Ángel Tavira Maldonado (July 3, 1924 – June 30, 2008) was a Mexican composer, musician and violinist of son calentano. He was awarded the Best Actor Award on the

2006 Cannes Film Festival The 59th Cannes Film Festival was held from 17 to 28 May 2006. Chinese filmmaker Wong Kar-wai served as jury president for the main competition, the first Chinese to preside over the jury. English filmmaker Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or for th ...

in the ''Un Certain Regard'' section for his role in the movie ''

The Violin ''The Violin'' () is a 2005 Mexican drama film directed by Francisco Vargas. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Cast * Ángel Tavira as Don Plutarco * Gerardo Taracena as Genaro * Dagoberto Gama ...

''.

Biography

Ángel Tavira Maldonado was born in the town of

Corral Falso Corral Falso is a corregimiento in San Francisco District, Veraguas Province, Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered b ...

in the municipality of Ajuchitlán del Progreso,

Guerrero Guerrero, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guerrero, is one of the 32 states that compose the administrative divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Guerrero, 85 municipalities. The stat ...

, which lies in the region known as

Tierra Caliente ''Tierra caliente'' is an informal term used in Latin America to refer to places with a distinctly tropical climate. These are usually regions from 0 to 3,000 feet above sea level.Zech, W. and Hintermaier-Erhard, G. (2002); Böden der Welt – Ein ...

.Vértiz, Columba
"El violín, arma de Don Ángel Tavira,"
''Proceso'' 1591, Mexico, D.F.: April 29, 2007.Giles, Citlal
"Acapulco rinde homenaje a Angel Tavira,"
''La Jornada Guerrero'', Acapulco: April 21, 2007. He was the only child of J. Isabel Maldonado Tavira and Anita Tavira López, and grandson of Juan Bartolo Tavira, a composer and performer of

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some current ...

, gustos, Indias, malagueñas,

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

s and coplas, who inspired and taught him the love for local traditional music. Being born in a family traditionally related with music, he was successively encouraged by his uncles and cousins Félix, José Guadalupe ''Lupito'', and Sósimo Tavira López in learning and playing music.Rivera, Norma Inés y Alberto Carbot
"Ángel Tavira, protagonista de la película El Violín, el músico guerrerense que triunfó en Cannes,"
''Gente Sur'' 127, Mexico, D.F.: Febrero 15, 2007.Solís, Juan

''El Universal'', Mexico, D.F.: May 20, 2007. When he was six years old, he began to play four instruments by

ear training In music, ear training is the study and practice in which musicians learn various aural skills to detect and identify pitch (music), pitches, interval (music), intervals, melody (music), melody, chord (music), chords, rhythms, solfeges, and other ...

: saxophone, bass, guitar and violin, and later he went to take courses in classical, semi-classical and romantic music. Still being young he suffered an accident during the town's

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...

feast when a firework exploded in his right hand, which had to be amputated, discouraging Tavira from playing music. However, it was his uncle "Lupito" who encouraged him to continue performing. Later on, he went to take classes at the National Conservatory of Music in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. He was considered a great composer of son calentano, traditional

music genre A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. Genre is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometim ...

(a region within the state of Guerrero), along with other composers such as Juan Reynoso Portillo, Cástulo Benítez,

José Natividad Leandro José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, Zacarías Salmerón and Pedro Ignacio Pablo. When he was 60 years old he enrolled at the Music Conservatory of

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

to study

music notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proces ...

with the purpose of recovering the traditional music of his region. Ángel Tavira was director of the Hermanos Tavira Band, a musical group that has been protecting and promoting the traditional music by recovering the works of Juan Reynoso, Zacarías and

Filiberto Salmerón Filiberto is a given name and a surname. It derives from a Germanic name, latinized in Filibertus and came to Italian through French. It is composed of the roots filu, "much", and beraht or berhta, "illustrious", "brilliant", and means "very bright" ...

, and

Severino Bañuelos Severino is an Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese given name and sometimes surname: * Saint Severinus of Noricum (c.410–482), a Roman Catholic saint: * Severin of Cologne, a Roman Catholic saint * Emanuele Severino (1929–2020), Italian philosop ...

. Among other activities, Ángel Tavira was a farmer, a goldsmith and, as a teacher, he worked at the "

Antonia Nava de Catalán Antonia Nava de Catalán (17 November 1779 – 19 March 1843) was a woman involved in the Mexican War of Independence. She accompanied her husband, a volunteer who rose to the rank of colonel, throughout the war. Three of her sons were killed in th ...

" Kindergarten and at the "Jaime Torres Bodet" Secondary School No. 2, since 1972 until he retired, 32 years later, in

Iguala Iguala (), known officially as Iguala de la Independencia, is a historic city located from the state capital of Chilpancingo, in the Mexican state of Guerrero in southwestern Mexico. Geography The city of Iguala stands on Federal Highway 95 ...

. In 1988, Tavira was introduced to politics when he was selected as Federal Substitute Deputy for the candidacy of Félix Salgado Macedonio. Ángel Tavira married Rafaela Martínez with whom he had ten children: Ma de los Ángeles, Elizabeth, Rafaela, Ma. Eugenia, Carlos, Felix, Ángel, Guadalupe, Salvador and Alejandro With no studies or experience in acting he participated in 2005 in the movie ''

El violín EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

'', directed by Francisco Vargas Quevedo, in the role of ''don Plutarco Hidalgo'', a musician and farmer that participates in a

guerrilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, Partisan (military), partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include Children in the military, recruite ...

that plans to revolt against its own government, role for which he obtained the Best Actor Award in the ''

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

'' section (''Prix d'interprétation masculine - Un certain regard'') at the

, besides being awarded the Golden Kikito for best actor in a Latin Motion Picture category of the 34th

Festival de Gramado The Gramado Film Festival () is an international film festival held annually in the Brazilian city of Gramado, Rio Grande do Sul, since 1973. In 1992, the festival began to award Latin American films produced outside of Brazil. It is the biggest ...

, and a Special Jury Award at the 30th

São Paulo International Film Festival The São Paulo International Film Festival (), also known internationally as Mostra, is an annual film festival held in the city of São Paulo, Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South Ame ...

."Awards for Ángel Tavira"
''Internet Movie Database'', retrieved on January 19, 2008. Tavira died of kidney complications on June 30, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavira, Angel 1924 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Mexican composers Mexican male composers Mexican male violinists Mexican male film actors Deaths from kidney disease 20th-century Mexican fiddlers 21st-century Mexican male actors 21st-century Mexican violinists 20th-century Mexican male musicians