so did his theatrical activity; Within it, he worked with the theater and film director Juan Ibáñez, who invited him to venture into the cinema with his film Los caifanes, in 1966, alongside Julissa, Enrique Álvarez Félix, Sergio Jiménez, Ernesto Gómez Cruz and Eduardo López Rojas, among others. The film was successful and the fame of its actors increased, a fact that benefited Chávez to consolidate himself both in theater and in music.

He was part of the 1968 Movement in Mexico along with other artists such as Los Nakos, Los Folkloristas, Judith Reyes, León Chávez Teixeiro and Amparo Ochoa performing songs in protests and demonstrations in support of that cause. Said participation was consigned in the documentary El grito, México 1968, by Leobardo López Arretche, where he appeared singing in the Ciudad Universitaria de la UNAM. The student movement changed its artistic motivations, leaning towards the composition and interpretation of protest songs, of social and political content.

Such turnaround led Chávez to venture into the composition and interpretation of political parody songs, making the first album of five Political Parodies, of which he recorded the first of the series at the Blanquita Theater in 1970, a place where he would perform numerous seasons. He also started cabaret shows in places in Mexico City such as La Tasca and Café Colón with content of political criticism of the government of that time. His active participation in the unsuccessful creation of the Independent Actors Union, a union different from the National Actors Association (ANDA) that was allied to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, would cause his job opportunities as an actor to disappear in retaliation, as was to be expected. with threats and reprisals to whoever hired him.

In 1973 he became one of the first performers of popular and traditional music to appear at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in his country, a place where academic music was exclusively presented. From 1998 to 2015 he performed annually in the Mexican National Auditorium.

After the emergence of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in 1994, Chávez publicly assumed himself to be its supporter. In addition to recording the album Chiapas, which dealt with neo-Zapatism and the guerrilla uprising, Chávez organized concerts for the construction of clinics in the Zapatista caracoles and maintained public communication with said organization. In 2004 he would produce a new volume of political parodies, Neoliberal Parodies . On March 20, 2016, he celebrated his 50th anniversary of musical career with a massive concert in the Zócalo of Mexico City. In 2018, he supported the efforts to achieve an eventual indigenous candidacy for the presidency of Mexico assumed by María de Jesús Patricio Marichuy for which Chávez held concerts and collected signatures. In 2019 he participated with his songs at the Vive Latino festival where he was celebrated and honored in front of 30,000 people; in addition, he shared the stage with Caifanes — who took his stage name from the movie Los caifanes— and publicly called him Caifán mayor; Panteón Rococó also did it with whom he sang the song "Out of the world" His last concert was a public recital in the Bosque de Chapultepec on November 16, 2019.

On April 29, 2020, he was hospitalized at the ISSSTE National Medical Center on November 20, in Mexico City, when it was learned that he had symptoms of COVID-19, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Mexico. He died the next day, due to complications from the disease.

Trajectory and musical style

His record production consisted of more than 20 titles, in which he exploited his own style of interpretation based on Mexican and Latin American music. From the musical tradition, he interpreted the traditional genres under which he published his main hits, among which are "Por ti" (originally called "Hell is love"), "Mariana", "Macondo" and " Fuera del mundo" among others. Chávez's work was directed, in addition to interpretation, to the investigation of musical forms and the lyrical tradition associated with it, including forgotten texts to place them again in the public's taste as romances of the New Spanish period. ("Román Castillo"), couplets and songs from the 19th century ("La marijuana", "Mariana", "Corrido de Juan Cortina", "El Charro Ponciano") as well as the recording of albums dedicated to the production musical from states of Mexico with musical wealth such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatán, Nuevo León and Veracruz, among others; or, from song traditions due to historical events such as the protest songs of the 1968 movement (México 1968 vol. 1 and 2), the railway movement (Cantos ferraleroros) or the liberal juarista musical tradition (Juárez should not have died), the Spanish civil war and the Spanish exile (Songs of the Civil War and Spanish resistance) or the album dedicated to the Zapatista guerrilla, Chiapas. This work also involved Chávez making reversals of prominent authors of Latin American songs that would become popular in Mexico in his voice, such as those of Carlos Puebla ("Hasta siempre, Comandante"), Daniel Camino Diez ("Macondo"), Violeta Parra ("Thanks to Life"), Ramón Sixto Ríos ("Merceditas") and Miguel Matamoros ("Lágrimas negras") among others. He also set poetry and texts by authors such as Nezahualcóyotl, José Martí (“La niña de Guatemala”) to music, Manuel José Othón (“La casita”) and Andrés Henestrosa (“La ixhuateca”).

She also recorded the series Voz viva de México, in which she recited poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gilberto Owen and Amado Nervo; several volumes dedicated to traditional Mexican and Latin American music, a love song she wrote, political parodies, and various titles related to social movements.

He was accompanied by various musicians in his musical career; among them, the requintista Chamín Correa; likewise, in his recitals each year at the National Auditorium he was accompanied by great musicians, such as the International Sonora Santanera, in 2008, but it was above all the Trio Los Morales (Héctor, Carlos and Julio) who was by his side for many years in all his concerts.

As a singer, he performed at the OTI Festival and gave concerts and recitals at the Polyforum Cultural Siqueiros, the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and was the first popular music singer to perform in a recital in this place, the National Auditorium, free concerts in public squares such as the Zócalo in Mexico City, and in various cities in countries such as Spain, Cuba, Holland, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, among others.

Awards and recognitions

• Diosa de Plata, awarded by the Association of Film Journalists of Mexico (Pecime), for her performance in the film The Caifanin 1966.
• Ariel Award, awarded by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Film Sciences, for its performance in the film The Caifanin 1966.
• National Prize for Science and Arts in the area of Popular Arts and Traditions, awarded by the Ministry of Public Education in 2011.
• Citizen Distinguished from Mexico City in 2016.
• Doctorate Honoris Causa of the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, in 2016.
• Living Cultural Heritage of Mexico City by the Ministry of Culture of Mexico City in 2019.

Discography

Filmography

• 1966 - The Caifan
• 1968 - The oldest trade in the world
• 1969 - Santa
• 1970 - The Chains of Evil
• 1970 - The Cover of the Crime
• 1970 - Peach Flower
• 1971 - Love has a woman's face (TV)
• 1971 - Generala
• 1973 - The captives
• 1976 - Mexico of my love
• 1979 - Mary of my heart
• 1980 - Slow fire
• 1988 - Break the dawn
• 2001 - Green stones
• 2006 - The Chávez sings even though the raw branch (TV)

References in culture

• The 1998 song Marcos Hall by Panteón Rococó mentions in his letter to Óscar Chávez.
• The 2016 documentary ARDIÓ, ARDE, ARDERÁ (Oscar Chávez, musician) director Julián Hernández tells the story of the composer.