Ángel Tavira Maldonado (July 3, 1924 – June 30, 2008) was a Mexican composer, musician and violinist of son calentano. He was awarded the Best Actor Award on the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Twenty films from eleven countries were in competition for the Palme d'Or. The President of the Official selection Jury was Wong Kar-wai, the first Chinese director to preside over t ...

in the ''Un Certain Regard'' section for his role in the movie '' The Violin''.

Biography

Ángel Tavira Maldonado was born in the town of Corral Falso in the municipality of Ajuchitlán del Progreso,

Guerrero Guerrero is one of the 32 states that comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 81 municipalities and its capital city is Chilpancingo and its largest city is Acapulcocopied from article, GuerreroAs of 2020, Guerrero the pop ...

, which lies in the region known as

Tierra Caliente ''Tierra caliente'' is an informal term used in Latin America to refer to places with a distinctly tropical climate. These are usually regions from sea level from 0–3,000 feet.Zech, W. and Hintermaier-Erhard, G. (2002); Böden der Welt – Ein Bi ...

.Vértiz, Columba
"El violín, arma de Don Ángel Tavira,"
''Proceso'' 1591, Mexico, D.F.: April 29, 2007.Giles, Citlal
"Acapulco rinde homenaje a Angel Tavira,"
''La Jornada Guerrero'', Acapulco: April 21, 2007. He was the only child of J. Isabel Maldonado Tavira and Anita Tavira López, and grandson of Juan Bartolo Tavira, a composer and performer of

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current c ...

, gustos, Indias, malagueñas, rhymes and coplas, who inspired and taught him the love for local traditional music. Being born in a family traditionally related with music, he was successively encouraged by his uncles and cousins Félix, José Guadalupe ''Lupito'', and Sósimo Tavira López in learning and playing music.Rivera, Norma Inés y Alberto Carbot
"Ángel Tavira, protagonista de la película El Violín, el músico guerrerense que triunfó en Cannes,"
''Gente Sur'' 127, Mexico, D.F.: Febrero 15, 2007.Solís, Juan

''El Universal'', Mexico, D.F.: May 20, 2007. When he was six years old, he began to play four instruments by

ear training Ear training or aural skills is a music theory study in which musicians learn to identify pitches, intervals, melody, chords, rhythms, solfeges, and other basic elements of music, solely by hearing. The application of this skill is analogous t ...

: saxophone, bass, guitar and violin, and later he went to take courses in classical, semi-classical and romantic music. Still being young he suffered an accident during the town's

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

feast when a firework exploded in his right hand, which had to be amputated, discouraging Tavira from playing music. However, it was his uncle "Lupito" who encouraged him to continue performing. Later on, he went to take classes at the National Conservatory of Music in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. He was considered a great composer of son calentano, traditional music genre of

(a region within the state of Guerrero), along with other composers such as Juan Reynoso Portillo, Cástulo Benítez, José Natividad Leandro, Zacarías Salmerón and Pedro Ignacio Pablo. When he was 60 years old he enrolled at the Music Conservatory of

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and lar ...

to study

music notation Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

with the purpose of recovering the traditional music of his region. Ángel Tavira was director of the Hermanos Tavira Band, a musical group that has been protecting and promoting the traditional music by recovering the works of Juan Reynoso, Zacarías and Filiberto Salmerón, and Severino Bañuelos. Among other activities, Ángel Tavira was a farmer, a goldsmith and, as a teacher, he worked at the "

Antonia Nava de Catalán Antonia Nava de Catalán (17 November 1779 – 19 March 1843) was a heroine of the Mexican War of Independence. She accompanied her husband, a volunteer who rose to the rank of colonel, throughout the war. Three of her sons were killed in the strug ...

" Kindergarten and at the "Jaime Torres Bodet" Secondary School No. 2, since 1972 until he retired, 32 years later, in

Iguala Iguala (), known officially as Iguala de la Independencia, is a historic city located from the state capital of Chilpancingo, in the Mexican state of Guerrero in southwestern Mexico. Geography The city of Iguala stands on Federal Highway 95 ab ...

. In 1988, Tavira was introduced to politics when he was selected as Federal Substitute Deputy for the candidacy of Félix Salgado Macedonio. Ángel Tavira married Rafaela Martínez with whom he had ten children: Ma de los Ángeles, Elizabeth, Rafaela, Ma. Eugenia, Carlos, Felix, Ángel, Guadalupe, Salvador and Alejandro With no studies or experience in acting he participated in 2005 in the movie ''

El violín ''The Violin'' ( es, El violín) is a 2005 Mexican drama film directed by Francisco Vargas. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Ángel Tavira as Don Plutarco * Gerardo Taracena as Genaro * ...

'', directed by Francisco Vargas Quevedo, in the role of ''don Plutarco Hidalgo'', a musician and farmer that participates in a guerrilla that plans to revolt against its own government, role for which he obtained the Best Actor Award in the ''

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

'' section (''Prix d'interprétation masculine - Un certain regard'') at the

, besides being awarded the Golden Kikito for best actor in a Latin Motion Picture category of the 34th

Festival de Gramado The Gramado Film Festival ( pt, Festival de Gramado) is an international film festival held annually in the Brazilian city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, since 1973. In 1992, the festival began to award Latin American films produced outside of B ...

, and a Special Jury Award at the 30th

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival ( pt, Mostra Internacional de Cinema de São Paulo), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. A non-profit event, the festival is organized ...

."Awards for Ángel Tavira"
''Internet Movie Database'', retrieved on January 19, 2008. Tavira died of kidney complications on June 30, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavira, Angel 1924 births 2008 deaths Mexican composers Mexican male composers Mexican violinists Male violinists Mexican male film actors Deaths from kidney disease Mexican fiddlers 21st-century Mexican male actors 20th-century violinists 20th-century male musicians