Iluminado Davila Medina (July 1, 1918 – June 7, 2021) was a Puerto Rican musician. He was a
cuatrista.
Biography
Davila Medina was born in
Morovis, Puerto Rico
Morovis (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the central region of the island, north of Orocovis, south of Manatí, Vega Baja and Vega Alta; east of Ciales, and west of Corozal. Morovis is spread over 13 barrios and Morov ...
, the son of Jose Davila Ortega, also a cuatro musician, and Joaquina Medina Guzman. He had two sisters, older sister Elisa and younger sister Josefa, and a brother, Juan, who was older than him by one year. At the age of 17, he began listening to a radio show on
WKAQ radio. About 1945, Davila Medina was living in
Vega Alta, a northern city in Puerto Rico near the country's capital of
San Juan, when he decided to travel to San Juan and meet the musicians on that show, namely
Leocadio Vizcarrondo,
Samuel Archilla,
Felipe Goyco and three other musicians who formed a popular, Puerto Rican radio music band of the time.
Davila Medina and his friends once had a band named Grupo Idilio, which performed
serenata
In music, a serenade (; also sometimes called a serenata, from the Italian) is a musical composition or performance delivered in honor of someone or something. Serenades are typically calm, light pieces of music. The term comes from the Italia ...
s around Morovis. At age 18, he was also a member of "Grupo Orion".
[https://www.senado.pr.gov/Legislations/rs0713-18.pdf ] Around 1956, he joined a radio show named "Onda Morobena" (sic) in
Arecibo
Arecibo (; ) is a city and municipality on the northern coast of Puerto Rico, on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, located north of Utuado and Ciales; east of Hatillo; and west of Barceloneta and Florida. It is about west of San Juan, th ...
, where he and his band played for three years. Davila Medina played lead and secondary cuatro at that time.
Davila Medina married a woman named Gladys;
the marriage lasted 70 years until her death and produced two sons and one daughter; both sons preceded him in death. One of them, "Junior", once joined Iluminado on a band that Iluminado created in 1983, Conjunto Tipico Moroveno.
Davila Medina continued playing the cuatro well into his old age; during his 90s, he was still playing the cuatro on other artists' albums as well as on compilation albums.
He died on June 7, 2021, at the age of 102.
Honors
On May 12, 2011, Puerto Rican governor
Luis Fortuno inaugurated the
Centro de Bellas Artes Iluminado Davila Medina in Morovis, a theater and musical structure that, since 2019, has a mosaic depicting its namesake,
reminiscent of the one dedicated to basketball player
Mario Morales at the
Mario Morales Coliseum in
Guaynabo
Guaynabo (, ) is a city, suburb of San Juan and municipality in the northern part of Puerto Rico, located in the northern coast of the island, north of Aguas Buenas, south of Cataño, east of Bayamón, and west of San Juan. Guaynabo is spr ...
, another large Puerto Rican city.
Later on, the
Puerto Rican Senate released a resolution on April 18, 2018, congratulating Davila Medina for his musical career and for him being about to turn 100 years old.
See also
*
List of Puerto Ricans
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davila Medina, Iluminado
1918 births
2021 deaths
Puerto Rican musicians
People from Morovis, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican centenarians
Men centenarians