Ernestina Reyes (“La Calandria”) was born in San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico in 1925. The fifth of nine siblings, she was “from a small-town working-to-middle class” (Fiol-Matta 2017: 134). She began her career at age ten singing boleros, rancheras and danzas in the radio with her sister Carmen as part of the duo Las Hermanas Reyes. According to Carmen, in an interview conducted by Licia Fiol-Matta in 2007, during their debut in Rafael Quiñones Vidal’s radio program "La correspondencia," their father, a friend of anticolonial leader Pedro Albizu Campos, had wanted them to sing the patriotic song “Sin bandera.” However, because it was banned, they settled for Rafael Hernández’s “Campanitas de cristal” (2017: 122).

At 18, Ernestina began to sing jíbaro music. By the mid-to-late 1940s, she was singing with trovador Jesús Sánchez Erazo (“Chuíto el de Bayamón”) in the Puerto Rican version of a Cuban radio program called "The Colgate Show with Calandria and Clavelito." This experience transformed her into “La Calandria” (The Songbird), an artistic name that had already been given to other female singers such as Cuban Nena Cruz, Tejana Rita Vidaurri and Argentinian Inés Arce (Fiol-Matta 2017: 122-123). It was around then, in 1947, that she recorded with Chuíto el de Bayamón and the Conjunto Típico Ladí for RCA Victor (Fiol-Matta 2017: 143).

The early 1950s saw Ernestina singing with Florencio Morales Ramos (“Ramito”) in the radio program “La hora del volante.” Throughout this decade, she, along with Ramito and other jibaro singers, “participated in heavily promoted goodwill tours to the United States (especially New York) to aid” the newly established Free Associated State of Puerto Rico in its “quest to present itself as the migrants’ amigo (friend)” (Fiol-Matta 2017: 121). As part of this effort, she sang in two state-produced educational videos: "Un amigo en Nueva York" and "Un amigo en Chicago." She also took part in the short film "Trulla" (1951) directed by Jack Delano, alongside Ramito and Chuíto el de Bayamón, and the film "El otro camino" (1959). Indeed, she was the first woman singer of jíbaro music “to appear both on radio and television” (Fiol-Matta 2017: 121). From the 1950s forward she went back and forth between New York City and Puerto Rico, permanently settling in the Bronx in 1960. She remained professionally active until the early 1990s when she was diagnosed with cancer, passing away in 1994.

Throughout her career Ernestina toured extensively in the Hispanic theaters of New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Philadelphia performing as well in Hawai’i—where US colonialism led to the migration of around five thousand Puerto Ricans at the beginning of the twentieth century as contracted plantation laborers (today, the Puerto Rican population is around forty thousand strong). As highlighted by Miguel López Ortiz, she recorded forty-five albums, and is remembered for several hits released between 1956 and 1960, among which are “Ese hombre es mío” (That man is mine), “Solo tú y yo” (Just you and me) and “Somos boricuas” (We are Puerto Ricans), the latter two included in Ansonia’s catalog.

Accompanied by the Conjunto of Claudio Ferrer, Ernestina opens "Brisas Navideñas" with “Somos boricuas,” a guaracha (a Cuban musical genre), originally released in the 1950s, when it reached the Puerto Rican Hit Parade (Fiol-Matta 2017: 148). “Somos boricuas” portrays the Puerto Rican peasant’s life as idyllic: as soon as dawn breaks, the jíbaro wakes up excited to begin his daily chores from milking the cow to cultivating the land. Indeed, as Ernestina sings, it is a “new Puerto Rican day to enjoy.” Later, in the second stanza, the song highlights the presence of a “good and humble” peasant woman who can be seen washing clothes by the river. As the song implies, she too is happy. This vignette is followed by the chorus—where the beauty of Puerto Rico is praised— and a virtuosic Puerto Rican cuatro solo that sounds out the purported happiness of these jíbaro characters. Clearly a nostalgic song, as noted by Licia Fiol-Matta the scenario described was also “highly unlikely in the contemporary economic situation, more typified by families broken apart by dire economic need and lack of social support networks” (2017: 148). “Somos boricuas” closes by claiming that, despite the passing of time, the jíbaro will not abandon his “Puerto Rican customs.” Another major musical highlight, in addition to the cuatro solo, is the beautiful polyphonic texture created in the “conversation” between the cuatro and the muted trumpet in the introduction of the song, the musical interlude and the background, and the lively upbeat rhythm provided by the bongos and the Taíno Indian güiro, a hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side played by rubbing tines along the notches.

“Brisas navideñas,” which provides the title for the album, is one of the few Christmas songs along with “Navidad borincana.” An aguinaldo orocoveño, “Brisas navideñas” narrates the story of baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the Three Kings thus evoking the Day of the Three Kings when every January 5th evening Puerto Rican children leave water and grass for their camels in exchange for a gift. After the second decimilla (stanza), the cuatro executes an impressive solo. “Navidad borincana,” is a guaracha where family members are portrayed celebrating Christmas and the upcoming new year, and eating typical Puerto Rican dishes such as lechón a la vara (pig on a spit), and where Ernestina calls for happiness and prosperity.

Somewhat related to the Christmas theme is “La jíbara se va.” Here, Ernestina narrates the story of a peasant woman who, having moved to New York City, is eager to return to Puerto Rico largely because of the snow—a complaint that is embedded in the chorus. In the stanzas, however, Ernestina numerates other reasons for wanting to leave the cold city: José, a Puerto Rican friend, does not greet her in Spanish but instead with a “how you feel what you say?”; a neighbor, presumably a Puerto Rican woman, does not offer her food; Paquito, in turn, does not even offer her cuchifritos (finger food). Overall, in “La jíbara se va” Ernestina expresses a nostalgia for Puerto Rico and unease at what she perceives as the loss of Puerto Rican culture (e.g. the Spanish language) and values (e.g. hospitality, generosity). Hence, the reason for leaving is not only the cold weather but the fear that she herself might change for the worse.

In the guaracha jíbara “Oración campesina,” Ernestina continues to build on the religious trope that came up in “Brisas navideñas.” Singing in the first person, she tells the story of a woman peasant who, coming back from washing clothes in the river, picks up flowers along the way. She hands them over to her “beloved jíbaro,” asks him to put them in an altar honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel—whose sanctuary, incidentally, is located Ernestina’s hometown of San Lorenzo. In the second stanza, she asks Our Lady of Mount Carmel for prosperity, a long-lasting love, happiness, and for Puerto Rico’s liberty. Among the musical highlights is the chorus “le lo le lo le lo lai” (the emblematic “scat singing” of jíbaro music), and the cuatro solo towards the end.

Romantic love is more forcefully explored in “Todo mi amor,” “Solo tú y yo” and “Por un beso.” The first is a seis milonga (in its minor key iteration), where Ernestina declares her undying love for her loved one (don’t miss the awesome cuatro accompaniment in the background). The second is a beautiful seis milonga (now in its major key iteration) consisting of three décimas, two of which end with the pie forzao “el rumor de nuestros besos” (the murmur of our kisses). The song narrates an intimate moment between two lovers as they stroll together and kiss. The love that they profess to one another is “sacred” and of such an “eternal” nature that, even “Cupid will laugh.” The third song, “Por un beso,” like the prior two, is also sung in décimas. In the album it is classified as a “son montuno,” an Afro-Cuban musical genre that, according to Maya Roy in Cuban Music, was born around 1892 as an offshoot of the Cuban son purportedly developed around 1860 (2002: 120-127). Indeed, not only is “Por un beso’s” music reminiscent of Cuba, but more specifically, it evokes the Cuban duo Celina and Reutilio’s song “Canto a Borinquen” (Song for Puerto Rico). Though the lyrics are different, as is the norm in these folk genres (seis, son montuno), the décimas share the same melodic material. Still, there are some musical differences. Contrary to Celina and Reutilio, in “Por un beso” Ernestina does not repeat the final line of the décima, and the melodic material of the choruses of each song is different. Interestingly, Celina and Reutilio are also part of the Ansonia catalog. Despite these overlaps, whether Ernestina was inspired by Celina and Reutilio, and “Canto a Borinquen” specifically, remains speculative. Throughout, don’t miss the cuatro solos which are simply magnificent!

If the prior songs are about joyful love affairs, in “El que se va no hace falta” Ernestina ponders upon the end of a love affair. Here, she calls out her partner for being a cheater, nevertheless, wishing him well with his new love. The most powerful décima is the last one where Ernestina states her name and claims that she will have a new life in New York City with a new partner. In “Tristeza en la serranía” and “El tintero” Ernestina dwells on similar experiences. In the first, a “canto serrano,” she decries the solitude that she feels having been abandoned by her lover. The angst is exacerbated by the fact that she does not know if her loved one “is lost in the mountains” or dead. In “El tintero,” a seis dorado—though played at a slightly slower tempo than usual—she reflects upon her own departure and the pain of leaving behind her country and her loved one. She asks her partner to not forget his “Calandria errante” (his errant songbird) even as she wishes him to have new lovers, and “sueños de fiesta” (dreams of happiness).

The last song of the album is “Lindo Jibarito,” a “guajira jíbara” (a classification that suggests a mix of jíbaro music and the Cuban guajira). In this song the jíbaro is depicted as leading a happy life doing his chores, and Ernestina self-describes as a joyful jíbara lying in a hammock with her “lindo borinqueño” (her handsome Puerto Rican). Thus, just like in the opening track, the album closes by presenting the peasant’s life as idyllic.

**This biography is largely based on Licia Fiol-Matta’s “Techne and the Lady” from The Great Woman Singer (2017) and Miguel López Ortiz’s bio for the Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular prpop.org/biografias/ernestina-reyes-la-calandria/ **

-Mario R. Cancel-Bigay