Julio Jaramillo

Julio Alfredo Jaramillo Laurido, better known as Julio Jaramillo, was an Ecuadorian singer and musician nicknamed "El ruiseñor de América". (Guayaquil, 1935 - 1978) Ecuadorian singer. Known with the nicknames of El Ruiseñor de América and Mister Juramento, Julio Jaramillo is considered the best Ecuadorian singer of all time. His songs, which speak of love and misunderstandings, penetrated deeply into the audience that was reflected in them. Many consider this singer as one of the symbols of national identity. The melodies that popularized, among which it is worth mentioning Cigar in cigar, Alma mía, Interrogación, Hate in the blood, I hate you and I love you, Carnival of life or When my guitar cries, they are still heard in Latin American radios. Having lost his father when he was barely six years old, his mother worked as a nurse to support him. Julio was very sick during his childhood: he suffered from bronchopneumonia, diphtheria, dysentery, and even had a beginning of infantile paralysis. He grew up listening to the Guayaquil duo, Olimpo Cárdenas, Carlos Rubira Infante and the duo Villafuerte, artists who marked an era in national music and who influenced their vocation for singing.Together with Pepe,

his older brother, and against the will of his mother, he began to sing at the home of the musician Toapanta. He studied at the philanthropic and a tax school, under the direction of the teacher Lauro Dávila, precisely author of the hall Guayaquil de mis amores. After primary school, it was used in a footwear shoe for women, and then as a furniture varnish.Together with Pepe, his older brother, and against the will of his mother, he began to sing at the home of the musician Toapanta. He studied at the philanthropic and a tax school, under the direction of the teacher Lauro Dávila, precisely author of the hall Guayaquil de mis amores. After primary school, it was used in a footwear shoe for women, and then as a furniture varnish. At seventeen he was already known for his beautiful and warm voice, and participated in Radio Cóndor programs. In 1950 he joined with two friends and went to tour the villages of Esmeraldas and Manabí singing in a trio. At some time he was forced to return to his trade as a shoemaker to survive. In spite of the reproaches, punishments, tears and prayers of his mother, he was not able to leave his life bohemian and parrandera.
With the recording of his first album, Pobre mi madre querida (1954), in a duet with Mrs. Fresia Saavedra, his name began to be known. This was followed by the corridor Esposa (1955), in a duet with Carlos Rubira Infante. The jump to fame occurred in 1955 with his waltz Fatality, which was broadcast by all radios in Ecuador and by major stations in other countries. The recording of this song marked the beginning of his formal career and his recognition. His international consecration came with the bolero Our Oath (1957), when he made several tours of Latin America: he began a pilgrimage through Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Upon returning to his country, he was arrested and taken to military service.


Returned to civilian life in 1960, he continued with his career, reaching performances of up to four consecutive months in the Guayas cinema in Guayaquil, with a full house. He participated in the movie Romance in Ecuador and in another film in Argentina. In 1965 he settled in Venezuela, where he made triumphal tours of Mexico, Puerto Rico and all of Central America. He recorded in duet with Daniel Santos, Alci Acosta and Olimpo Cárdenas.
His last international tour took place in the United States and Canada. The scandals of his turbulent life were also frequently news. Several times he was arrested and almost always because of problems of women or for breach of the Juvenile Court. In addition to being married five times, he had children with other women, who added up to a total of twenty-eight. He never denied his humble origins, he was generous, wasteful of money with his friends, and a prototype of macho machismo.
Upon his return to Ecuador in 1975, tired, prematurely aged and eaten away by cirrhosis, he was booed in a performance in his hometown because his voice was no longer the same as before. In recent years he had a program on Radio Cristal entitled "La hora de J. J.", whose propaganda hardly took to live.

However, when Julio Jaramillo died, the town still considered him as the great singer, which contributed to the legend being woven around him. Died at the age of only forty-three years, his remains received a farewell as no other popular figure has known in Guayaquil, it is estimated that they were accompanied by some 250,000 people.


After his death, an Argentine businessman launched to the market the long-playing discs containing the songs (many of them unpublished) that Julio recorded when he needed money, thus giving rise to the popular saying that "the Nightingale sang better after Of death". Her life has been taken to the cinema in the film Our Oath, filmed in Mexico and Guayaquil, with the argument of her brother Pepe.