e was quite a case of modesty and kindness. Fame did not obsess him and he always was the helpful friend for everybody. He was born and grew up among stars of the Argentine music milieu.

Owner of an extraordinary singular voice, he had the capacity of succeeding in being accepted as a true tango ambassador and becoming a singer of the River Plate area. So much so that in his LP with Miguel Caló and the glosses by Héctor Gagliardi, Los Tres Ases del Tango, he is regarded as a distinct Argentine singer.

Raúl del Mar always evoked Víctor Valcárcel, ‘Chocolate’, his guiding friend in his beginnings back in 1945 who, on his guitar, showed him the chords for the young fifteen-year old boy from Barranco. My sister María, who is a tango connoisseur, remembers his beginnings on Radio Victoria when he was backed by Oscar Avilés, Arteaga and Núñez, famous guitarists of that time, at that auditorium of La Cabaña and amazing the audience with his youth.

Later came his hits with Rodolfo Coltrinari and Domingo Rullo and teaming up as duo no less than with Roberto Tello, who had also just started as tango singer. The radio offered as alternatives Natalio Tursi and his Orchestra or Galán and Casares, the unforgettable vocal duo of the Los Embajadores del Tango. In that milieu of great figures Raúl del Mar was successful, cut many records and appeared to great acclaim on our radio and television.

In his stage as Art Director of Discos Virrey, I was eyewitness of many of his recordings and, especially, one with the arrangements by Reynaldo Cruz Carreño, a pianist I came to know at Maruja Venegas’s Radio Club Infantil. Pieces like “Damisela encantadora”, “Tipitipitín”, “La zandunga” and “María Bonita”, among more than thirty songs, were committed to record with Raúl del Mar on vocals.

My wife, Gaby Rossi, was member of the choir and sang some solos in that production. He recorded many LP’s for the famous Virrey label, in which recording studio on Belén Street, Radio Central, we gathered on endless nights, nearly until the wee small hours of the morning.

I was playing with my group at a reunion at the Country Club El Bosque and on that evening, in another of its salons, our character was appearing with the group led by Domingo Rullo. Taking advantage of the intermission, he came to reach us, as if changing the air, and then we shared the menu. «At the other place there are only snacks», he used to tell us.

In another field when he quit show business, he worked in public relations at the Hospital Rebagliatti. I went there for an emergency and Raúl, demonstrating me his warm friendship, drove us to the corresponding physician, an event that we shall never forget.

None of us imagined that, years later, on September 30, 1985, he would pass away because of colon cancer. In 1974 at the Municipality of Lince he married Eliana Mostajo with whom he had a son who was named Juan Carlos. He became an orphan at age four and we know that today he is a respected professional. Had Raúl lived longer he would have been very proud of his son.

Raúl Del Mar aka El Señor del Tango en el Perú. May God rest his soul because he was the virtue of nobleness and friendship. A great Peruvian singer with whom we worked for a long time at the auditorium of Radio Victoria, at the basement of La Cabaña and where he was a star of stars. Thanks.