Long before there was Santana, there was Xavier Cugat. Born in Spain in 1900, raised in Cuba, he was a violin prodigy, winning first chair in an orchestra in Havana when he was only 12. Opera superstar Enrico Caruso brought Cugat to the USA a few years later, where the boy played classical music.
Apparently, he always had an eye out for marketing, because he threw over his classical background when the tango craze swept America in the 1920s. When sound came to movies, he formed a band and made musical short features.
He popularized Chihuahuas and the rhumba. He became known as the Rhumba King. Nobody ever called him the Chihuahua King, insofar as I know.
“Cugie” was married five times, including his final marriage to Charo. If you don’t remember “the Cuchi Cuchi girl”, you’ve missed a hoot and a half. Charo was vilified as a gold-digger and a fool, two mutually exclusive categories, to my mind, but I always liked her.
In addition to being a violinist, a band leader, a master marketer, and a serial bridegroom, Xarier Cugat was a caricaturist of acknowledged talent. This YouTube video shows him leading his band AND drawing.
He retired in 1971, settled in Barcelona, and died of heart failure in 1990.
Information for this article was cribbed from Solid! The encyclopedia of big band, lounge, classic jazz and space-age sounds.
If you want to see Charo, here she is, cuchi-cuchi and all.
Isn’t she cute? Well, I think she’s cute.
ALSO, remember that TURTLE FEATHERS, my latest short story collection, is FREE on Kindle today!! ! !!!
ALSO ALSO, I have a free story up today at #amwriting: “Aardvark With An Arrow”.
A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Create a character who has been married five times. What is the final spouse like? How long does that marriage last? What terminates it?
MA
Red Tash
April 27, 2012 at 7:07amI am the Chihuahua King! I can do anything! Love that Charo.
Off to get Turtle Feathers!
Marian Allen
April 27, 2012 at 10:51amYay! Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Perry Block
April 27, 2012 at 8:06amX is for Xavier Cugat.
And you say “I” am crazy all over the inside of my head?!!
Marian Allen
April 27, 2012 at 10:51amLol!
Jane
April 27, 2012 at 8:44amI always admired Charo, too, because she was able to pull off a court action that officially moved her birth date to make her 10 years younger. With the stroke of a pen, 10 years fell away!
I had to do that once, but it was a clerical error. Oh, yeah…and I was actually OLDER, rather than younger.
Marian Allen
April 27, 2012 at 10:52amShe did? Wow! I love that woman! lol
Nicole/MadlabPost
April 27, 2012 at 9:59amCharo has an attention-grabbing accent, I tell ya. I’m not familiar with her nor Xavier Cugat but I do love me some Santana music! I didn’t really start listening to his group’s older music until he came out with that “Maria, Maria” song years ago. Nice A to Z selection!
Marian Allen
April 27, 2012 at 10:56amCharo has an attention-grabbing EVERYTHING. 🙂 I lucked into a 3-disk Santana set with lots of great stuff on it. Coming to visit you, now!
Sean McLachlan
April 27, 2012 at 10:44am“He popularized Chihuahuas and the rhumba.” Not many people can say THAT!
I live in Spain but was only vaguely aware of this guy. The Cuchi Cuchi girl, on the other hand. . .
Marian Allen
April 27, 2012 at 10:57amlol Sean! I always loved Cugat’s music, and Charo just made it better.
Jeremy
September 30, 2012 at 10:39amlol why was he called the Chihuahua king?
Marian Allen
September 30, 2012 at 9:32pmThat’s the sad thing, Jeremy — he wasn’t! But he should have been, since he loved them. 🙂