By Tomás Pont Vergés – @pontomaspont
Editor's Note: Once again, we turn to the invaluable archives of NTD.la to republish another of their wonderful stories about Latin American music. This time, we travel to old Mexico and, taking advantage of the remastering of one of their collections of great songs done during the pandemic, we remember the great Agustín Lara. This article is suitable for everyone to read, whether you're a late-blooming Gen Zer or your grandmother nostalgic for beautiful tunes from bygone days. Enjoy!
Agustín Lara was downright ugly. Not only was he not naturally handsome, but he also had a horrible scar across his face. But what Nature did not give, Poetry lent to Don Agustín.Through his perfect boleros, he became the greatest lover in the history of Mexico.
Agustín Lara's document bore the incredible name of Angel Agustine Maria Carlos Fausto Mariano Alfonso Rojas Canela of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Lara and Aguirre del Pino. Although he was born into a well-to-do family in Veracruz, at the age of twelve he ran away in search of adventure: he worked on the railroad, was a thief, a convict, and fought in the Mexican Revolution, where he was shot twice. That famous knife wound that gave him a Joker-like smile, however, was not a war wound, but a mark of his feminine misdeeds. A jealous pimp slashed him from mouth to ear for flirting, during breaks, with the staff of the brothels where he played piano for a bed and food.
He said of himself: «"The Lord of Lords made me so ugly that He also gave me the grace of divine masculinity.". He seduced for sport, because for him, in seduction, like any art, mastery is achieved only through practice. If the romantic discourse of the bolero lent its words to millions of suitors, it was because Agustín Lara was responsible for driving legions of desperate housewives crazy, with verses of torrid and suffering loves.
He lived as a miserable brothel musician until – according to legend – at the end of the 1920s he composed the song on the lid of a shoebox. Divine Woman, which he presented on a radio station and launched him to continental fame. From then on, it became a sacred icon for Mexicans., who replaced their kilometer-long name with «"The Golden Skinny One"», Just like that.
He composed more than 500 songs, including hits such as Divine Woman, Night of the Serenade, Love of My Loves, Taste of Me, Little Lantern, Think of Me, Sinner, Every Night a Love, Pervert, Adventurer, And the titles continue. While the man created the most sublime and romantic boleros, above all he thematized the flip side of the idyll like no other: spite and desolation.
For a decade he had a radio program called «"The Intimate Hour of Agustín Lara"». There he would tell anecdotes, recite poetry, and play the piano. And he was a huge success. He religiously premiered a bolero every week. These were the years when the Catholic Church declared war on him through the "League of Decency," obsessed with censoring his songs on the radio.
Lara is known for countless conquests, some of them memorable, like the biggest star of Mexican cinema, María Félix, whom he seduced by giving her a white grand piano with the inscription: «"On this instrument I will only play the melodies I compose for the most splendid woman in the world,", and where he composed the song Maria Bonita, perhaps his best-known work.
Believe it or not: despite his supreme ugliness, he became a movie heartthrob. He filmed more than thirty movies, all full of sentimentality. A brief fragment of his film is enough to show you. «"Lady Temptation"» at the end of this note.
Another record from the Golden Skinny One: He married twelve times. When he died in 1970, his dozen wives knocked on his notary's door to claim their inheritance. The notary dutifully informed them of the harsh reality: all the marriages had been sham. Staged performances with paid actors simulating priests and judges.
Nobility obliges Don Agustín: he acknowledged all his children, on the condition that they were named Agustín, or Agustina. All 17 of his children bear his first name.
Lara x Lara:
“I have loved and have had the glorious joy of being loved. The women in my life number in the dozens. I have given thousands of kisses, and the essence of my hands has been spent in caresses, leaving them like parchment. Three times I have had fortunes—real fortunes, not frivolous things—and three times I have lost them… I am a national ingredient like epazote or tequila… I am ridiculously corny, and I love being so… I want to die Catholic, but as late as possible.”.