Flor Silvestre, Beloved Mexican Singer and Film Icon, Dies at 90
Photo by Michael Tran/FilmMagic
Flor Silvestre, the beloved Mexican singer-actress of stage and screen died at her home in Zacatecas, Mexico on Wednesday. She was 90. According to her family, her death was of natural causes.
Flor Silvestre was born Guillermina Jiménez Chabolla in 1930 in Guanajuato.
Her mother longed for a more urban life, so the entire family moved to Mexico City when Chabolla was 13. It was in Mexico City that Chabolla began to stretch her musical skills in concert halls and radio programs. She quickly caught the attention of producers and promoters who recognized both her talent and her beauty.
It was from one of these promoters that Guillermina Jiménez Chabolla received her stage name, Flor Silvestre, “wild flower” in Spanish. She was christened such due to her delicate–and at the time, gangly–appearance.
Throughout her 70 year career, Silvestre recorded over 300 songs and appeared in over seventy movies. She was a prominent figure in the Golden Age of Mexican cinema, appearing in famous films like “Ánimas Trujano” and “La cucaracha”. Her rich, melodious voice gave her the nicknames “La Sentimental” and “La Voz Que Acaricia”.
But Silvestre found both professional and personal fulfillment when she met her husband, singer-actor Antonio Aguilar, in 1950.
The two complemented each other and were able to use their relationship to rise to new professional heights.
Silvestre was the original triple threat–adding horse-riding into her song and dance act. Her famous traveling rodeo show that she performed in alongside her Aguilar and two sons attracted thousands of attendees across Mexico and the U.S., eventually selling out Madison Square Garden.
After the death of Aguilar in 2007, Silvestre largely retired from public life. Her children Pepe Aguilar and Antonio Jr. however, continued to make music and wow the public with their unending talent.
Pepe Aguilar took to Instagram to eulogize his late mother, a woman who, to so many Mexicans, was the sound of home. “She left the example of being a nuanced voice of the beauty of being a mother and wife,” he wrote. “She left the joy of bearing witness to beauty that thinks and speaks.”
Many fans of Silvestre’s took to Twitter to reminisce about the way La Sentimental touched their lives.
Flor Silvestre movies were a staple in many Mexican and Latin American households.
Some fans waxed nostalgic about the relationship their abuelos and abuelas had with the late star.
This man has memories of seeing the Aguilar family perform in one of their famous rodeo shows.
They brought joy to so many.