Pedro Infante

Pedro Infante Cruz ([ˈpeðɾo iɱˈfante]; 18 November 1917 – 15 April 1957) was a Mexican actor and singer. Hailed as one of the greatest actors of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, he is considered an idol in Mexico and other Latin American countries such as Venezuela, Guatemala and Peru. He along with Jorge Negrete and Javier Solís are considered the best ranchera singers.

Infante was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, but raised in nearby Guamúchil. He died on 15 April 1957 in Mérida, Yucatán, in a plane crash during a flight en route to Mexico City, after an engine failed on takeoff. His remains were later identified by a bracelet found.

His film career began in 1939 with him appearing in more than 60 films – 30 of them with his brother Ángel Infante, and starting in 1943 he recorded about 350 songs. For his performance in the movie Tizoc, he was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.

Pedro Infante was the son of Delfino Infante García (24 December 1880 – 17 March 1955), who played the double bass in a band, and Maria del Refugio Cruz Aranda. He was the third of fifteen children, of whom nine survived. Although the Infante Cruz family stayed for some time at Mazatlán, in early 1919 they moved to Guamúchil. In 1920 they moved to El Rosario, Sinaloa. As a teen, Infante showed talent and affection for music. He managed to learn strings, wind, and percussion instruments in a short time.

His wife, María Luisa León, who died of cardiac arrest on 27 October 1978, was somewhat well-off, economically. According to her memoir Pedro Infante en la intimidad conmigo (1961) (Pedro Infante in intimacy with me), she convinced him of the need to move to Mexico City where they would find opportunities for this talented young man.

In Mexico City, he sang the songs of composers including Alberto Cervantes, José Alfredo Jiménez, Cuco Sánchez, Tomás Méndez, Rubén Fuentes, (some of the most renowned composers from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema) Salvador Flores Rivera (Chava Flores) (better known for his humorous songs), René Touzet and others. His first musical recording El Soldado Raso (The Private) was made on 19 November 1943, for the Peerless Records Company. Infante first appeared as an extra in the movie En un Burro Tres Baturros (Three Men from Aragon on a Donkey), or the more correct and succinct transliteration, "Three Baturros on a Burro". His career as an actor in leading roles started with La Feria de Las Flores (The Fair of Flowers), literally translated as "The Flower Carnival," in 1943. In that same year, a friend and neighbor of Infante's wife, Carmen Barajas Sandoval, offered to introduce them to Jorge Negrete, a singer whom he admired. Barajas, who knew people in the business as she was the aunt of the child actress Angélica María, worked then at The Sindicat of Workers of the Movies Production, S.T.P.C. (Workers of the Cinematographic Production Union). She succeeded in convincing Negrete to recommend Infante to the producer Ismael Rodríguez, and others. As a result, he was invited to appear in different pictures, such as Vuelve el Ametralladora (The Machine Gun Returns)

While married to María Luisa León, Infante met the dancer Lupita Torrentera Bablot (b. 2 November 1931), with whom he had three children: Graciela Margarita (26 September 1947 – 20 January 1949, poliomyelitis), Pedro Infante Jr. (31 March 1950 – 1 April 2009, suicide), and Guadalupe Infante Torrentera (b. 3 October 1951). Irma Infante (b. 27 March 1955) was born from his marriage to young actress Irma Dorantes.

Infante appeared in such motion pictures as:

• Tizoc, along with María Félix, gained him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. The film itself won a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film (Mexico) in 1958. Both awards still exist: the Silver Bear is in the home of Ismael Rodriguez (Pedro's friend and director) in Mexico City; the Golden Globe is at the Pedro Infante Museum in Campeche, Mexico.
• The massive migration from the countryside to the cities (mostly to Mexico City) during the 1940s fed the required labor force for rising manufacturing industries. This urbanization created the "working neighborhoods" and the culture of "la vecindad" (group of small apartments around a common patio), and found in Pedro Infante an identifiable icon for these, the new urban working class, with his character Pepe el Toro (Pepe the Bull) in the melodramatic trilogy made up of Nosotros los Pobres, Ustedes los ricos, and Pepe el Toro (We the Poor, You the Rich, and Pepe the Bull), costarring with Evita Muñoz "Chachita".
• He worked with Sara García ("Mexico's grandmother") in many movies for Mexican cinema. Sara Garcia frequently played the role of his loving but "no nonsense" grandmother in their movies together, in which she constantly tried to get him to behave, but never succeeded.
• If that same urbanizing population had the nostalgia for the rural life, and with it the popularity of ranchera music and the idealized charro, it was not until he played the poor carpenter with a strong chilango (Mexico City) accent that Pedro Infante achieved a status, at least in Mexico, at the same level of celebrity such as Cantinflas, the Soler Brothers and even Jorge Negrete and María Félix. Despite that, he kept on playing the role of the charro and even the northern Mexican rancher (perhaps his most authentic character) in Ahí viene Martín Corona (Here comes Martín Corona) in 1951 and Los hijos de María Morales (The Sons of María Morales) in 1952. When Jorge Negrete died in 1953, Pedro was no longer in the shadow of the international idol, even though Pedro was very affected by the disappearance of his idol. During Negrete's burial service some saw him slightly inebriated, a rare sight given that Infante was not a drinker.
• The Mexican child star María Eugenia Llamas, who was only four at the time, made her screen debut with him in the 1948 film Los tres huastecos (The Three Men from Hausteca) as "La Tucita", a screen name she used ever since. She played with him again under the screen name La Tucita in his classic 1949 film comedy, "Dicen que soy mujeriego" ("They Say I am a Womanizer").
• One of his better roles was that of Juventino Rosas in the movie "Sobre las Olas" ("Over the Waves"), based on the life of the Mexican waltz composer. Infante's natural musical abilities contributed to helping him to get into character.
• An important point in his career as an actor was winning the Ariel Award given by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences for Best Actor for his role in La Vida No Vale Nada (Life is Worth Nothing, a line from the song Camino de Guanajuato).

Waltzes, cha-cha-chas, rancheras and boleros placed him among the most popular singers of the mariachi and ranchera music. Some of his most popular songs include: Amorcito Corazón (approximately My Little Love, Sweetheart), Te Quiero Así (I Love You Like This), La Que Se Fue (She Who Left), Corazón (Heart), El Durazno (The Peach), Dulce Patria (Sweet Fatherland), Maldita Sea Mi Suerte (Cursed Be My Luck), Así Es La vida (Life Is Like This), Mañana Rosalía (Tomorrow Rosalía), Mi Cariñito (My Little Darling), Dicen Que Soy Mujeriego (They Say I Am A Womanizer), Carta a Eufemia (Letter to Eufemia), Nocturnal, Cien Años (Hundred Years), Flor Sin Retoño (Flower Without Sprout), Pénjamo, and ¿Qué Te Ha Dado Esa Mujer? (What Has That Woman Given You?). He sang "Mi Cariñito" to his frequent on screen grandmother, Sara Garcia, so many times in so many of their movies together, that it was played at her funeral.

The world-famous song Bésame Mucho ("Kiss Me a Lot", or more loosely translated to get its elusive Spanish meaning closer to its English meaning, "Give Me a Lot of Kisses"), from the composer Consuelo Velázquez, was the only melody that he recorded in English and he interpreted it in the movie A Toda Máquina (ATM) (At Full Speed), with Luis Aguilar.

Infante's hobby was aviation, which then led to his death. According to Wilbert Alonzo-Cabrera, his biographer, the actor was co-piloting a Consolidated B-24D, which had been converted from heavy bomber to freighter in San Diego, California. The plane crashed five minutes after taking off from Mérida, Yucatán, in southeast Mexico. An engine failed on takeoff, causing the plane to spiral to the ground, killing two on the ground as well as all three on the plane.

The death of Pedro Infante on the morning of 15 April 1957, was announced by radio personality Húmberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, of radio station XEMH of Mérida, after one of the firefighters discovered a bracelet engraved with the name "Pedro Infante", plus the winged insignia that symbolized his aviator license. This was around 8:15 am; at 11:12 am, Manuel Bernal, of Mexico City radio station XEW, gave the news saying: "this Monday, 15 April 1957, Pedro, our beloved Pedro...this has been confirmed, has died in a tragic accident in Mérida, Yucatán."

Year after year, Infante attracts a great number of fans of every age to his shrine in the Panteón Jardín of Mexico City, as well as one at 54th through 87th streets in the center of Mérida. Infante died along with mechanic Marciano Bautista, and Captain Victor Manuel Vidal.

Four statues have been erected in his honor. The one in Mexico City was made out of thousands of bronze keys donated by his fans to a Mexico City TV station after a request by TV host and producer Raúl Velasco. For the statue in Mérida another TV presenter (Manuel Pelayo) made a request and received keys. The third statue is in his birthplace, Mazatlán, Sinaloa.

At the Paseo de Olas Altas at Mazatlán there is a statue of Pedro Infante on a motorcycle, in honor of his role in the movie A Toda Máquina ("ATM") with Luis Aguilar and "¿Qué te ha dado esa mujer?" also with Luis Aguilar, Rosita Arenas and Carmen Montejo. The fourth statue is in the town square of Guamúchil, his adopted home town.

Infante died intestate. The prime beneficiaries of his legacy were the producers of the extremely successful movies in which he starred, as well as the "Peerless" music company

According to producer Jorge Madrid y Campos, who was also his legal representative, Pedro Infante's fame has increased greatly since his death. The presence of so many admirers at his shrine on the anniversary of his death is remarkable, as are the musical tributes from singers of the ranchera and mariachi genres that pay homage to him. As Mexican American author, Denise Chávez, in her book "Loving Pedro Infante" put it humorously, "If you're a [Mexican], and don't know who he is, you should be tied to a hot stove with a yucca rope and beaten with sharp dry corn husks as you stand in a vat of soggy fideos. If your racial and cultural background or ethnicity is other, then it's about time you learned about the most famous of Mexican singers and actors."

Some fans have speculated that his death was faked. These rumors were fueled by, among other factors, the fact that Infante's body was burned beyond recognition in the airplane crash, and by the appearance, in the 1980s, of a man named Antonio Pedro, who was thought to have resemblance to Infante.