Yolanda Pérez de Carenzo (16 February 1902 – 20 November 1968), known as "La Niña Yolanda", was an Argentinian pianist.

Early life

Yolanda Pérez Torres was born in

San Salvador de Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

, the daughter of Pedro José Pérez and María Teresa Torres Portillo. Her mother was born in Bolivia, and her father was governor of

Jujuy Province Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south. Geography There are three main areas in Jujuy: * ...

Career

Carenzo taught school as a young woman. In 1936 she gave a series of piano concerts for Radio Municipal de Buenos Aires. She held gatherings of artists, performers, and writers in her home in Lozano, including

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Gabriela Mistral Lucila Godoy Alcayaga (; 7 April 1889 – 10 January 1957), known by her pseudonym Gabriela Mistral (), was a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist. In 1945 she became the first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in Lite ...

and

Pablo Neruda Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto (12 July 1904 – 23 September 1973), better known by his pen name and, later, legal name Pablo Neruda (; ), was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Nerud ...

among her guests. She sheltered musician and writer

Atahualpa Yupanqui Atahualpa Yupanqui (; born Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburu; 31 January 1908 – 23 May 1992) was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician of the 20th century. Biography ...

during the 1950s, when he was facing government persecution. Carenzo was considered one of the first women in her province to drive a car and to smoke in public. Carenzo's close friends, Gustavo "Cuchi" Leguizamón and Manuel J. Castilla, wrote a popular song, "Zamba de Lozano", for her on the occasion of her fiftieth birthday. Argentinian singer

Mercedes Sosa Haydée Mercedes Sosa (; 9 July 1935
at BrainyHistory.com – 4 October 2009), sometimes known as ' ...

recorded the song and sang it in concerts.

Personal life and legacy

Pérez married Luis Alberto Carenzo Bancalari (1896–1955) in 1922; they had four children together. She died in 1968, aged 66 years, in Córdoba. "La serenata a la Niña Yolanda", an annual music festival in her memory, has been held on her former estate, la Finca Carenzo, in Lozano, since it was originally organized by her son Marcelo Carenzo Pérez in 1995.

References

External links

"Festival de la Niña Yolanda en Jujuy"
a video of the annual music festival in her memory, posted on YouTube by PAMI
A recording of "Zamba de Lozano"
performed by Cuchi Leguizamón and Patricio Jiménez, on YouTube
A recording of Mercedes Sosa singing "Zamba de Lozano"
on YouTube * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carenzo, Yolanda 1902 births 1968 deaths Argentine pianists Argentine women pianists People from Jujuy Province 20th-century Argentine women