Piedras del campo lola beltran biography

Born Maria Lucia Beltrán Alcayaga on March 7, 1932, in Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico; died on March 25, 1996, in Mexico City; married Alfredo Leal; children: one daughter, María Elena Leal. Education: Secretarial degree, 1950s.

Known for perfecting the art of the Mexican ranchera, a genre akin to American country-and-western music, Lola Beltrán was perhaps Mexico's best-loved singer.

Upon her death in 1996, the entire country went into mourning, with her body lying in state in Mexico City, her songs played endlessly on the radio, and her musical films shown back-to-back on television.

Beltrán, born Maria Lucia Beltrán Alcayaga, was raised in the rural town of Rosario, one of seven children of Maria de Los Angeles Ruíz del Beltrán, a homemaker, and Pedro Beltrán Felix, a miner.

As a child she sang at mass and in the church choir, where her director introduced her to the romantic ballads of Pedro Infante and Agustin Lara. In