Lorenzo Santiago Alvarado Santos (October 26, 1920 – July 23, 1982) was a Puerto Rican singer, composer and guitarist. He became internationally famous with Johnny Albino and Félix ("Ola") Martínez as part of the Trío San Juan during the years 1949–1957. Among his best tunes was the 1956

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

named "Siete notas de amor".

Early years

Alvarado was born in

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce ( , , ) is a city and a Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The most populated city outside the San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan metropolitan area, Ponce was founded on August 12, 1692Some publ ...

, on October 26, 1920. Nicknamed "Chago", he was the son of the musician

Julio Alvarado Tricoche Julio Alvarado Tricoche (1886–1970) was a Puerto Rican flutist, composer, and director of the Banda Municipal de Ponce for seventeen years. Early years Julio Alvarado Tricoche was born on 18 February 1886 in Ponce, Puerto Rico.duet A duet (italian language, Italian: ''duo'') is a musical composition for two Performing arts, performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a har ...

. In 1939, he was part of the "Tribuna del arte", a

WNEL WNEL (1430 AM, ) is a radio station in Caguas, Puerto Rico, broadcasting a News, Sports and Spanish Oldies format. The station is currently owned by Turabo Radio Corporation. The station is rebroadcast on translator station W241CW (96.1 FM), ...

radio program. Winning the first award in that program marked the beginning of his career. This took him to New York City after getting a contract with Chico Club of Greenwich Village.

Music career

In NYC, he joined Celso Vega's

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

, obtaining exposure in the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

radio networks. In 1944, he joined the Flores Sextet, led by composer Pedro Flores. He went on his first international tour with this group in 1946. After the breakup of the group, he returned to Puerto Rico and was contracted by

WEMB WEMB is a radio station which served the Tri-Cities region of Johnson City/ Kingsport/Bristol in Tennessee and Bristol in Virginia. The outlet, owned by WEMB, Inc., was licensed to Erwin, Tennessee. History The call letters EMB represented t ...

(Radio El Mundo) in 1947. He returned to NYC and joined Cuarteto Yalí, headed by Félix Rodríguez "Corozo", in 1948. He joined Trío San Juan, marking the beginning of a new stage in his musical career. Trío San Juan was highly regarded in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

, even better than

Trío los Panchos Originally, Trio Los Panchos were a ''trío romántico'' formed in New York City in 1944 by Alfredo Gil, Chucho Navarro, and the Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican Hernando Avilés. The trio became one of the leading exporters of the bolero and the rom ...

. It was highly regarded in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, Brazil,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, in addition to the United States.Fundacion Nacional para la Cultura Popular
prpop.org. Accessed April 5, 2024. The group enjoyed many hits, but none more successful than "Siete notas de amor", which has made the soundtrack of the Mexican movies including "El amor que yo te di" and "La cigüeña dijo sí" (1958), plus "¡Viva Jalisco, que es mi tierra!" (1959). It also enjoyed French, Japanese, Italiano, and English versions.

Personal life

In July 1941, he married Aurora Torres in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The couple had five sons; one, Harry, died of heart disease in August 2015. The union was dissolved at some point. Aurora Torres died in New York City in December 2011. Alvarado Santos had married Irma Gloria Cedeño in 1977 and they had seven children.

Later years

Chago Alvarado lived his last years in

Humacao Humacao () is a city and municipality in Puerto Rico located in the eastern coast of the island, north of Yabucoa; south of Naguabo; east of Las Piedras; and west of Vieques Passage. Humacao is spread over 12 barrios and Humacao Pueblo (the ...

, where he owned a restaurant and night club called "La Brasa Steak House". He performed there live on the weekends. He died on July 23, 1982, at the age of 61, from kidney disease at the Regional Hospital in

Caguas, Puerto Rico Caguas (, ) is a Caguas barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in central eastern Puerto Rico. Located in the eponymous Caguas Valley between the Sierra de Cayey and Sierra de Luquillo of the Cordillera Central (Puer ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarado Santos, Lorenzo 1920 births 1982 deaths Singers from Ponce 20th-century Puerto Rican male singers 20th-century Puerto Rican singers

Early years

Music career

Personal life

Later years

See also

References