Luis Alfredo Laguna (May 1, 1926 – August 1, 1984) was a

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 ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

ian and

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

.Peñin, José; Guido, Walter. (1998). ''Enciclopedia de la Música en Venezuela''. Fundación Bigott, Caracas. . Born in the tiny city of

Guacara Guacara is a city in Carabobo State, Venezuela, seat of Guacara Municipality. It was officially founded 1624, although it was already a settlement of indigenous people. It has an estimated population for July 2009 of 178,000 inhabitants. It is ...

Carabobo Carabobo State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is and ...

, Laguna moved at an early age with his family to

Maracay Maracay () is a city in north-central Venezuela, near the Caribbean coast, and is the capital and most important city of the state of Aragua. Most of it falls under the jurisdiction of Girardot Municipality. The population of Maracay and its ...

Aragua Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

, where he grew up and started his education. Largely self-taught, he excelled as a gifted guitarist and prolific songwriter, while creating a distinctive style of his own by using contemporary harmonies and rhythms as well as gorgeous melodies in his works. Author of significant

Venezuelan waltz The Venezuelan waltz is a hall dance and accompanying musical genre that was popularized in 19th-century Venezuela. Federico Villena is considered as the father of the Venezuelan Waltz, which changed the European waltz in form, and by adding Afr ...

es and

joropo The joropo, better known as Música Llanera, is a musical style resembling the fandango, and an accompanying dance. It originated in the Llanos of Venezuela 300 years ago and it has African, European and Native South American influences. The ...

s, he also had a strong predilection for the '' merengue caraqueño''. Some of his most popular songs are ''Al poeta'', ''Criollísima'', ''Golosinas criollas'', ''El saltarín'', ''El tramao'', ''Mi merengue'', ''Nathalia'', ''Serenata'', ''S.O.S.'' and ''Un heladero con clase'', among others. Laguna died in 1984 at his home of Maracay at the age of 58, following complications from

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

Sources

External links

Official websiteSheet Music List
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laguna, Luis 1926 births 1984 deaths Diabetes-related deaths People from Carabobo Venezuelan male composers People from Maracay Venezuelan composers Venezuelan folk guitarists Venezuelan male guitarists Venezuelan songwriters Male songwriters 20th-century guitarists 20th-century Venezuelan male musicians 20th-century Venezuelan folk musicians