José Alfredo lived with the excesses and temptations of the fame and notoriety. He composed more than 300 songs whose diffusion and popularity continually grew, interpreted and recorded in all latitudes by the most distinguished singers of the time.
Throughout two decades, between 19, he recorded dozens of albums and toured the continent singing in all kinds of stages, as in the radio, cinema and television. The couple had two children: Paloma, born in 1954 and José Alfredo in 1955. Many of the José Alfredo’s songs where inspired by the beauty and sensuality of Paloma Gálvez, a young girl from Veracruz who he met when they were both 21 years old, and whom he married on June 27th 1952. In just one year José Alfredo conquered success, fame and fortune. The overwhelming and unprecedented success of these songs earned him the accolade of Composer of the Year.
That same year RCA Victor recorded four more of his songs: “Ella”, “Cuarto Caminos”, “La que se fue” and “Que suerte la mia”, interpreted by himself and by the best singers of the moment, among them, Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante and Miguel Aceves Mejia. The song became a big hit and the spearhead of José Alfredo’s fruitful artistic career. The microphones where left open, and RIvera COnde heard the song and, after hanging up the phone, exclaimed: “Boys, we record this one!” A few days later, during the recording of an album at RCA Victor, while Mariano Rivera Conde, then artistic director of the label, attended a telephone call, Huesca and his band rehearsed “Yo”, with the intention of singing it that very night at a private party.
Fortune came one night at the begging of 1951, when Andrés Huesca, a singer-songwriter of the Ranchero genre, was dining at the restaurant and José Alfredo sang his new song “Yo” impressed, Huesca memorized it and added it to his repertoire. But their efforts to record with labels resulted in vain. In 1947 they managed to sing on the XEW and XEX radio stations. With this group he began his artistic career and during these years he wrote, in a any scrap that was at hand, his first songs. Little by little they became known in the area, delivering serenades, and performing at parties and family gatherings. Together with Jorge Ponce, the owners’ son, and the brothers Enrique and Valentin Ferrusca he formed the “José Alfredo and the Rebels” quartet.
Close to 20 years old, he would play football as a goal keeper for the “Oviedo” team, from where he jumped, albeit for a short time, to the first division team “Marte”.Īround that time he began to work in the “Sirenita” restaurant, which was located close to his house. The precarious economic situation provoked the dissolution of the family and José Alfredo was forced to leave his studies after completing primary school and realize various jobs to support himself. When José Alfredo was only 10 years old his father passed away and the Pharmacy fell into bankruptcy, due to which the family moved to Mexico City, establishing itself in the Santa Maria de la Ribera neighborhood. José Alfredo’s childhood developed in the idyllic provincial setting of Dolores, while the bohemian environment provided by his family, in which he would listen to the music of the fashionable singers and composers, stimulated his artistic sensibility. A sensible man, who enjoyed the pleasures of literature and music, he organized evenings where musicians, poets and politicians would gather. His father, a Pharmacist by trade, established in 1900 la first drug store in Dolores Hidalgo: The “San Vicente” pharmacy. José Alfredo Jiménez was born in this house on January 19, 1926, the third of four sons of the marriage formed by Agustin Tristan and Maria del Carmen Sandoval Rocha.