Born in Villanueva, in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1919,Pascual Antonion Aguilar Barrazo, commonly known as Antonio Aguilar, was an actor, a mariachi singer, a producer, and a writer.  He began acting in 1952, during the “Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.”

Antonio Aguilar

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

The Early Years

Born in Villanueva, in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1919,Pascual Antonion Aguilar Barrazo, commonly known as Antonio Aguilar, was an actor, a mariachi singer, a producer, and a writer.  He began acting in 1952, during the “Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.”  He was one of the first to bring la cherreria to the public eye.  La Cherreria is a Mexican rodeo.  During his tours throughout Latin America and the United States, he would combine rodeo with his musical performances.

He started his music career in 1950.  He became known for his corridos, or Mexican ballads. Some of his most popular singles include Gabino Barrera,  Caballo Prieto Azabache, and Albur de Amor.  He often combined his musical talents with his acting, performing his corridos, or ballads, during his movies, which were primarily westerns.

A Prolific Career

Over the course of his career, Antonio Aguilar released over 150 albums.  He also contributed to multiple movie soundtracks in the 1950s and 1960s.  While he became known for his corridas, in the 1980s, he is credited with bringing tambora music into the mainstream.  Tambor music refers to a Latin music genre, similar to banda or duranguense, using a tambora drum.  This drum is similar to a bass drum.  It is double headed and is played with a felt covered mallet, and has a cymbal attached to it with a stand.  Aguilar's popular hit, Triste Recuerdo, was the single that was first to bring this genre to the masses.

During his acting career, Aguilar acted in over 125 movies, primarily westerns.  Most of his movies were made in Mexico, in Spanish, but he also appeared in American westerns and war movies.  He acted with such starts as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan. He was generally the protagonist in his movies, and usually won the lady in the end.  He began producing in 1968, producing twenty-eight movies, as recently as 1994.  He also wrote stories and screenplays for films.  

Here and Now

In June of 2007, Antonio Aguilar died of pneumonia.  His music and film career had been so far reaching that his obituary appeared in newspapers in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, DC; several cities in the UK, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile.

Did you know . . .

1. Aguilar had been honored for his entertainment contributions in the United State, with a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, and in Mexico City with a star on the Paseo de las Luminarias.

2. He is the only Latin performer ever to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York City six nights in a row.  These concerts occurred in 1997.

3. Antonio Aguilar sold over 25 million albums in his lifetime.

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