Queer Places:
Castillo de los Colomos (now Centro de Educación y Cultura Ambiental Colomos), C. El Chaco 3200, Colomos Providencia, 44630 Guadalajara, Jal., Mexico
José Guízar Morfín, better known as Pepe Guízar (February 12, 1906 – 27 September 1980[1]), was a Mexican composer, poet and musician. He composed the song "Guadalajara", a popular mariachi song. His tune, "A Poco No", can be heard in the 1941 film, Citizen Kane.
José Guízar Morfín was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, on February 12, 1906, in the neighborhood of San Juan de Dios. His parents were Luis Guízar Valencia and María Morfín. He made his first studies at the School of Don Atilano Zavala and at the Institute of Sciences of Jalisco. At the same time he studied music music with the master Jesús Corona. At the insistence of his father, in 1928 he went to settle in Mexico City, entered the National Preparatory School and then studied the first three years of the law degree of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, which he abandoned due to his lack of vocation. He himself said: "... I would be a bad graduate. Once, I remember, when I was in my third year, I had to accompany an actuary to carry out a eviction. I was so sorry that I went home, stole money from my father's safe and paid off the debt of that family that was going to be thrown out. I would not serve as a lawyer." He also studied music and declamation at the National Conservatory. Maestro J. Jesús Estrada initiated him into the secrets of solfeggio and piano and Professor Erasmo Castellanos Quinto gave him a taste for poetry.
He became interested in composition in 1930 when Agustín Lara triumphed at the Teatro Politeama; he felt that personally he could sing to love like Lara, making verses and putting music in imitation of Tata Nacho, but with folkloric essence; this is how his first creation emerged: Guadalajara. In the radio station XEW Pepe Guízar was baptized as The musical painter of Mexico, since his compositions portray the musical geography and customs of Mexico. He was a composer who strove to dress up the Mexican song, taking it beyond the taverns and neighborhoods, to introduce it to the performance halls and making it compete with tango and bolero, when these were fashionable. He was in love with the Mexican province and with deep national roots he sang to Mexico, its people, the mariachi and the people. All his musical successes marked an era in the life of Mexican music. In addition to Guadalajara, Pepe Guízar composed countless songs that portray various places and customs of the Mexican Republic, songs that have transcended national borders to bring to the world the knowledge of Mexican folklore. Among other songs by maestro Guízar are: Sin Ti, Acuarela potosina, Como México nos hay dos, Chapala, Tehuantepec, El corrido del Norte, Pregones de México, El mariachi, China poblana, Sarape de Saltillo, Cerro de la Silla, Flor de Tabasco, Ciudad blanca, and many more, which have been performed by some of the greatest singers and musical groups, such as the Mariachi Vargas of Tecalitlán, the Mariachi Mexico of Pepe Villa, Jorge Negrete, Pedro Infante, Los Panchos, María de Lourdes, Antonio Bribiesca, Antonio Aguilar, Las Hermanas Huerta, Lucha Villa and Vicente Fernández, to mention just a few.
Pepe Guízar gave validity to a whole musical movement interested in rescuing the values and life of the Mexican people beyond the capital. The Government of the State of Jalisco granted him the Castle of the Colomos to live in it, however his delicate state of health did not allow him to inhabit it for a long time. He traveled frequently to Mexico City to feel surrounded by people and died on one of these trips, on September 27, 1980.
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