EVEN IN DEATH, A GULF SEPARATES CHELO SILVA AND PAREDES

By Juan Montoya

The Broken Sprocket finally did what this city has refused to do since Chelo Silva was alive and after she died.

They gave her the well-deserved recognition that had eluded her since she was born here on August 25, 1922, almost 100 years ago. And even though it happened 33 years after her death April 22, 1988, it couldn't come too soon for her longtime and younger fans.
Now alongside Jimmy Gonzalez of Mazz and Kris Kristofferson, Freddie Fender, Luis Pulido, etc., her portrait adorns a wall panel at this gathering place in Brownsville.

And, as if representing the chasm of the road of life, on the other side of the Broke Sprocket's entrance is a rendition of her ex-husband Americo Paredes.
                                                                                                                  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 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. They parted ways, he entering academia at UT Austin, she to lead the life of a recording star in the U.S. and all over Latin America. 

They had one son, who himself majored in music at Corpus Christi's Del Mar College. The road of life separated them for the rest of their days. 

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

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 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,” “Soy Bohemia,” “Inolvidable,” and "Como Un Perro," etc.

Signing with Columbia Records in 1955, she gained even more commercial exposure. She made a series of major hits, including  "Sabes de Qué Tengo Ganas," "Amor Aventurero," and "Soy Bohemia." Accompanied by guitar trios, her distinctive low contralto had a melancholy quality well-suited to the canción romántica. 

Hailed as "la Reina de los Boleros." she continued to perform until the 1980s, touring extensively throughout Mexico, South America, and the United States. She also performed with notable figures of the música ranchera style, such as José Alfredo Jiménez, Javier Solís, and Lola Beltrán. 

She died of cancer on April 2, 1988, in Corpus Christi. 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.

Welcome home to Brownsville Chelo Silva, "La Reina del Bolero."