Niño de Utrera

Biography

Juan Mendoza Domínguez, known as the "Niño de Utrera", was born in Utrera, Seville, on December in 1907, the youngest of eight children. Her father was a modest peasant who liked to sing. Young Juanito worked as a goat herder and was soon affectionately known by his neighbors as "the village clock", because he woke them up in the morning singing when arriving with the animals. At 9 he debuted in Montoro's bullfight ring at Córdoba, and at 19 (1926) made his first recordings for the Pathé brand with famed flamenco guitarrist Ramón Montoya. Although not a gypsy by birth, he loved cante jondo and his main influences came from La Niña de los Peines, El Cojo de Málaga and Don Antonio Chacón, to whom Pepe Marchena was later added. In 1932 he toured Spain with the first two of them, and in 1935 came his first film, Rosario la cortijera (1935). He moved with his wife to Madrid and with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War emigrated to Argentina, where he met singer Trini Morén and left his wife. From then on he toured America and Spain with considerable success with the Romería artistic company. It was during a rehearsal in Viña del Mar (Chile) before coming back to Spain that he died from a stroke in October 1964.