Caracol

Biography

Manuel Ortega Juárez was born at number 10 in calle Lumbreras in Sevilla on the 7th of July 1909, in what is known as the Corral de los Frailes, and died in a car accident on his way from home on the road from La Coruña, to Madrid. Caracol was linked with flamenco song from a child as his father Manuel Ortega Fernández, known as El del Bulto, also excelled as an artist in festivals.

The close links to Joselito and Rafael el Gallo, who were his fathers cousins, made little Caracol want to be a bullfighter. Joselito el Gallo died in 1920 and El del Bulto decided to go back to singing. Chacón, who was his friend, asked him for a young singer to take to the Granada Competition. Caracol heard him and told Antonio Chacón that he wanted to go. The maestro asked the boy to sing a couple of songs and tuned with a 'debla´. Chacón was surprised and took him to Granada, where he triumphed and won one thousand pesetas (6,01 euros). It was here that he met the dancer La Argentina, with whom he started a tour through Andalusia before going solo for the first time in the Reina Victoria Theatre in Sevilla along with Tenazas de Morón, who he had also won over in Granada Later he went to Madrid to the Centro Theatre and passed through numerous companies, even sharing stage with La Niña de los Peines, Manuel Torre or El Cojo de Málaga

In 1930 he recorded his first record for the label Odeón. He was only twenty-one and left six pieces accompanied by the guitar of Manolo de Badajoz. It was this year that he married Luisa Gómez Junquera in Sevilla, adopted by the bullfighter Cagancho. They spent only five years in Sevilla, since they moved to Madrid in 1935. After the war he travelled round Spain in the show Luces de España, in which he already proposed scenes such as the 'Romería del Rocío´ - the pilgrimage to the Virgen of Rocio- or the work in a forge, something which Caracol always loved.

In 1943 the businessman Adolfo Arenzana proposed that he work as the artistic partner of Lolita Flores, who up to then was known as Imperio de Jerez. The first show performed by both was entitled Zambra. Caracol was very criticised for this boldness, but the case is that he worked for ten years with Flores. The success of the 'zambras caracoleras´ and the 'coplas´ of la Lola de España helped bring the couple to cinema and, in 1946, Caracol appeared as the main character in Embrujo and, in 1951, appeared in Ramón Torrados tape La niña de la venta. However the couple broke up due to their tormented sentimental relationship.

Caracol wanted to keep up with the same show format and turned to his own daughter, Luisa Ortega. However after numerous tours, the maestro decided to take a rest from whirlwind and return to his beginnings. In 1958 he recorded Una historia del cante, a magnificent anthology in two records. In 1963 he inaugurated the 'tablao´ Los Canasteros in Madrid, a place through which all the great figures of the era passed, although Caracol was only able to enjoy his business during ten years, up to when the Mercedes that his chauffeur, Isidro González Gámez, drove crashed into a poster which took his life away. However Manuel Ortega Juárez had done everything he had to do to go down in history as one of the greatest singers of all time, despite his disputes with Antonio Mairena and the establishment of the school served as an excuse to many to vilify without arguments