Pedro Infante Cruz (Spanish: [ˈpeðɾo jɱˈfante]; 18 November 1917 – 15 April 1957) was a Mexican singer and actor, whose career spanned the golden age of Mexican cinema.
Infante was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and raised in nearby Guamúchil. He died on 15 April 1957 in Mérida, Yucatán, while en route to Mexico City when his plane crashed due to engine failure.
From 1939 until his death, Infante acted in over 60 films (30 of them with his brother Ángel) and recorded over 350 songs. His 1952 ranchera album Cuando sale la luna was rated No. 56 in a 2024 ranking of the 600 greatest Latin music albums of all time. For his performance in the movie Tizoc he was posthumously awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival.
Pedro Infante was born 18 November 1917 in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, the son of Delfino Infante García, who played the double bass in a band, and Maria del Refugio Cruz Aranda. He was the third of his parents' fifteen children, nine of whom survived. Although the Infante Cruz family stayed for some time at Mazatlán, in early 1919 they moved to Guamúchil, where he was raised. As a teen Infante showed talent and affection for music, made his own guitar in a carpenter shop, played in the Luis Ibarra Orchestra led by his father, and formed his own band called La Rabia (The Anger) in 1933. He managed to learn strings, wind, and percussion instruments in a short time, having received music lessons from Carlos R. Hubbard.
He won a charro suit in an amateur contest at the Colonial Theater, singing Vereda tropical. In 1937 he became part of the Orquesta Estrella de Culiacán (Culiacán Star Orchestra) and was a singer, violinist, and drummer for a year and a half.
His wife María Luisa León (who died of cardiac arrest on 27 October 1978) was somewhat well off. According to her memoir Pedro Infante en la intimidad conmigo (1961) (Pedro Infante in intimacy with me), she convinced him to move to Mexico City for better career opportunities in radio. In 1938 at the age of 21, he auditioned for a position at the radio station XEB, with Julián Morán accompanying him on piano. Ernesto Belloc, the station's artistic director at the time, advised Infante to continue his career as a carpenter, as he was nervous during the audition. Nonetheless he auditioned the following week and was hired to sing on the air three times a week.
In Mexico City he sang songs by composers such as Alberto Cervantes, José Alfredo Jiménez, Cuco Sánchez, Tomás Méndez, Rubén Fuentes, (some of the most renowned composers from the golden age of Mexican Cinema) Salvador Flores Rivera, (Chava Flores) (better known for his humorous songs), René Touzet, and others. His first musical recording, El soldado raso (The Private), was made on 19 November 1943 for the Peerless Records Company. Infante first appeared as an extra in the movie En un burro tres baturros (Three Men from Aragon on a Donkey), or the more correct and succinct transliteration, "Three Baturros on a Burro." His career as an actor in leading roles started with La feria de las flores (The Fair of Flowers), translated as "The Flower Carnival", in 1943.
In that same year, Mexican writer Carmen Barajas Sandoval, a friend and neighbor of Infante's wife, offered to introduce them to Jorge Negrete, a singer he admired. Barajas, the aunt of the child actress Angélica María, worked at the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Producción Cinematográfica, S.T.P.C. (Union of Cinema Production Workers). She convinced Negrete to recommend Infante to the producer Ismael Rodríguez and others. As a result, he was invited to appear in different pictures, such as Vuelve el ametralladora (The Machine Gun Returns).
While he was still married to María Luisa León, Infante met the dancer Lupita Torrentera Bablot (b. 2 November 1931), with whom he had three children: Graciela Margarita (26 September 1947 – 20 January 1949, poliomyelitis); Pedro Infante, Jr. (31 March 1950 – 1 April 2009, suicide); and Guadalupe Infante Torrentera (b. 3 October 1951). Irma Infante (b. 27 March 1955) was born from his relationship with young actress Irma Dorantes.
Infante acted in over 60 films, 30 of them with his brother Ángel. His career spanned the golden age of Mexican cinema. He appeared in such motion pictures as:
Tizoc, along with María Félix, posthumously won him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 7th Berlin International Film Festival. The film itself won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film (Mexico) in 1958. The Silver Bear and the Golden Globe trophies, as well as his Ariel award, are housed in the Museo API de Pedro Infante in Isla Arena, Campeche, Mexico.
The massive migration from the countryside to the cities (mostly to Mexico City) during the 1940s supplied the required labor force for rising manufacturing industries. This urbanization created the "working neighborhoods" and the culture of "la vecindad" (a group of small apartments around a common patio). This new urban working class identified with Pedro Infante through his character Pepe el Toro (Pepe the Bull) in the melodramatic trilogy of Nosotros los pobres, Ustedes los ricos, and Pepe el Toro (We the Poor, You the Rich, and Pepe the Bull), co-starring with Evita Muñoz "Chachita".
He worked with Sara García ("Mexico's grandmother") in many movies in Mexican cinema. She frequently played the role of his loving but no-nonsense grandmother who constantly tried to get him to behave but never succeeded.
The Mexican child star María Eugenia Llamas, who was only four at the time, made her screen debut with him in the 1948 film Los tres Huastecos (The Three Men from Hausteca) as "La Tucita", a screen name she would continue to use. She acted with him again under the moniker La Tucita in his classic 1949 film comedy, "Dicen que soy mujeriego" ("They Say I Am a Womanizer").
One of his better roles was that of Juventino Rosas in the movie Sobre las olas ("Over the Waves"), based on the life of the Mexican waltz composer. Infante's natural musical abilities contributed to helping him get into character.
An important point in his acting career was winning the Ariel Award given by the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences for Best Actor for his role in La vida no vale nada (Life is Worth Nothing, a line from the song Camino de Guanajuato).
Infante recorded over 350 songs. His 1952 ranchera album Cuando sale la luna was rated No. 56 in a 2024 ranking of the 600 greatest Latin music albums of all time. Waltzes, cha-cha-chas, rancheras, and boleros placed him among the most popular singers of the mariachi and ranchera music genres. Some of his most famous songs include Amorcito Corazón (approximately My Little Love, Sweetheart), Te quiero así (I Love You Like This), La que se fue (She Who Left),
Corazón (Heart), El durazno (The Peach), Dulce Patria (Sweet Fatherland), Maldita sea mi suerte (Cursed Be My Luck), Así es la vida (Life Is Like This), Mañana Rosalía (Tomorrow Rosalía), Mi cariñito (My Little Darling), Dicen que soy mujeriego (They Say I Am a Womanizer), Carta a Eufemia (Letter to Eufemia), Nocturnal, Cien años (Hundred Years), Flor sin retoño (Flower Without Sprout), Pénjamo, and ¿Qué te ha dado esa mujer? (What Has That Woman Given You?). He sang "Mi cariñito" to his frequent on-screen grandmother, Sara Garcia, so often in their movies that the song was played at her funeral.