Rocío Jurado
Who is Rocío Jurado?
María del Rocío Trinidad Mohedano Jurado (Chipiona, Cádiz, September 18, 1944 – Madrid, June 1, 2006), known professionally as Rocío Jurado, is regarded as one of the most complete voices Spanish music has ever produced: she commanded copla, flamenco and ballad with equal ease, and even ventured into the Mexican songbook. Audiences crowned her “la más grande” — “the greatest” — a title she carried for decades on both sides of the Atlantic.
She was born into a modest family: her father, Salvador Mohedano, was a shoemaker and a keen flamenco aficionado; her mother, Rosario Jurado, a housewife and a fine copla singer. Rocío was the eldest of three children, alongside Amador and Gloria. Singing filled the family home, and from those deep roots came a child who carried cante in her veins.
From Chipiona to Madrid: the early years
Her first public performance came at age eight, in a play at her village school, La Divina Pastora. As a child she entered every radio contest she could, especially those of Radio Sevilla, winning so often that she was nicknamed “la niña de los premios” — “the prize girl.” She herself used to laugh that her first big prize, in the late 1950s, consisted of 200 pesetas, a bottle of soda and a pair of stockings.
After her father died while she was still a teenager, she had to help support the family — working as a shoemaker and picking fruit — until she left for Madrid with her mother, in family legend carrying a cardboard suitcase and very little money. There a friend introduced her to cante greats such as La Niña de los Peines and Manolo Caracol, and the legendary Pastora Imperio hired her for her tablao El Duende, one of Madrid’s first. Still a minor, she was dressed in older women’s clothes to avoid drawing the authorities’ attention.
Career
From the tablao she built a career that took her to the summit of copla with an unmistakable style of her own, charged with dramatic force. She also pioneered a new look for the genre, swapping ruffles and the bata de cola for elegant evening gowns and an international image — though she never stopped dressing as a flamenca for certain performances.
Her gift for cante jondo was captured in 1982 on the album “Ven y sígueme,” recorded with Manolo Sanlúcar on guitar, proving her knowledge and compás across strictly traditional styles. Throughout her career she was accompanied by first-rate guitarists such as Enrique de Melchor and Paco Cepero. Cinema claimed her voice too: Carlos Saura used it in “El amor brujo” (1986), starring Cristina Hoyos, and brought her together in “Sevillanas” (1992) with Paco de Lucía, Camarón de la Isla, Lola Flores, Manuela Carrasco and Matilde Coral. In 1993 she starred in Josefina Molina’s “La Lola se va a los puertos,” her return to leading film roles after more than a decade.
International recognition arrived emphatically: in 2000 she received an award in New York as the best female voice of the 20th century. In 2005, already ill, the Yerbabuena Festival dedicated its edition to her, with her lifelong friend Juan Peña “El Lebrijano” at her side.
Notable discography
Many of her greatest hits bear the signature of composer Manuel Alejandro: “Señora,” “Ese hombre,” “Como yo te amo” and “Se nos rompió el amor,” ballads she turned into generational anthems. Together with “Como una ola,” they form a repertoire still covered and remembered as an essential part of 20th-century Spanish music, with millions of records sold across Spain and Latin America.
Personal life
Her personal life drew as much attention as her career. On May 21, 1976 she married boxer Pedro Carrasco at the sanctuary of the Virgen de Regla in Chipiona, dressed in bata de cola, comb and ruffles; the marriage produced her only biological daughter, Rocío Carrasco. After divorcing in 1989, she married bullfighter José Ortega Cano on February 17, 1995 at the La Yerbabuena estate, before more than 1,600 guests and with television cameras following every detail. In late 1999 the couple adopted two Colombian-born children, José Fernando and Gloria Camila.
In 2004 she publicly announced she had pancreatic cancer. She underwent surgery in Madrid and was later treated at the MD Anderson hospital in Houston, where a complication delayed her return to Spain until the spring of 2006. Shortly before her death, the Spanish government awarded her the Gold Medal of Merit in Labour.
Legacy
Rocío Jurado died in the early hours of June 1, 2006 at her home in La Moraleja, Madrid. Her lying in state at the Centro Cultural de la Villa on Plaza de Colón drew thousands, and her hometown turned out en masse to bid her farewell before her burial in Chipiona’s San José cemetery, where a monument now honours its most universal daughter. Her influence lives on in entire generations of copla, flamenco and ballad singers.