In her native town of Rosario, Sinaloa, Beltrán completed her secretarial studies while she participated in many singing competitions. She then moved to Mexico City where she was discovered while working at the radio station XEW, and never went back to Rosario again.
She married Alfredo Leal, a matador and film actor, and with him had two children: María Elena Leal, who is also a singer, and José Leal. She entered the world of film in 1954 starring in El tesoro de la muerte. After participating in dozens of films, most of them musicals, she obtained a role in the telenovela Mi rival with Saby Kamalich. In 1976 and 1984 she hosted the musical shows Noches tapatías and El estudio de Lola Beltrán respectively.
Beltrán is still considered with Lucha Reyes the most successful ranchera-music singer of all time. She was the first ranchera singer to perform at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. She also performed at the Olympia music hall in Paris, the Tchaikovsky Hall of Moscow and the Conservatory of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in the former Soviet Union.
Soon after recording Disco del Siglo with Lucha Villa and Amalia Mendoza "La Tariácuri" (produced by Juan Gabriel) she died of a massive pulmonary embolism at the Ángeles hospital of Mexico City.
La Muerte
Lola Beltrán Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
mil llamativos colores
ven dame u beso pelona
que ando huerfano de amores
La tierra es una arenita
y el sol es otra chispita
y a mi encuentran tomando
No le temo a la muerte
mas le temo a la vida
como cuesta morirse
cuando el alma anda herida
MUSICA
Piensan que van asustarme
llevandome a tu presencia
si estan durmiendo en mi vida
es natural si despiertas
Se va la muerte cantando
por entre las nopaleras
en que quedamos pelona
me llevas o no me llevas
No le temo a la muerte
mas le temo a la vida
como cuestra morirse
cuando el alma anda herida
Se va la muerte cantando
por entre las nopaleras
en que quedamos pelona
me llevas o no me llevas
In Lola Beltrán's song "La Muerte," the singer personifies death as a woman dressed in vivid colors. The lyrics express the singer's lack of romantic love and a feeling of hopelessness that stems from having a wounded soul. The singer laments the difficulty of dying with a wounded soul, stating that they fear life more than they fear death.
The first stanza establishes the image of death as vibrant and visually striking, which contrasts sharply with the singer's bleak outlook on life. The singer seems to long for death, asking death for a kiss, which could be a metaphor for either suicide or an acceptance of their eventual demise. The second stanza demonstrates how the singer sees the world as small and devoid of meaning, represented by the imagery of the earth as a tiny grain of sand and the sun as a small spark. The use of the word "huerfano," meaning orphan, implies a sense of abandonment or loneliness in the singer's life, leaving them vulnerable to the invitation of death.
The final stanza asks death directly if the singer will be taken or left behind. This could be seen as a plea to be released from their suffering, though the answer is left ambiguous. The use of the word "pelona," which means bald, suggests a familiarity between the singer and death, as if they have met before or are old acquaintances. Ultimately, the lyrics reveal a complicated and intense relationship with death, one that at times seems to be sought after, feared, and even resisted altogether.
Line by Line Meaning
Viene la muerte luciendo
The death is coming in vibrant colors
mil llamativos colores
She appears in thousands of striking colors
ven dame u beso pelona
Come give me a kiss, baldy
que ando huerfano de amores
Because I am an orphan in love
La tierra es una arenita
The earth is just a grain of sand
y el sol es otra chispita
And the sun is another spark
y a mi encuentran tomando
And they find me drinking
con la muerte en las cantinas
With death in the bars
No le temo a la muerte
I am not afraid of death
mas le temo a la vida
But I fear life more
como cuesta morirse
How hard it is to die
cuando el alma anda herida
When the soul is wounded
MUSICA
Music
Piensan que van asustarme
They think they will scare me
llevandome a tu presencia
By taking me to your presence
si estan durmiendo en mi vida
If they are sleeping in my life
es natural si despiertas
It's natural if you wake up
Se va la muerte cantando
The death goes away singing
por entre las nopaleras
Through the cactus fields
en que quedamos pelona
So what do we decide, baldy?
me llevas o no me llevas
Are you taking me or not?
Writer(s): Tomas Mendez Sosa
Contributed by Elena T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.