After 38 years with Los Chalchaleros and a solo career that included a handful of records, Pancho Figueroa (81) retires from the stage forever, even if before undertaking a farewell tour throughout Argentina and abroad, starting concerts this Sunday 11 December, at 8.00 pm, in front of the Basilica of Luján, outdoors and free of charge.
Sixty years of trajectory, a life full of stories and a present that finds him enjoying his grandchildren, clearly indicate the reason to say goodbye to the shows in front of the public.
used to the heat
It’s Thursday in the city of Buenos Aires. It’s 34 degrees and the concrete is bubbling on the streets of Barrio River. Pancho lives in one of his parcel houses with his wife Lucrecia. The singer, until recently, was sitting in front of the fan, watching the news. He says he got used to the intense heat as a child, when he lived in Resistencia, in the Chaco, with days of forty degrees in the shade.
“Chaco’s was a large house with a garden, it had a terrace and a small swimming pool. When I was fifteen the heat didn’t exist, we played spin, balls, my brothers and I didn’t care about the heat, we were used to it ”, she explains.
Of that childhood lived in northeastern Argentina come other memories that are part of it his interest in music at an early age.
“My mother played the piano, I always listened to her melodies. Mom was from Formosa and she had influences from Paraguay. That’s why it was common to hear her play polkas, guaranias and even boleros. On the other hand, dad was a music lover. Classical music played in our house,” she recalls.
In this context, his interest in musical studies was born, which included a passion for an instrument that still lasts today: “I studied at the conservatory, but in the third year I got bored. One day I saw a Benny Goodman movie and fell in love with the clarinet. On January 6, dad gave me one that I still keep. Later I was part of a jazz group”.
guitar and folklore
Despite his love for the wind instrument, one day a criolla guitar came into his hand to never leave her.
“I used to go out with a friend to serenade the girls and it was easier to sing with the guitar. They were songs by Los Fronterizos, songs like Song of old love. Until one day a girl asked me when we were going to learn another new song.
Concerned, the still young Figueroa immediately went to a record store and the owner of the club suggested a Los Chalchaleros record: “I run home with the longplays, I start listening to them and I fall in love with the power of folklore forever” , he strongly points out.
Thus it was that his own folk groups arrived until the unexpected took him by surprise. “My first folk group was called Los Arrieros, our proposal was the same as Los Chalchaleros. In 1964 they saw me sing and in 1968 he joined the group”, he underlines, takes a breath and continues: “I have infected my colleagues with anger for Los Chalchaleros. We started going to play clubs, to barbecues with friends, to meetings. We became famous in the Chaco”.
As for his inclusion in the group that already had prestige in our country, Pancho recounts it in detail, as if it had happened yesterday: “On one of his visits to the provinces, one of our members said to them: ‘There are some boys who want to sing you a song ‘. They couldn’t believe we imitated them so well!”
And he adds: «To such an extent that Ernesto Cabezas exclaimed: ‘They sing better than us!’ Years later, already being friends of the group, they stopped at my house and Ernesto asked me to join them: ‘We want you to come and sing with us forever’, they asked me”.
– I mean, it changed your life forever, right?
-As well as. I was 22 years old. I was in my third year of Architecture. I left my girlfriend, my friends and came to Buenos Aires.
A new life
According to Pancho, it was not a strong impact to arrive in the big city where God is said to assist. “I’ve been here several times before with mum. I already knew. As soon as I moved, I remember that I settled in a hotel called Clarence Hause, in Uruguay and in Arenales”.
However, the musician distinguishes something that was difficult: “I was very lonely because I had no friends. Even if time has passed and slowly everything has changed: I made friends, I met the mother of my children and I had other friends. He also went to 05, a place frequented by riders of the time, such as Marcos Menditeguy, among others. Then, in ’69, I rented an apartment in the Barrio Norte”.
The memory of those who are gone
Two years ago, two former colleagues from Los Chalchaleros died: Polo Román and Juan Carlos Saravia. With the first of him he was united by a relationship that lasted even until his last days of life.
“When I finished with Los Chalchaleros I kept singing out of necessity. I needed to keep communicating through singing with people. One day by chance we met Polo. We were in the same place, so I invited him up. It was a strong moment,” he says.
That intense reunion with the remembered bomber generated an immediate reaction in the audience: “Everyone stood up and sang for Los Chalchaleros, we could meet again. Since then we have played again with Polo on several fronts. We went together to Teatro Coliseo, Chile, Colombia and Bolivia. Until Polito fell ill with Alzheimer’s and preferred to stay at home in Mar del Plata. Then he died.”
On the part of Juan Carlos Saravia, the great memories he cherishes have to do with the shared decades dressed as gauchos, with guitars and bass drums in hand: “The first voices of the ensemble were me and him. When Ernesto died I took care of the voice, the pizzicato, the musical reorganization of the group. I had to study a lot and revisit the songs from the early years of Los Chalchaleros, from when I wasn’t a member yet.”
the big trips
Undoubtedly, Los Chalchaleros was the most important group in the history of folklorewhose recognition has had a global dimension, with classics handed down from generation to generation.
Figueroa brings to his memory sublime moments of many glorious moments in remote places for which they were applauded by an audience that did not even understand the Spanish language.
“We have been very successful in Spain, Germany, the United States, Japan, Austria and many other countries. Despite the language, music is universal because it unites. I like, for example, Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Beyond the fact that I understand a little English, music is what conveys a person’s soul, experiences, attitude. We have always been welcomed with affection even though we sang in Spanish, which is the fruit of music, of its power”, remarks the singer with certainty.
Comparatively, the success of the folklore of those years with that of now is a subject that annoys the former Chalchalero a little when asked about it.
“I listened to music from all over the world, the big orchestras, the most fantastic ones of that time. The music from before had a melody. Today I get in the car, change the dial and search. It’s hard for me to find it. Today folklore is contaminated by foreign rhythms”, he asks.
Then he elaborates: “At parties you hear very little folklore. Before we were Los Chalchaleros, Las Voces Blancas, Los Cantores del Alba, Horacio Guaraní and many others. Today it seems that there is no more folklore. In my case, I still insist on folklore,” he insists.
The artistic legacy that Pancho Figueroa has not yet achieved has two children: Federico (51) and Julieta (52). The man is his representative and organizes his agenda, including the last big tour of his career.
“I put a guitar in Federico’s hands when he was fifteen and he didn’t like it. He doesn’t listen to music. I am deeply sorry that neither of us have learned the language of music,” he regrets.
Subsequently, he broadened his feelings towards his children by referring to his eldest son, who received his degree unfinished: “I instilled a little in him that he should have studied architecture. I had to understand why I’ve always liked it, even though I didn’t finish my studies to continue my life with music. For example, I used my connections to build this house and helped friends renovate theirs.”
Regarding his grandchildren, Pancho smiles and says that he puts music records on them: “I have one for ten and another for two. I’ve already given the ten-year-old a guitar! And I told him: “If you play the guitar and sing, you will win many girls when you grow up”. I hope it happens.”
About goodbye on the tables
Upon returning to the province that saw him grow up to greet the stage, the singer and guitarist, author of ninety compositions, and with a twenty-year solo career, expressed: “I am delighted that on January 6 I will go to play in Puerto Tirol, the place where my parents met in 1937. A few days later, on the 6th, I will be in Resistencia and on the 15th at the Chamamé Festival. I have a brother in Corrientes, another in Córdoba and some cousins in Resistencia”.
Referring to visits to other countries on this final tour of his career, Figueroa assesses some difficulties due to his advanced age: “I will go to Bolivia but his height strikes me. It’s very difficult to sing at an altitude of 4200 meters. I think the same of some high altitude places in Colombia,” he points out.
-Pancho, what will the folkloric audience find in the show in front of the Basilica of Luján?
-On December 11, I say goodbye to the stage, but not to singing, because you can always continue singing. It’s been 60 years of guitar in hand, with suitcases from one side to the other, without being at home, even leaving unscathed by road accidents. I am the only Chalchalero who continues to sing. My son took the Basilica. Somehow it has to do with something symbolic: asking the Virgin of Luján to accompany me in this final stretch on stage.
mfb
Source: Clarin
