Chuito y La Calandria

Jesús Sánchez Erazo, known as "Chuíto el de Bayamón" and also as "el decano de los cantores" (the dean of the singers), was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1900. His mother passed away during childbirth and his father died nine years later. Of humble origins, Chuíto worked as a wagon driver, in sugarcane fields, sugar mill facilities, and cigar factories, enduring the hardships common to the Puerto Rican peasantry. Music was always his calling, however; he wrote his first song at age twelve. 

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He recorded popular music with Ralph Sánchez's orchestra in 1926. In the 1940s, he became the lead singer for cuatro player and composer Ladislao "Ladí" Martínez's Conjunto Típico Ladí, created in New York City. It was Ladí who gave him the nickname "Chuíto el de Bayamón.

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From 1949 to 1977, Chuíto collaborated with celebrated Puerto Rican author Abelardo Díaz Alfaro on the radio program "La vida de Teyo Gracia y su mundo," broadcast on WIPR. He also appeared in the films La Trulla (1951), El Otro Camino (1959), and Preciosa (1965). 

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A master of the seis and aguinaldo, traditional jíbaro music styles, Chuíto became a central figure in preserving and disseminating Puerto Rico's cultural heritage. His repertoire included décimas, which he often improvised, showcasing exceptional lyrical talent. His music provided a narrative of the Puerto Rican experience, frequently addressing themes of love, humor, migration, and rural life.

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Throughout his career Chuíto recorded more than 40 LPs and performed in New York, Boston, Chicago, New Jersey, Hawaiʻi, Spain, Cuba, and other Latin American cities. In 1975 and 1976 he was recognized with the "Agüeybaná Gold Album" award. He passed away on March 25, 1979.

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La Calandria (Ernestina Reyes)

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Ernestina Reyes, known as "La Calandria" (The Songbird), was born in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico in 1925. She began her career at age ten, singing boleros, rancheras, and danzas on the radio alongside her sister Carmen as the duo Las Hermanas Reyes. At 18, she transitioned into jíbaro music. By the mid-to-late 1940s, she was singing alongside Chuíto el de Bayamón in the Puerto Rican adaptation of a Cuban radio program called "The Colgate Show with Calandria and Clavelito," which transformed her into "La Calandria", an artistic name previously given to other female singers in Cuba, Texas, and Argentina. In 1947, she recorded with Chuíto el de Bayamón and the Conjunto Típico Ladí for RCA Victor. 

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She was the first woman singer of jíbaro music to appear both on radio and television. In the early 1950s she sang with Florencio Morales Ramos "Ramito" on the radio program "La Hora del Volante," and participated in goodwill tours to the United States to serve Puerto Rican migrant communities. She appeared in the short film Trulla (1951), directed by Jack Delano, and in the film El Otro Camino (1959). 

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Throughout her career she toured extensively in the Hispanic theaters of New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Philadelphia, and also performed in Hawaiʻi. She recorded 45 albums, and is remembered for hits like "Ese Hombre Es Mío," "Solo Tú y Yo," and "Somos Boricuas." She permanently settled in the Bronx in 1960 and remained professionally active until the early 1990s, when she was diagnosed with cancer. She passed away in 1994. 

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Their Partnership & Legacy

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Together, Chuíto and La Calandria's partnership helped define the sound of Puerto Rican jíbaro music for generations. Along with Flor Morales Ramos "Ramito," Odilio González, and Daniel Santos, Chuíto had a documented and significant influence on the singing style of Puerto Rican salsa legend Héctor Lavoe. 

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Chuíto, La Calandria, Ramito, and other jíbaro artists appeared together in the short musical film Truya (1950), a gathering of the most respected Puerto Rican folk singers of the era. Their recordings on Ansonia Records and RCA Victor remain essential documents of Puerto Rican cultural identity, and their influence can be heard across generations of Latin musicians who came after them.