“I’m on my way to Bethlehem with my Sabanero burrito,” sings a child in the Christmas carol “Mi burrito sabanero,” also known as “El burrito de Belén,” which is heard every Christmas in Latin America’s homes.
With a delicate voice and accompanied by guitars and a children’s choir, the track was born around 1972 by the producer and teacher in Venezuela Hugo Weiss. Its success was so great that the American magazine Billboard named it one of the 100 best Christmas songs in history in 2021.
“It has been covered by many artists, including Juanes and Aloe Blacc, but it is the original 1972 release by children’s music group La Rondallita that stands almost 50 years later. It has become a timeless staple in Latin American countries, bringing nostalgia to any holiday season.”referred to the medium specializing in music.
In addition to telling the story of the pilgrimage of shepherds to see the birth of baby Jesus, Billboard emphasized “its galloping rhythm” in which the “tuki, tuki, tuki” appears.
What happened to the boy from the Christmas carol “Mi burrito sabanero”?
Hugo Blanco wanted the lyrics he captured to be interpreted by children. That’s why he made the suggestion Raul Cabrera, the director of the Children’s Choir of Venezuela, to help him choose the little singers. When they were already in the studio with the chosen one, things did not go well.
At that time, Ricardo Cuenci I was eight years old and I was part of the choir. He just passed in front of the recording studio.
“They told me I had a good voice. I started singing, humming and whistling in the halls. They recorded, but the one who sang was of no use to them. They made me come in and they made me sing. (…) I didn’t say the ‘s’, I said ‘tabanero’,” he recalled with a laugh in conversation with the musician Caesar Munozfrom the program ‘La Cata Musical’.
Hours and hours went by trying to get him to say “sabanero” correctly. Being unable to do so, the white teacher at dawn accepted that the word was heard somewhat strangely due to the little artist’s diction.
Regardless, the Christmas carol became popular. To capitalize on the success, Maestro Cabrera founded the group La Rondallita with the children of his choir who had taken part in the Christmas carol. Cuenci toured the continent, almost entirely leaving Venezuela to venture in Puerto Rico with the Menudo group, a dream dashed when his parents turned down the proposal.
“Can you imagine if I had been to Menudo? If a rooster had crowed, we wouldn’t be with my family in this situation. What wasn’t was wasn’t,” he assured with nostalgia.
glory faded. Despite the fact that he was the voice of one such track, Cuenci has said he remains forgotten: “We never got anything, neither the choir nor La Rondallita. I want justice done because I have people behind me who need me.”
As he had told EL TIEMPO years ago, he did not receive any profit due to a dispute between his father and the composer Blanco. After being part of La Rondallita he tried to continue in music but it all faded away as he grew up.
They accused him of theft when he came of age in Venezuela, for which he was imprisoned for several years. “My refuge has always been music, but in prison I went to psychologists and psychiatrists and then I’m fine,” he told the newspaper in 2006.
During that year he worked in the sanitation of pipes and in blacksmithing. He was also waiting for the Venezuelan government to give him a house for his family, consisting of his wife and four children.
“Nobody had called me to find out about me as a singer. I wanted to say on TV that there is the “Sabanero burrito”. I want people to know that I’m a man with a good heart.”he told this medium at the time.
In the current interview for the musician César Muñoz, the 55-year-old asked everyone who heard the Christmas carol for help because he was going through difficult times: his house had been robbed and ransacked.
An account was opened on the GoFundMe platform to raise $5,000.