Andrés Jiménez, "el Jíbaro"

Andrés Jiménez, "El Jíbaro" (Orocovis, Puerto Rico, July 3, 1947 ), is a composer and singer of traditional Puerto Rican folk music (música jíbara in Spanish) and its best known contemporary trovador (troubadour, i.e., singer) linked to the Neofolkloric movement of the Nueva Canción (New Song).^[1]

Early life

Andrés Jiménez was born on July 3, 1947, in Barrio El Gato in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. He is the fourth of fifteen children of Juan Jiménez and Felícita Hernández. His father, a tireless farmer, taught him to love the earth and the cultivated soil passionately. Early on, his mother stirred an interest in singing, particularly by taking him to ceremonies where folk music, like the "seis chorreao" and "aguinaldos," was interpreted.

Economic constraints led him — like with many other Puerto Ricans — to emigrate to New York City where he was drafted into the army. Upon his return, he entered the University of Puerto Rico and went on stage for the first time as part of the Grupo Taoné which had legendary musicians like Roy Brown, Antonio Cabán Vale "El Topo," Noel Hernández, Carlos Lozada, and the duo Pepe y Flora.^[2]

Local and international performances

Jiménez continued to perform with Taoné for several years while developing a unique style that reaffirmed his commitment to Puerto Rico’s culture and Jíbaro music. With Taoné, he traveled to the United States and made presentations at the universities of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, as well as in many Puerto Rican migrant communities in New York City, Chicago, Connecticut, Boston and Los Angeles.

In 1973, he participated in the Youth Festival in Germany. He represented Puerto Rico in the First Latin American Folk Song (Primer Cantar Folclórico de América Latina), held in Cuba. That same year, he toured different Mexican states, sponsored by the National Institute of Fine Arts. In October, along with his new band, he performed at the Festival Homenaje al Trovador (Festival in Tribute to the Troubadour), held in the Plaza Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela. In November, he received the “Premio Encuentro por Trayectoria Artística" ("Meeting Award for Lifetime Achievement").

Zenith, politics and domestic conflicts

Andres Jiménez has been awarded the Agüeybaná Award twice for Best Performer of traditional Puerto Rican folk music. He has also received awards like the Diplo and the Cacique Orocovix and has been recognized by various civic and cultural organizations, even by the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico.

In 1992, his wife Alba Nidia Rivera, a psychologist, charged him with domestic violence.

In April 1997, he received the Farándula Award for his album "Los Santos Inocentes ", considered the best Puerto Rican 1996 Christmas album. It earned him the Gold Record Award for the sale of more than fifty thousand units.

A year later, he found himself at the center of the labor movement. The song, “Los tecnócratas”, from his album "En la última trinchera" became the anthem of the Puerto Rican labor movement against the privatization of the phone company.

He has participated in the specials "Somos un solo pueblo" y "Al compás de un sentimiento" ("We are one people" and "To the beat of a feeling"), produced by the Banco Popular de Puerto RIco, and the concert "Enciende la estrella de la paz" ("Light the star of peace") in 1998 which was sponsored by the Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular (National Foundation for Popular Culture) at the Plaza de Armas in Old San Juan.

In 1999, “El Jíbaro” found himself again at the vortex of another political movement. He had joined "salsero" Ismael Miranda to compose the album "Son de Vieques" (“A Tune for Vieques”), and had produced the CD "Raíces Puertorriqueñas" ("Puerto Rican Roots"), which features the “Singing Children” of música jíbara (jíbaro music). Both works won awards and were used as rallying cries for the rights of the people of Vieques.

Recent times

In later productions, Jiménez has approached the theme of religious belief in the “trova” with projects like “Jesús, Hijo de Dios" ("Jesus, the Son of God”) based on the décimas of artist Luis Germán Cajigas, which were inspired by verses from San Lucas, San Mateo and San Marcos. He has also continued with his nationalist leitmotif with albums like “So we are,” “Nacido en Borikén" ("Born in Borikén”) and “Día de gallo pinto" ("Day of gallo pinto”).

Andrés Jiménez has been the producer of the Festival Jíbaro which has hosted some of the most significant Puerto Rican artists.

See also

• List of Puerto Ricans

References