by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Norteña
HELD AND RELEASED: Norteño superstar Ramón Ayala was at an undisclosed location last week after spending nearly two weeks in a Mexican jail.
The Latin Grammy winning singer and members of his band Los Bravos del Norte, along with members of the band Los Cadetes de Linares, were arrested during a Dec.11 raid at a Morelos Christmas party staged by members of the notorious Beltrán Leyva drug cartel. Arturo Beltrán Leyva, the cartel chief, fled the party but was captured and killed days later by Mexican authorities.
Originally it was announced that Ayala and the other musicians had been released for lack of evidence, but a few days later the attorney general’s office said they were being investigated for alleged ties to a drug cartel. Ayala was released for health reasons Dec. 23, but authorities said that he remained under investigation.
It was not immediately known if Ayala, 64, was allowed to return to his home in Hidalgo, Texas. The day after his release, his Mexican promoters, Serca Representaciones, issued a statement that promised the singer would explain his participation at the narco party “when he is given the medical clearance.”
Ayala’s lawyer has said he and his band were hired to play and did not know his clients were drug traffickers. “They have never in any moment belonged to organized crime. They were offering their services as singers, as artists,” lawyer Adolfo Vega Elizondo told the Associated Press.
Ayala and his band were performing in a gated community of mansions outside the mountain town of Tepoztlán, in the state of Morelos, when sailors raided the house and a shootout broke out. Three gunmen were killed and 11 others, suspected of working for the Beltrán Leyva cartel, were arrested. The Mexico-born singer and accordionist, who sports a mustache and long sideburns, has a large following along the Mexico-U.S. border and has won two Latin Grammys. His arrest forced him to miss his annual Christmas posada in Hidalgo, where he traditionally gives out toys to children from both sides of the border.
A CAPPELLA STARS: The Puerto Rican sextet NOTA that won the NBC competition The Sing Off has signed with Sony/Epic to record a minimum of five CDs.
NOTA won $100,000 after beating 12 other a cappella groups in the televised contest held this month in Los Angeles. The group is made up of singers Johnny Figueroa, Juan Elí Díaz, David Pinto, Edgar Ríos, Ludwig Henderson and José Ángel Rodríguez.
Figueroa, who lives in Los Angeles, found out about auditions for the NBC show and contacted his fellow members in Puerto Rico. Pinto is a sound engineer who works with reggaetón superstar Daddy Yankee, who covered the group’s travel and wardrobe expenses.
ONE LINERS: ’80s funk band Kool & The Gang performed Dec. 20 at a free concert in Havana, Cuba… Actress Penélope Cruz and films Los abrazos rotos, from Spain, and La nana, from Chile, were nominated for Golden Globe awards this month… Nominees for SAG awards include Cruz and the cast of ABC’s Modern Family, among them Sofía Vergara…Veteran Venezuela soap opera star José Bardina died Dec. 25 in Miami at age 70… and British conceptual artist Phil Collins was inspired by telenovelas for the 28-minute video he titled Soy mi madre, a commission by the Aspen Art Museum that contrasts the lives of local residents and Mexican immigrants and is now on view at a London gallery… Hispanic Link.
