El veintinueve de marzo/March 29th

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Rigo Tovar! (1946-2005)

Rigo Tovar, a Mexican singer whose free concert in 1983 in Monterrey, Mexico attracted some 400,000 (the Pope had only attracted from 350,000 two years earlier, despite Monterrey's religious population), was a well-loved musician, especially during the 1980s. Born in Matamoros, Mexico, which is on the border with the United States, he is said to have gotten his start when, while working as a waiter in a Houston nightclub, he took the microphone one night and began to sing. He supposedly married his wife, María Isabel Martínez, when she was just 14 years old. They had three children together, and he had many more with other partners. Tovar endured many hardships during his life, including extreme poverty during his childhood, the loss of his mother at the beginning of his career, an illness that caused him to go blind, vitiligo, which caused his skin to turn white in patches, and the death of his brother in Mexico's 1985 earthquake. Rigo Tovar, whose catchphrase "Rigo es amor," spent the last decade of his life with his former maid, though she was largely shut out from his funeral services in 2005. He sold more than 25 million records during his life, and his music remains popular, with this YouTube tribute garnering more than 7 million views. Read more from his obituary in The Guardian, HERE.

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