BROKEN SPROCKET HOMEBOYS MURAL: WHERE'S CHELO SILVA?

(As local nusicians begin to fill a mural behind the Broken Sprocket on Paredes Lines Road, someone noticed that – as usual – the most famous female singer from Brownsville who gained fame worldwide and was known as "La Reina del Bolero"  was missing from the wall. Mazz's Jimmy Gonzalez is on there as is Kris Kristofferson, San Benito's Freddy Fender and even includes Bill Haley, a Michigan native who died in Harlingen in 1981. Ramon Ayala, a native of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, resettled in Hidalgo, is also there. But where's Brownsville's own Chelo Silva? Is local music only recognizing musical HIStory? What about HERstory, guys?) 

By Juan Montoya 

We have written in the past written about the fire that destroyed the 123 Lounge, an institution on Brownsville's 14th Street strip of honky-tonks and beer joints. 

But while owner Javier Ruiz set about rebuilding the bar, someone reminded us that before it was a tavern, it was also a restaurant owned by none other than the parents of Chelo Silva, one of the pioneers of traditional Mexican music. 

In fact, she used to wait on tables for her parents as  child. 

Her biographers say that Chelo, called La Reina del Bolero (Queen of the Bolero), reigned over Tejano music scene with her romantic ballads and passionate performances in 1940s and into the 1960s. 

She was born Consuelo Silva on August 25, 1922, in Brownsville, the oldest of seven children. She began singing as a teenager at school and in her church (Guadalupe Catholic Church on Lincoln Street). In fact, locals say her first public performance was at a Guadalupe Church Kermess. 

Retired pharmacist Vincent Crixell said Chelo had been noticed by local musicians while still in her early teens. A few years later, she was singing regularly with a local group, the Tito Crixell Orchestra, headed by Vincent's father.

"Chelo performed in the first Charro Days in 1938," he remembered. "My dad had to ask permission from her parents so she could sing." 

Her online biography said Chelo made her mark on a wider audience in 1939 when she was asked to sing on a local radio program hosted by the poet, composer, and author Americo Paredes. 

That radio show gave her wider exposure and opened the doors for her. It wasn't long before she was performing regularly at Corpus Christi's Continental Club. Silva also later married, and divorced, Paredes. 

However, breaking into recordings was difficult for Chelo and it wasn't until she was 30 that she landed her first record deal with Discos Falcón of McAllen, Texas, where she would go on to record over seventy titles. 

Liner notes on a compilation of her hits indicate that by 1955 she had signed with Falcon Records, Peerless Records, and finally Columbia Records. 

The move paid off almost immediately as Silva put together an impressive string of hit songs, including "Cheque En Blanco," "La Huella de Mis Besos," “Imploración,” “Esta Sellado,” “Sabes de Que Tenga Ganas,” “Soy Bohemia,” “Inolvidable,” and “Amor Aventurero,” "Como Un Perro," etc. 

A few bars in her old neighborhood had Silva's recording on their jukeboxes, notably the late Willy Garza's Border Lounge, Maria's El Siete Mares, and Mike Chapa's La Catorce Bar. Most of those bars, and those on Market Square – all gone now – had her most popular songs on the jukeboxes at four songs for $1.

"Many people in my generation remember Chelo," Garza recalled. "We kind of grew up with her music." 

The success of the Columbia recordings led to several touring opportunities throughout the Southwest and Mexico, including tours with then-notable stars such as José Alfredo Jiménez, Javier Solis, Vicente Fernández, and Lola Beltrán. 

By the 1960s, Silva was the most well known of the female Spanish-language singers, her popularity reaching outside the United States and into Latin America. Silva died of cancer in 1988 at the age of sixty-five. Fortunately for fans and historians, much of her music has resurfaced in the form of reissues and compilations. 

Following the death of the Tejana superstar Selena, there was a resurgence in the root music that had paved the way for younger generations. In 1995, Arhoolie Records released “Chelo Silva,” a best-of collection that includes some of Silva's most-loved songs, including “Imploración,” “Esta Sellado,” and “Amor Aventurero.”

 

Yet, Silva's memory has always been put down by people who criticized her being a woman performing in cantinas where a "decent" woman should not be.  Author Deborah Vargas notes this in her "Borderland Bolerista" when comparing corrido performers like Paredes with women performers like  Chelo:

"Yet almost always in the background were the references to Silva's inappropriate behavior as a woman. I learned quickly during my initial investigation of Silva's life that extramarital lovers, drinking, and sexual escapades were expected when the protagonist was a heterosexual man, but "inappropriate" as a sign of the sexual agency of women public performers."

Now, after her death, Chelo Silva remains one of the most influential figures in the history of Mexican music. And where do you think Chelo is best remembered? Not in her hometown, that's for sure. Except for some indications that Chicano-In-Residence Meme Maldonado at UTB-TSC was working on yet another cultural documentary, no one seems to remember that Chelo put Brownsville on the musical map. 

Yet, the program at last year's Corpus Christi Water Street Market Music, Art and Surf Fest held in June 6, 2008, included tributes to Chelo alongside rock legend Bill Haley. In 2004 Silva was inducted into the Tejano R.O.O.T.S. Hall of Fame. She was also a member of the South Texas Music Walk of Fame.

"Brownsville is like that," Ruiz said. "We would rather recognize people from outside than to remember our own artists."

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODIES 

By Rosa Canales Perez

 http://www.rumboalanacua.com/ 

Bohemian rhapsodies 

Seldom find their place in Mexican-side of town cantinas 

More beer than wine cantinas 

Heavy with cigarette smoke 

"El Monkey Lounge" 

"El Mante Bar" 

"El 1,2,3 

Troubadors strapped with 

Acordeon and bajo sexto 

Wander in and out 

But thumping wails 

from stereophonic jukebox prevail 

En el 1,2,3 

A hard-living barrio poet 

Stands back turned toward the rest 

Hands upon the jukebox 

Selecting his music 

Like pulling a cork From a bottle of vintage rare 

Until the voice of Chelo Silva fills the air 

Chelo Silva... 

Self-avowed Bohemian 

Passionate 

Elegant 

Rebellious 

Bending notes from 

Shades of Mexican blue 

One bolero after another

Torch songs aching with

Heartbreak, talent and

Never-ending hometown due

Chelo Silva 

1950s Texas bolero queen 

yet to be replaced 

reigning from the grave 

Cast in a cantina scene 

With a hard-living barrio poet 

Secure within the 

Tolerance zone where 

People don't ask 

Too many questions 

When the 

Bohemian 

Rhapsodies of an 

Errant soul find 

Their way back home

2002