Ruth Fernández was a
Puerto Rican contralto and a member of the
Puerto Rican Senate died he was 92.. 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.
(23 May 1919 – 9 January 2012)
Early years
Fernández (birth name:
Ruth Noemí Fernández Cortada [note 1]} was born in the Bélgica sector of barrio
Cuarto in
Ponce, Puerto Rico[1][2][3] to Santiago Fernández and Rosa María Cortada.
[4] Fernández's mother died when she was six years old and she was raised along with her four other siblings by her grandmother.
[5] 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.
[6][7][8][9]
Musical career
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 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.
[6]
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.
[7]
Breaking racial barriers
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").
[10]
External audio
 You may listen to Ruth Fernández's "Borincana." here. |
During
World War II and the
Korean War, she traveled overseas to entertain the soldiers of
Hispanic descent.
[6][7]
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;
[11] 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.
[7]
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.
[6][7] Fernandez has also appeared in two Spanish-language films, and has a notable role in the Afro-Puerto Rican documentary
"Raíces", produced by the
Banco Popular de Puerto Rico.
Personal life
Fernández was twice married; both marriages ended in divorce.
[12]
Fernández had no children; because of her public acknowledgement of her
nephews and nieces, and because of her philanthropic work with
children, many Puerto Ricans nicknamed her
"Titi Ruth" (Auntie Ruth), a term popularized by comedian
José Miguel Agrelot. Flutist
Néstor Torres is one of her nephews.
[8]
Optimism
Fernandez always stressed the positive in her life and in her interaction with people. Her most often repeated quote is
"¡Arriba, corazones!" ("Hearts, go up!"). Fernández's
signature song is the Lito Peña composition
"Gracias, Mundo" ("Thank you, World"), which, in a way similar to
Louis Armstrong's
"What a Wonderful World", depicts the planet in a very
optimistic way. In many occasions, particularly at charity
telethons,
Fernández would be asked to sing the song as a closer, which she would
do willingly. With some reluctance, but agreeing to it as to show she
was a good sport, she accepted neighbor
Sunshine Logroño's request to sing the song as the theme for his satirical movie,
"Chona, La Puerca Asesina"
(Chona, The Killer Pig), as a way to emphasize the deeds of Cambucha,
the film's hero (played by Puerto Rican actress and singer Nena Rivera)
of saving Puerto Rico from the giant piglet after which the film is
named.
[7]
Awards and recognitions
Among the many awards and recognitions which have been bestowed upon her are:
[6]
In 1985, she was given a tribute in recognition of the 50 years which
she has dedicated to the artistic world with the participation of
Mario Moreno "Cantinflas", Libertad Lamarque, Pedro Vargas,
Olga Guillot
and many others. She was also named by 500th Centennial commission as
one of the three Latin American artists who have contributed the most in
uniting Latin America.
[7]
In 2000, she was paid a tribute in the
Antonio Paoli Hall of the
Luis A. Ferre
Center for the Performing Arts in Puerto Rico. During the tribute she
was proclaimed "The Singer of the Century" of Puerto Rico.
[6]
In June 2012, the
Senate of Puerto Rico approved
Resolución Conjunta del Senado 957 (Joint Senate Resolution 957) to rename the
Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña in Ponce as
Museo de la Música Puertorriqueña Ruth Fernández in honor of the singer from Ponce.
[13]
Political life
She was elected into the
Senate of Puerto Rico, representing the district of
Ponce as a member of the Partido Popular de Puerto Rico (
Popular Democratic Party of Puerto Rico). Her loyalty to the party had been long standing: when
Rafael Hernández Colón
first competed for the office of governor of Puerto Rico in the 1972
elections, Fernández sang a campaign jingle for his campaign.
As a legislator, Fernández sought many reforms and better working
conditions for the artistic class. She also sought after the interests
of Puerto Ricans living in the United States; a tenement in
The Bronx,
New York is named after her,
Ruth Fernández Apartments.
After her senatorial term was over, she served as a cultural advisor
for Hernández Colón. In 1990, she was selected by Imagen (Image)
magazine as one the ten most powerful women in Puerto Rico.
[7]
At one time, she led the House of the Puerto Rican Artist
organization. Her controversial tenure, spanning over a decade, ended
with the granting of $500,000 to an actor's collective, with which they
purchased the Teatro Coribantes, near San Juan's financial district
(Hato Rey).
[7]
Retirement and death
Fernández retired from all activities in the 2000s (decade). She acknowledged suffering from
Alzheimer's Disease, but 2010 newspaper interviews depicted her as having occasional moments of (very candid) lucidity.
[6] She died in San Juan on 9 January 2012
[12] of a
septic shock and
pneumonia.
[14] The government of Puerto Rico declared three days of national mourning for her death.
[5] She was buried in her hometown of Ponce at Cementerio Civil de Ponce.
[15][16]
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