Arturo Gatica

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Arturo Gatica (born July 8, 1921 in Rancagua , † October 3, 1996 in Santiago de Chile ) was a Chilean singer.

Gatica made his debut as a singer on local radio in his hometown in 1936 and caught the attention of the impresario Romilio Romo , who brought him to the Teatro Balmaceda as a member of the Enrique Venturinos revue group . Venturino let him step out as the "Chilean Bobby Breen " as a soloist, and the duo Rey / Silva recommended him for recordings at RCA Victor .

His first recording was the waltz La despedida in 1938 , and another recording followed in 1939 on the Odeon label . Romilio Romo had him appear on Radio Yungay on his program La hora en broma .

In 1942 he took a job as a stenographer with the Braden Copper mining company , but also took singing lessons from Francisco Fuentes Pumarino . In 1945 the presenter Raúl Matas invited him to the show Las estrellas se reúnen on Radio Corporación . In 1948 he made his debut with El Mundo in Buenos Aires and Uruguay and alongside Eugenio Retes and Hilda Sour in José Bohr's film trilogy Mis espuelas de plata (1948), La cadena infinita (1949) and Uno que ha sido marino (1950).

He began to sing his brother Lucho Gatica's boleros in the late 1940s and recorded a joint album with him in 1950. In the same year he was the first prize winner of the newly founded Asociación de Cronistas de Cine, Teatro y Radio in the singing category.

After appearing with Hilda Sour in the film Uno que ha sido marino , Gatica founded the Trio Los Chilenos with her and the pianist Jorge Astudillo in 1951 , with whom he traveled through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba and Toured Mexico. Another concert tour under the auspices of the Universidad de Chile took the group from 1953 to 1959 through Europe, Egypt, Lebanon, Syrian, Jordan, Iraq and Iran.

When he returned in 1959, Gatica was named Hijo Ilustre de Rancagua . Another trip to Europe followed from 1960 to 1964, during which u. a. the albums El rodeo and Fiesta linda were made at Philips in Holland. After a stay in Buenos Aires, he returned to Chile in 1967.

In 1968 he worked in the television production En casa de los Gatica , in 1969 in Germán Becker's films Ayúdeme usted, compadre and Volver . In 1970 he gave a concert with the Niño y Patria children's choir at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago . He also made records such as Arturo Gatica (1968) with compositions by Bert Kaempfert and Henry Mancini and El amar y el querer (1977, produced by his nephew Humberto Gatica ).

From 1979 to 1981 he was cultural attaché at the Chilean embassy in Spain under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet . After his return to Chile he had a number of television appearances, for example in Musicalmente (1985) with Raúl Matas on Canal 11 and on the occasion of his 50th stage anniversary in 1986 in Antonio Vodanovics and Carmen Ibáñez 'program Cantachile with María Eugenia de Ramón and Pedro Messone .

In 1988 he sang the song El suplementero by Fernando Pavez and Roberto Rojas at the Festival de Viña . In 1992 he worked with his brother Lucho Gatica on the television program Siempre lunes , in which the bolero singers Olga Guillot , Armando Manzanero , Antonio Prieto , Sonia la Única and Palmenia Pizarro appeared. His most recent recordings include the tape De corazón huaso y minero (1990) and the album Somos by soprano Rebeca Diva (1992). In 1995 he and his brother Lucho received an award from the government of the Cachapoal Province . In 1996 Gatica died of liver cancer . Religious songs by Vicente Bianchi were performed at the funeral services in his hometown cathedral .

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personal data
SURNAME Gatica, Arturo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chilean singer
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Rancagua
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1996
Place of death Santiago de Chile