Guillermo Castillo Bustamante

Guillermo Castillo Bustamante (born June 25, 1910 in Ciudad Bolívar , † October 6, 1974 ) was a Venezuelan composer and pianist.

Castillo started playing the piano at the age of three. From 1929 to 1933 he lived in New York and worked as a radio pianist. After his return to Venezuela, he founded the station Sello Rojo , from which Radiodifusora Venezuela emerged , as well as Swing Time , the first modern swing orchestra in Venezuela.

He was first imprisoned in the late 1940s and was expelled from Venezuela. In Cuba he became a member of the Septeto Habanero in 1949 . He later worked in Mexico on a film project with Rómulo Gallegos , but it was killed after his wife's death. Castillo returned to Venezuela and participated with his wife in the Acción Democrática in the resistance against the dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez .

Both were arrested and sentenced to prison terms, Vastillo to six years and his wife to four years. His most famous composition, the Bolero Escribeme , was composed in 1953 in the prison of Ciudad Bolívar . It was sung to the hymn of political prisoners in Latin America and by singers such as Alfredo Sadel , Lucho Gatica , Javier Solís , Los Cuatro Hermanos Silva , Rosita Quintana , Ortíz Tirado , Roberto Yánez and Simón Díaz . He was later taken to the Guasina camp in the Orinoco Delta. There he was to be executed with Guido Acuña , Jesús Alberto Blanco , Ramón Lancini and Francisco Paco Estéller - the protests of fellow prisoners and the refusal of orders by a lieutenant saved his life.

After the end of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez's dictatorship in 1958, Castillo took over the management of Televisora Nacional, Canal 5 . He participated in radio broadcasts, was active as a choir conductor and continued to compose. In total he wrote more than three hundred compositions, mostly boleros. He was respected as a composer and friends with musicians such as María Luisa Escobar , Vicente Emilio Sojo , Conny Méndez , Luis Peraza , Rházes Hernández López , Juan Bautista Plaza , Ulises Acosta , Inocente Carreño and Rafael Guinand .

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personal data
SURNAME	Castillo Bustamante, Guillermo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Venezuelan composer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 25, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ciudad Bolívar
DATE OF DEATH	October 6, 1974