During the April Revolution, Aníbal del Peña did not take up arms. He was a lieutenant in the revolutionary army. He ran a command office on El Conde Street and had more than 40 men under his command.
What the singer and composer experienced and suffered during the country’s civil war in 1965 was captured in an anthem in honor of the constitutional men and women who demanded the restoration of the constitutional government of the dismissed President Juan Bosch, the first democratically elected government after the execution of the Dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.
This is how the constitutional anthem or hymn to the April Revolution of 1965 was born, the 55th anniversary of which is celebrated today.
Writing the Anthem of the Revolution for Aníbal de Peña was an inspiration.
“It was a patriotic obligation that led me, at that moment, to write down the grief of that night,” he confessed in an interview with journalists from Listín Diario.
“To fight against brave soldiers…” “To fight against brave soldiers/That the revolution began/To enforce the noble principles/That the Constitution demands/Tore apart the quiet night/The siren of freedom/Like a clarion call to war/Defense the immortal homeland.”
“That day I was in my house on Mella Street, that night unusually we heard the fire siren calling people to come out into the streets,” he said.
It was the month of June when the author sat down at the piano and began to compose the text that immediately became the anthem of the cause.
“It was on June 15 of that year, when the North American troops were carrying out the largest offensive in the Constitutional Zone, that I presented the lyrics of the song to Francisco Alberto Caamaño and he then ordered it to be recorded and broadcast “The official radio station was Radio Comercial and it immediately became the anthem of the April War,” he said.
Aníbal sang other verses again and explained that the song revealed the struggle for independence and restoration.
“As Duarte’s brothers, let us fight/Mella shall already embody his cry/And like Sánchez we will go to martyrdom/We will conquer, like Luperón/Let us not give up a step, let us march/In paths of glory and honor/and Again we will defeat the traitor/And again the rude invader/To fight brave soldiers/Who started the revolution/To enforce the noble principles/That the Constitution demands.”
He continued: “That evening, when I sat down at the piano, the lyrics and the music came out to me straight away. The next day I met Héctor Aristy on El Conde Street and told him what I had written. “Francis Caamaño immediately gave the order to play it on all constitutional radio stations.”
HIS LIFE IN THE USA
Although Aníbal de Peña had lived in the United States for more than 30 years, he always had a desire to return to the country and live there.
The patriotic feeling that grew in him at a young age and which he was able to express in 1965 as part of the April Revolution as the author of the patriotic battle anthem.
De Peña, a prolific composer of songs that he always defined as poetry, died of pneumonia on Sunday, September 17, at the age of 90 in Texas, USA.
The interpreter of the hits “I’m Crazy”, “Virgen Negra”, “Vestida de Novia”, “Tú no tiene la culpa”, “Muchachita de mi pueblo”, “Déjame drink” and his emblematic “Mi dewebla” came frequently to the country to take care of their real estate business and to perform unforgettable concerts produced by their local representative, Raphy D’Oleo.
In 2019, when he spoke to journalists from Listín Diario about his retirement, he revealed that he always felt the same emotion as the first day he took the stage, discarding that word.
“So I will retire if nature prevents me or God decides to take me on his side. In the meantime, I take all my medications, exercise and, best of all, have the care of my wife Iluminada Jiménez. “, he said in 2019.
He composed more than 200 songs and became one of the country’s most popular singers in the mid-20th century.
Despite being one of our great artists, he confessed in an interview with Julito Hazim that music didn’t bring him money and that’s why he devoted himself to real estate business.
Aníbal de Peña took part in the world’s first Latin American song festival, held in Mexico in March 1969, representing the country along with Luchy Vicioso.
He also sang at the Second National Song Festival organized by the Association of Musicians, Singers, Dancers and Announcers (Amucaba).
In his youth, he devoted himself to tailoring, an art he perfected under a Cuban teacher in New York City.
Aníbal had the joy of being born into a family where musical and literary culture were an obligatory part of his education.
His father, Aníbal de Peña, a native of Cotuí, was a music school teacher and leader of the municipal band in the municipalities of El Cercado, Nagua and San Francisco de Macorís, and his mother, Esperanza de Peña, born in La Vega, she was an avid reader of literary works and poems .
During his childhood, Aníbal, along with his other five siblings, was introduced to reading by his mother and music by his father.
“My mother gathered us together and read us literary works such as El Enriquillo by Manuel by Jesús Galván and The Count of Montecristo by Alejandro Dumas. Mom taught us to recite and love poetry. My mother had fixed reading sections and my father had music, music theory and instrument handling. “In my house, classes were constant all the time,” he said in an interview with this newspaper.
He was born in Barahona in 1933. At just five years old, he won his first singing competition at a radio station in San Francisco de Macorís, a performance directed by his father.
He studied music at a young age and learned to play the piano and trumpet. His brothers Washington and Huáscar were also inclined towards music, they learned the saxophone and flute and their sisters Ligia and Elba were inclined towards singing, their younger sister Josefina also specialized in music. When his father died in 1950, he took over the management of the family and was appointed to his father’s offices.
He was a music teacher for nine years in Loma de Cabrera, Constanza, Dajabón and Los Bajos de Haina, where he was appointed director of the music academy and employee of the sugar factory.
During these years he also worked as a lecturer for the national choir in Santo Domingo. In the late 1950s, Aníbal moved with his mother and brothers to the Dominican capital, where he reportedly felt more protected and lived with his first wife Felicia Báez, the mother of his sons José Alberto and Yuri.
Enter the TV
In 1959 he joined the cast of the program “La hora del moro” on Rahintel, Channel 7, produced every Sunday by Rafael Solano, where he shared with Niní Cáffaro, Luchy Vicioso and Fernando Casado.
“La hora del moro” was a music show with a young artist cast, different from that of La Voz Moroccana, that created the second generation of talent on Dominican television.
In 1968, together with Milton Peláez and Jorge Taveras, Aníbal de Peña produced the program “Musiclan” on Radio Televisión Dominica.
At that time he was part of the choreographic-musical revue in the Maya Bar of the Rincón Mexicano restaurant under the direction of Josefina Miniño. Here he meets his second wife, the singer and dancer Iluminada Jiménez, with whom he marries and fathers Ilumín, Ylianna and Alih Jey. The latter is dedicated to an artistic career.