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Ruth Fernández
Ruth Fernández (born Ruth Noemí Fernández Cortada; 23 May 1919 – 9 January 2012) was a Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate. According to the "Comisiones Nacionales para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario" (National Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Centennial), she is said to be one of three artists whose contributions have helped unite Latin America. The other two artists named were Libertad Lamarque from Argentina and Pedro Vargas from Mexico.
Fernández was born Ruth Noemí Fernández Cortada in the Bélgica community of Barrio Cuarto in Ponce, Puerto Rico to Santiago Fernández and Rosa María Cortada. Fernández's mother died when she was six years old and she was raised along with her four other siblings by her grandmother. She received her primary and secondary education in her hometown. As a child she learned to play the piano and was very active in her school and community's activities. In high school she organized her own musical group. She became a professional singer at the age of 14 when she would go to the local radio stations, WPRP and WPAB, and sing for 50 cents a day, in 1935. Fernandez was heard by Mingo, a bandleader of a locally popular band and was hired into his band in 1940. She then performed in nightclubs, dances and casinos.
Fernández started to gain popularity and in 1941, at age 22, she was signed by Columbia Records with whom she recorded her first hit song, "Cuando Vuelvas" (When you return) a theme written by Myrta Silva. Her first appearance in New York City was in The Latin Theater of New York. There the Master of Ceremonies, Hector del Villar, introduced her as "El Alma de Puerto Rico hecha cancion" ("The Soul of Puerto Rico Turned Song"). That moniker was to stay with her forever.
When Fernández returned to the island, she enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico in 1943 with the intention of becoming a social worker. However, she once again joined Mingo and his band, the "Whoopee Kids" and toured with them throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Fernández was the very first successful Afro-Puerto Rican female singer, and as such, she broke color barriers and stereotypes. The Mingo band was contracted to perform at a benefit for the American Red Cross in the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel on August 4, 1945. The director of the orchestra told her that according to the hotel's rules, she had to enter through the kitchen door like all other black musicians (a de facto integration rule, illegal at the time in Puerto Rico, but still in place at the time out of concern for American patrons of the hotel). Ruth however, did not follow the instructions and entered through the main entrance, driven by a chauffeur on a Packard automobile. She went on stage and performed before the astonished audience. When asked in a documentary years later how she felt about the incident, she replied: "Me llamaron negra. ¿Negra? ¿Y qué?" ("They called me a negro. Negro? So what?"). She was particularly proud about how well dressed she was that day, "wearing more decorations than Douglas MacArthur". From that point on she proudly and constantly referred to herself (even in songs such as "Soy la que soy") as "La Negra de Ponce" ("The Black Woman from Ponce)", making reference to her racial heritage and her city of origin. She often also joked that she considered herself "Insoportablemente Ponceña" ("unbearably Ponceña").
During World War II and the Korean War, she traveled overseas to entertain the soldiers of Hispanic descent. When she returned to Puerto Rico, she decided to go solo. In 1954, at age 41, Fernández participated in the first televised musical television show in the history of Puerto Rico, "El Show Libby's". She also had many other "firsts": she was the first woman to sing in a Puerto Rican orchestra; the first Puerto Rican woman to sing "popular" music at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City; the first Latina singer of romantic music to sing in the Scandinavian countries (with some notable success in Norway), and the first Latina to record with a North American band.
She had a long-standing musical partnership with Lito Peña; she recorded two albums with his Orquesta Panamericana, and he wrote and arranged many of her most famous songs. One of these songs includes what has since become a Puerto Rican folk standard, the bomba song "(La Bomba) ¡Ay, qué rica es!". She also recorded with Machito Grillo's orchestra and with Los Hispanos as backup singers.
Fernández' performances in the United States were transmitted coast to coast under her contract with the CBS radio network. She also performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 1960. Among the many countries in which she has performed are Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, and Cuba. Fernandez has also appeared in two Spanish-language films, and has a role in the Afro-Puerto Rican documentary "Raíces", produced by the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.
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Ruth Fernández
Ruth Fernández (born Ruth Noemí Fernández Cortada; 23 May 1919 – 9 January 2012) was a Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the Puerto Rican Senate. According to the "Comisiones Nacionales para la Celebración del Quinto Centenario" (National Commission for the Celebration of the Fifth Centennial), she is said to be one of three artists whose contributions have helped unite Latin America. The other two artists named were Libertad Lamarque from Argentina and Pedro Vargas from Mexico.
Fernández was born Ruth Noemí Fernández Cortada in the Bélgica community of Barrio Cuarto in Ponce, Puerto Rico to Santiago Fernández and Rosa María Cortada. Fernández's mother died when she was six years old and she was raised along with her four other siblings by her grandmother. She received her primary and secondary education in her hometown. As a child she learned to play the piano and was very active in her school and community's activities. In high school she organized her own musical group. She became a professional singer at the age of 14 when she would go to the local radio stations, WPRP and WPAB, and sing for 50 cents a day, in 1935. Fernandez was heard by Mingo, a bandleader of a locally popular band and was hired into his band in 1940. She then performed in nightclubs, dances and casinos.
Fernández started to gain popularity and in 1941, at age 22, she was signed by Columbia Records with whom she recorded her first hit song, "Cuando Vuelvas" (When you return) a theme written by Myrta Silva. Her first appearance in New York City was in The Latin Theater of New York. There the Master of Ceremonies, Hector del Villar, introduced her as "El Alma de Puerto Rico hecha cancion" ("The Soul of Puerto Rico Turned Song"). That moniker was to stay with her forever.
When Fernández returned to the island, she enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico in 1943 with the intention of becoming a social worker. However, she once again joined Mingo and his band, the "Whoopee Kids" and toured with them throughout the Caribbean, Central and South America.
Fernández was the very first successful Afro-Puerto Rican female singer, and as such, she broke color barriers and stereotypes. The Mingo band was contracted to perform at a benefit for the American Red Cross in the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel on August 4, 1945. The director of the orchestra told her that according to the hotel's rules, she had to enter through the kitchen door like all other black musicians (a de facto integration rule, illegal at the time in Puerto Rico, but still in place at the time out of concern for American patrons of the hotel). Ruth however, did not follow the instructions and entered through the main entrance, driven by a chauffeur on a Packard automobile. She went on stage and performed before the astonished audience. When asked in a documentary years later how she felt about the incident, she replied: "Me llamaron negra. ¿Negra? ¿Y qué?" ("They called me a negro. Negro? So what?"). She was particularly proud about how well dressed she was that day, "wearing more decorations than Douglas MacArthur". From that point on she proudly and constantly referred to herself (even in songs such as "Soy la que soy") as "La Negra de Ponce" ("The Black Woman from Ponce)", making reference to her racial heritage and her city of origin. She often also joked that she considered herself "Insoportablemente Ponceña" ("unbearably Ponceña").
During World War II and the Korean War, she traveled overseas to entertain the soldiers of Hispanic descent. When she returned to Puerto Rico, she decided to go solo. In 1954, at age 41, Fernández participated in the first televised musical television show in the history of Puerto Rico, "El Show Libby's". She also had many other "firsts": she was the first woman to sing in a Puerto Rican orchestra; the first Puerto Rican woman to sing "popular" music at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City; the first Latina singer of romantic music to sing in the Scandinavian countries (with some notable success in Norway), and the first Latina to record with a North American band.
She had a long-standing musical partnership with Lito Peña; she recorded two albums with his Orquesta Panamericana, and he wrote and arranged many of her most famous songs. One of these songs includes what has since become a Puerto Rican folk standard, the bomba song "(La Bomba) ¡Ay, qué rica es!". She also recorded with Machito Grillo's orchestra and with Los Hispanos as backup singers.
Fernández' performances in the United States were transmitted coast to coast under her contract with the CBS radio network. She also performed at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 1960. Among the many countries in which she has performed are Italy, France, Spain, Norway, Venezuela, Mexico, Panama, and Cuba. Fernandez has also appeared in two Spanish-language films, and has a role in the Afro-Puerto Rican documentary "Raíces", produced by the Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.