The ranchera singer Beatríz Llamas would rise to fame as La Paloma del Norte, but she got her start competing in amateur singing contests at San Antonio theaters such as the Alameda, Nacional and Zaragoza in the early 1950s.
Llamas died May 15 at the age of 86, and to honor her memory, her son John Lopez decided to use her life as a template by creating a new female mariachi competition. The inaugural Voz de La Paloma event was held Aug. 5 — what would have been Llamas’ 87th birthday — at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.
“We wanted to create an event to honor her legacy and continue her legacy,” Lopez announced to the nine contestants gathered for the private afternoon competition. The contestants would later perform in an evening concert celebrating Llamas’ life.
Sequins and ribbons
Contestants decked out in traditional sequins, velveteen, embroidery, flower crowns and ribbons outshone the colorful walls of the Esperanza Center as they nervously awaited their turns onstage.
Angel Jiménez started singing at age 8, and at 21 is currently studying in the music program at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. “We were actually the first collegiate mariachi [program] in the state of Texas,” she pointed out, noting the program’s history.
Jiménez said that regardless of the competition’s results, she hopes to become a professional mariachi singer, and one day to become the director of a mariachi education program.
Nearby stood 12-year-old Cecilia Barrientos, clad in a sequined blue velveteen dress. The Goodnight Middle School student entered the competition at the request of Lopez, her mariachi teacher in San Marcos.
“I’m hoping that as long as I have fun and I enjoy myself, this is a great opportunity for me to get out there and become comfortable with the crowd,” she said.
Family members attended to a smiling Yuri Pardo, a Seguin High School varsity mariachi student festooned in a white lace embroidered top and blue hoop skirt, with a blue ribbon arcing above her left ear. Pardo said she discovered mariachi in sixth grade.
“When I heard them sing, I fell in love,” she said. She thanked her mother Juanita for pushing her to enter the competition.
“She’s always telling me that she wants me to be something one day,” Pardo said. “I appreciate her a lot and I’m actually trying because I want to make her proud.”
Grace, poise and power
Judges Karen Moncivais and Jac Hernandez, both mariachi musicians and educators, took their places at a table opposite the stage. For each contestant, they would assess such performance qualities as intonation, volume, articulation, stylistic phrasing, audience interaction and the all-important breath support for the extended, dramatic notes characteristic of mariachi music. Moncivais and Hernandez would also judge intangibles including maturity and poise.
In the middle school category, a shy 10-year-old Cataleya Rodriguez took the stage first, performing “Tú Solo Tú” in the 1970s-era brown and beige costume of Mariachi Los Parientes, the very uniform once worn by female mariachi trailblazer Carmen Quintero.
Next up, Barrientos performed “Tata Dios,” which she described as “about a woman who is dying and she’s calling out to her father God.” Barrientos performed with grace and poise belying that it was her first competition.
In the high school category, 18-year-old Lanier student Felicia Soto stood out not only for her embroidered flower-pattern hoop dress but for her confident stage presence and powerful voice singing “Quién Si No Yo.”
Pardo appeared more reserved, beginning her song “El Crucifijo de Piedra” in a husky near-whisper that evolved into a soaring falsetto, drawing a round of enthusiastic applause.
Zayra Reyes took the stage in her Lanier Voks mariachi uniform, joined by a group of uniformed compatriots in the audience. She lent a gentle vocal touch to “Demasiado Herido,” contrasted with grand gestures.
‘Chiquita pero picosa’
Jiménez led the college and adult-level category, making use of the entire stage with grand gestures and her entire vocal range in performing “El Crucifijo de Piedra,” ending with a dramatic flourish, falling to her knees.
Angela Garcia brought dancing flair to “Palomita de Ojos Negros,” encouraging the small audience of family and friends to clap along to her first mariachi singing performance ever.
Twenty-year-old Dalilah Valaderas brought a passionate lilt to the canting rhythms of “El Pastor,” and Alison Garcia brought the subtle maturity of her 37 years to “Retirada,” returning to singing after a 14-year hiatus to raise her children.
After Garcia’s song, the judges retreated backstage to deliberate. Hernandez said the competitors essentially set their own challenges of phrasing and vocal range in the songs they choose, and Moncivais said she kept eyes offstage during the performances to focus more on vocal agility and technique.
As the judges deliberated, Garcia recalled several opportunities to accompany Llamas as an Our Lady of the Lake University music student. She recalled the Tejano star with a saying, “chiquita pero picosa — she’s tiny, but spicy.”
Llamas’ performance style also imprinted upon Garcia. “She had so much energy. And it was effortless when she would perform. She really knew how to get a crowd involved in everything that she did.”
Barrientos won the middle school category, Pardo took top honors in the high school category, and Jiménez was first among the four adults competing. First place earned a $300 check, with $150 for second place, $100 for third and $50 for an honorable mention.
A mid-song embrace
A full crowd of 200 filled the Esperanza Center performance space, fanning themselves with postcards honoring Llamas’ life and legacy. The center’s executive director Graciela Sanchez introduced the program by joking that she had deliberately turned off the air conditioning — which was actually on the fritz — to mimic the conditions Llamas and her cohort faced during the pre-A/C 1940s and ’50s.
Emcee Patti Elizondo, a former KENS5 and Univision reporter, paid homage to Llamas with a brief biography including some of the singer’s accomplishments, such as being the first Tejana to sing at Madison Square Garden, her induction into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame in 1995 and coming out of retirement to join vaunted vocal group Las Tesoros de San Antonio, which earned National Heritage Fellowship status from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2019.
Mariachi Los Parientes kicked off the memorial event with an enthusiastic rendition of Llamas favorite “El Rey,” led by mariachi elder Pete Moreno. At one point the band’s singer gave the microphone to Michelle Quintero, a noted mariachi singer and educator who performed “Amor Eterno” in honor of Llamas, drawing tears and a warm, mid-song embrace from Llamas’ granddaughter, Jessica Garza.
Each competitor then took the stage in turn, performing their competition songs with freedom and grace, earning rounds of applause from the enthusiastic audience.
To close the show, Las Tesoros singer Blanca Rosa Rodríguez, age 90, was helped onstage to belt out several mariachi hits, including a raucous “La Chancla.” Sanchez approached the seated contestants during the performance, expressing astonishment at the power Rosa could still generate with her voice and physical energy.
After the performance, Garza expressed gratitude at Lopez’s Voz de La Paloma for carrying on her grandmother’s legacy and hopes that the competition would become an annual event.
“It makes me excited that they can carry on her tradition,” Garza said. “They’re so gorgeous. And she would have loved to watch the girls sing. She always wanted to see a new upcoming singer with a lot of passion.”
