Item 1140 - Mi viejo amor

The son of a musician, Mexican composer Alfonso Esparza Oteo was the second of ten children. His father, leader of a band and director of a music school in Aguascalientes, taught him to play the piano. Later he attended the Academia del Presbytero Fermín Ramírez where he studied with three teachers: Juan María Cisneros for piano, Arnulfo Miramontes for organ and singing, and Manuel M. Ponce for composition. By 1912 he was playing the piano at the Actualidades theater, improvising music to accompany the films shown. In 1914 he joined Pancho Villa’s army for two years, attaining the rank of major. Returning to music, the first piece he composed, while attending the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de Aguascalientes was “Foxtrot.” In 1919, he and his friends began publishing their own compositions in Mexico City and distributing them around the country. This led to a success with his “Un Amor Viejo” (co-written with Adolfo Fernández) at the Teatro Lírico in 1920. His father’s death the same year meant that he had to shoulder responsibility for his mother and numerous siblings, but he was becoming a fashionable composer during the 1920s. President Álvaro Obregón named him director of the Orquesta Típica Presidential. When General Plutarco Elías Calles took over, this orchestra was disbanded, but Esparza Oteo started another one under his name, and when Obregón was re-elected in 1928, Esparza Oteo again directed the Orquesta Típica. In addition to composing, directing several companies and institutions, he also performed with the quartet “Ases de la Canción” and its successor, “Trio Veneno.” He was an activist for the rights of composers and was the first general secretary for the Sindicato Mexicano de Autores, Compositores y Editores. Among his best-known songs are “Dime que sí,” and “Déjame llorar.” The Discography of American Historical Recordings cites 219 records under his name. Many streets are named for him in towns across Mexico.