José Luis Moneró (April 6, 1921 in

Juncos, Puerto Rico Juncos (, ) is a town and one of the 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico. It is located in the eastern central region of the island to the west of the Caguas Valley, south of Canóvanas and Carolina; southeast of Gurabo; east of San Lorenzo; an ...

– February 15, 2011) was a Puerto Rican

musician A musician is a person who composes, conducts, or performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general term used to designate one who follows music as a profession. Musicians include songwriters who wr ...

and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues o ...

Music career

Moneró first sang at the Tapia Theater at age 17. He then went on to

Condado Vanderbilt Hotel The Condado Vanderbilt Hotel is a historic luxury hotel built in 1919 and located on Ashford Avenue in the district of Condado in San Juan, capital city of the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. It was listed on the National Register of Histori ...

. And thereafter his name began to gain popularity with bands like Luis Morales, La Tropicana and Pepito Torres and his unforgettable Siboney. Like many of his contemporaries in the 1940s, Moneró migrated north to settle in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. There he took trumpet lessons with Charles Colin. He played and sang with Noro Morales and José Curbelo. Later he was recruited by Xavier Cougat to sing with his Orchestra. In the 1980s the singer Julio Angel recruited him to share star in two recording projects of excellence: "50 años de nostalgia" and "Evocando el Ayer". Subsequently, the label disk Hit son released you a compact print live in which, under the production of Salvador Rosa, he shared star with Lucy Fabery, Ruth Fernández, Los Montemar, Tato Díaz and German Dayivet, among others. It documents the concert "Tributo a José Luis Moneró" that produced by Carmen Junco and Edna Rivera appeared in the Center of fine arts of Santurce on 5 September 2002. Moneró was the father of four and was married for twenty years to the former Tere Haddock and was 89 at the time of his death on February 15, 2011 in

Caguas, Puerto Rico Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was found ...

. His prominence led

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Luis Fortuño Luis Guillermo Fortuño Burset (born 31 October 1960) is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, from 2009 to 2013. Fortuño served as the first secretary of econom ...

to order flags flown at half staff for three days when informed of the musician's death.

Sources

Music of Puerto Rico – Biography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Monero, Jose Luis 1922 births 2011 deaths People from Juncos, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican musicians Puerto Rican bandleaders