Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A00020 - Ariel Camacho, Lead Singer of Los Plebes del Rancho

Ariel Camacho, Lead Singer of Los Plebes del Rancho, Dies at 22

By PAULINA VILLEGAS
Ariel Camacho, in 2015. Karin Catt/DEL Records
MEXICO CITY — Ariel Camacho, the lead singer of the popular norteño group Los Plebes del Rancho, died in a car accident early Wednesday on a highway near the Mexican state of Sinaloa. He was 22.
His death was confirmed by Justino Aguila, a spokesman for his label, DEL Records. The police said that two of the three other people in the car were also killed.
Mr. Camacho was returning from a performance at a music festival, Carnaval de Mocorito. He had been on tour with his group, whose name roughly translates as “the ranch’s plebeians,” promoting their album “El Karma.” It was not immediately known what caused the accident or who was driving.
Mr. Camacho, who played guitar and wrote songs as well as singing, was idolized by youngsters in rural Mexicoand had begun amassing a fan base on the other side of the border.
He was known for his original narcocorridos — accordion-driven ballads telling of the violent lives of drug traffickers. But his fans, and the musicians he worked with, argued that his message was broader. He himself referred to his songs as “campirana”: music for farmers.
He had posted a video on his Facebook page a day before his death, inviting his fans and “all the beautiful ladies out there” to attend his next concert.
Narcocorridos, which some say glorify Mexican drug traffickers, date to at least the 1930s. They have evolved into different subgenres, which often describe the lives of the poor and those who seek power through violence. Mr. Camacho’s songs ranged from the usual tales of drug traffickers, brawls and money to romantic ballads.
Mr. Camacho, who was from Sinaloa, was regarded as the heir to popular figures in norteño music like Valentín Elizalde, also known as El Gallo de Oro (“the golden rooster”). He was killed in the city of Reynosa in 2006 after performing a song whose lyrics were believed to have antagonized a drug gang.
Mr. Camacho was praised for maintaining a classical element in his regional music by paying attention to the songwriters who had come before him. He was also a frequent collaborator with other corrido singers, including Gerardo Ortiz, Regulo Caro and Luis Coronel.
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Thursday, March 5, 2015

A00019 - Raul Rodriguez, Showered Rose Parade With Bouquets on Wheels

Raul Rodriguez, Who Showered Rose Parade With Bouquets on Wheels, Dies at 71

By 
Raul Rodriguez and Sebastian the macaw, at work in 2009. Fiesta Parade Floats
Raul Rodriguez, who designed more than 500 floral floats for the Tournament of Roses Parade and conceived dazzling confections for other private and public celebrations around the world, died on Wednesday at his home in Pasadena, Calif. He was 71.
His spouse, Robert Cash, said that Mr. Rodriguez had been ill for some time and that he died of cardiac arrest.
Mr. Rodriguez dreamed up floats for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary in 2005; was the art director for the “We the People 200” celebration of the Constitution’s bicentennial in Philadelphia in 1987; served as a consultant to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles; and designed installations for casinos (including the Flamingo Hotel’s pink neon facade in Las Vegas and the 22-story clown that graces the Circus Circus Hotel in Reno, Nev.), stores, restaurants and entertainment companies. He also illustrated children’s books.
His most conspicuous creations, though, were those he made for the Rose Parade. He designed his first when he was 15, a snow scene for the city of Whittier in California, and his final one in 2014, when — typically — he fielded multiple floats in the annual New Year’s Day procession in Pasadena.
Mr. Rodriguez, seated at the front of a float with Sebastian in the Rose Parade in 2013.Dole Packaged Foods
Mr. Rodriguez was classically trained in drawing and painting, but when it came to pageantry he might just as well have been inspired by Oscar Wilde’s credo that nothing succeeds like excess.
In 2013, the chromatic “Dreaming of Paradise” float he designed for Dole Packaged Foods, and which he rode on with his signature pet macaw, featured a 26-foot-tall volcano spewing smoke and flame and 1,000 gallons of recycled water cascading into a fruit-laden tropical rain forest adorned with about 25,000 hot-pink roses, 10,000 dendrobium orchids and 8,000 florescent orange roses.
The Dole float won the sweepstakes award that year, contributing to Mr. Rodriguez’s record as the winningest designer in the parade’s history.
The city of Cerritos in California once asked him to replicate its library on a float, to encourage reading. Instead, he whimsically built a 50-foot-tall bookworm. For Natural Balance Pet Foods, he conceived a 113-foot-long float on which dogs could slide down a chute into 4,000 gallons of water.
Raul Ruben Rodriguez was born on Jan. 2, 1944, in Los Angeles, the son of Ruben Rodriguez, a sheet-metal worker, and the former Natalie Cortez, a department store supervisor. In addition to Mr. Cash, he is survived by two sisters, Irene Rodriguez-Morgan and Teresa Arzola.
His parents encouraged his artistic talent, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1992: “My mother wouldn’t erase the drawings I did on the dining room wall.”
He won a scholarship to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and graduated from Cerritos College and California State University, Long Beach.
Mr. Rodriguez viewed his floats as “moving stage sets,” unique art forms that allowed him to recreate exotic locales from around the world. While his fanciful creations were meticulously planned for months, they were built with natural components and typically for one-time events, which meant they usually lasted only a matter of days.
In an interview with The Glendale News-Press, he described the Rose Parade as “the five-and-a-half-mile smile.” Each Jan. 1, he said, “If we can start the year on a positive, we did our job.”
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Monday, March 2, 2015

A00018 - Lorena Rojas, Telenovela Star

Lorena Rojas, Actress in Spanish-Language Soap Operas, Dies at 44

By DANIEL E. SLOTNIK
Lorena Rojas in 2008.Peter Kramer/Associated Press
Lorena Rojas, a Mexican actress known for her roles in popular Spanish-language soap operas like “Alcanzar Una Estrella” (“To Reach a Star”) and “El Cuerpo del Deseo” (“The Body of Desire”), died on Monday at her home in Miami. She was 44.
Her publicist, Conchita Oliva, said that the cause was metastic cancer. Ms. Rojas learned she had breast cancer in 2008 and became an advocate for cancer education in Latino communities.
A familiar presence in Mexico and internationally on Spanish-language channels like Telemundo and Univision, Ms. Rojas often played protagonists notable for their grace while facing down histrionic co-stars and weathering unlikely plot twists.
She broke through in a supporting role in the 1990 series “Alcanzar Una Estrella,” a drama about an introverted girl’s efforts to win the love of a famous entertainer. The series spawned a sequel in 1991, which featured the pop star Ricky Martin, and a film in 1992. Ms. Rojas appeared in both.
In “El Cuerpo del Deseo,” which made its debut in 2005, she played the widow of a wealthy old man who dies and is reincarnated in a new body. More recently she played a villain in the telenovela “Rosario” in 2012 and 2013 and a mother trying to prove that her daughter was killed by her psychiatrist in the thriller series “Demente Criminal” in 2014.
Seydi Lorena Rojas Gonzalez was born in Mexico City on Feb. 10, 1971. In addition to her television work, she acted in Mexican films and recorded pop albums.
Her marriage to Patrick Schnaas ended in divorce. She is survived by her mother; her sister, the actress Mayra Rojas; her fiancé, Jorge Monje; and her daughter, Luciana Rojas.
In 2014 Ms. Rojas released an album of children’s songs that was inspired by her daughter.
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A00017 -Oscar Diaz, Welterweight Boxing Champion

Oscar Diaz, Boxer Injured in ’08, Dies at 32

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oscar Diaz, a former welterweight boxing champion whose career ended when he sustained a debilitating brain injury in a fight nearly seven years ago, died on Thursday in San Antonio. He was 32.
The Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed his death but said it had not yet determined a specific cause.
Diaz was in a coma for two months and spent seven months in a hospital after collapsing before the 11th round of a nationally televised United States Boxing Association welterweight championship fight against Delvin Rodriguez in 2008. Diaz was 25 at the time.
After performing emergency brain surgery, doctors were unsure how Diaz would recover. His brother, Fernando, recently told The San Antonio Express-News that Diaz had been living in a San Antonio nursing home and could not walk on his own.
Diaz was born on Sept. 29, 1982, in San Antonio. He compiled a professional boxing record of 26-3, with 12 knockouts.
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