BETO (CANTINILLAS) QUINTANILLA REIGNS SUPREME IN THE BARRIO

"Uno sabe donde nace, pero nunca donde acaba
Estado pegado al norte, Tamaulipas tierra brava..."
Patrulla de Blanco y Negro, by Beto Quintanilla

By Juan Montoya
His voice is grating to the ear. The tiki-taki beat of the accordion and bajo sexto sometimes accompanied by drums and sound effects of a cuerno de chivo firing off bullets is not a pleasant melody to hear.
And someone somewhere did him a terrible disservice when they told him he could sing.
Yet, if you pass through a Brownsville barrio or by a 14th Street cantina or Market Square honky-tonk, it'll be Beto Quintanilla blasting from the rafters with his discordant voice belting out narcocorridos and melodramatic verses that speak of cocaine- and alcohol-induced escapades, often with a tragic end.
"Beto es la mera paipa, bro," said a patron at the Chicago Bar in Brownsville's Market Square recently. "El vato era una v---a parada."
According to his biography, he was born Norberto Quintanilla Iracheta in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. He was a popular narco corrido singer and composer with a unique scratchy voice.
His biographer Evan C. Gutierrez, of All Music Guide, states that while young Beto left school after only a year of secondary education in order to work alongside his father. Some years later, in order to provide for his large family, Beto relocated to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, to work with his uncle on a cattle ranch.
Though he had always loved to write songs, musical instruments and education were scarce.
Via ranch life, Beto came to know a pair of musicians who played bajo sexto and accordion. Initially writing songs for his new friends, and then songs to be performed by numerous local groups, Quintanilla developed the skills and reputation of a serious musician.
He did not sing or record his own material until meeting local record executive Ruben Polanco, who recommended that Quintanilla make the effort despite having had no experience or training in singing.
Beginning in 1976 the experiment paid off, with hit songs such as "Pancho la Sota," "La Panel Café," and "El Quemador."
By 2000, Quintanilla had become a force in the regional Mexican music world. His release that year featured a pair of corridos that would become two of the most commonly covered songs in northern Mexico, "Raquenel Villanueva" and "El Calabazo."
His 2004 release, Mi Historia Musical, a collection of his works, was Quintanilla's first appearance on the Billboard charts.
A year later he made his second appearance on international charts with 25 Aniversario: En Concierto, celebrating a quarter of a century as a singer and composer.
In 2007, Quintanilla released Tragedias Reales de la Vida, but he died of a heart attack on March 19th, 2007, just two days after its release.
The album became his most popular, not only doing well on Latin music charts but making its way into Billboard's Top 200.
Known by the nickname "El Mero Leon del Corrido" ("The Lion of the Corrido"), his biggest hits included "El Deportado" "Le Compre La Muerte a mi Hijo", "El Gordo Paz", "El Sapo", "Los Pilares de la Carcel", "La Carga Ladeada", "Un Ratoncito Orejon", "El Corrido de los Zetas", and many more.
He recorded over 20 albums throughout his singing career.
An example of a Quintanilla ballad is "El Sapo," the story of a criminal who was in a penal colony for having killed (beheaded) 99 of his enemies with his machete.
While in prison, El Sapo became friends with the priest and changes his life. He vows never to kill again. Then, two criminals jump out of a path and cut his head off with a machete. At his burial, the priests says he wants to be buried with El Sapo and dies the next day.
Quintanilla in his lyrics states that the priest would represent him as his attorney at his judgement in heaven.
Just before he died he appeared in Despierta America, Univision's morning show syndicated throughout the United States and Latin America. His songs were appropriately correct to reflect the venue and he sang one about a son who confronts his father when he tried to beat his mother, a paean against domestic violence.
His friend, Jesus Maria, in Brownsville, about whom he wrote the song El Deportado, said Beto was reaching the pinnacle of fame before his untimely death.
"I had just been in Xochitl's Bar with him before he left for Houston and then died in Reynosa upon his return," he said. "Beto was the real thing."