Lola Beltran; Film Actress, Singer of Mexican Music

Lola Beltran, a prototypal Mexican ranchera singer who recorded more than 100 albums and was known to her fans as “Lola la Grande” and “La Reina,” has died. She was reportedly 64 but may have been in her 70s.

Beltran, also an actress in more than 50 Mexican films, died Sunday night in Mexico City of a stroke. She had suffered a heart attack March 16.

Her soulful interpretations of mariachi ballads made Beltran a role model for younger singers of Latino music, including Linda Ronstadt, who called Beltran “a world-class singer.” Greatly admired by fellow musicians, Beltran was known for her phrasing, inflection and emotional vocal expression.

She was greatly loved by both peasants and presidents. She sang at county fairs as well as state dinners for such notables as President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Charles de Gaulle and the king of Spain.

Born Maria Lucila Beltran in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, she began singing for family groups and for the nuns where she was schooled. Chaperoned by her mother, she moved to Mexico City in 1953 to work as a radio station secretary, hoping to break into show business.

The Mariachi Vargas, based at that station, gave her an opportunity to sing. Within a year, she had her own radio program and was popular throughout Mexico.

Among her best-known songs, in the United States as well as Mexico, were “Cucurrucucu Paloma” and “Tres Dias.” Her version of “Soy Infeliz” (“I Am Unhappy”) was used as the opening theme of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s 1988 film “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”

She occasionally sang in Southern California at such venues as Los Angeles’ Million Dollar Theater and Sports Arena and San Diego’s Copley Symphony Hall.

Beltran had a strong following among area Latinos and was honored Tuesday by a mass at La Placita Church and a program at Casa Mexicana in Boyle Heights.

She is survived by her daughter, Maria Elena Leal, from her marriage to bullfighter and actor Alfredo Leal.