María Antonia Vallejo Fernández (9 March 1751 – 10 June 1787), also known as La Caramba, was a Spanish singer and dancer of ''

tonadilla Tonadilla was a Spanish musical song form of theatrical origin; not danced. The genre was a type of short, satirical musical comedy popular in 18th-century Spain, and later in Cuba and other Spanish colonial countries. It originated as a song type, ...

'' music.

Biography

María was born on 9 March 1751 to Bernardo Vallejo and María Manuela Fernández. She left home in 1776 to pursue her career in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. At

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

of that year she debuted at the Coliseo de la Cruz in Manuel Martínez's company. She was known as ''La Caramba'' after the exclamation ''¡caramba!'' which concluded a ''

'' which she performed soon after her arrival in

. Her costume featured a topknot of brightly coloured

ribbon A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mater ...

s which became known as a ''caramba'' too. She married in 1781 but soon left her husband and returned to performing. In 1784 she retired from the stage for unknown reasons, and died on 10 June 1787 at age 36.

References

Flamenco dancers Flamenco singers 1751 births 1787 deaths 18th-century Spanish dancers 18th-century Spanish singers Spanish female dancers Place of birth missing 18th-century Spanish women {{Spain-singer-stub