Cecilia Meza Reales
Cecilia Meza Reales was a Colombian vallenato accordionist and singer. She was one of the first women to play vallenato, and was renowned for her skill on the accordion and for her beauty.
Biography
Early life
Cecilia Meza Reales was born in 1946 in Valledupar to Ciro Meza Monsalvo and Aura Reales. She had five siblings, including the accordionists Ciro and Álvaro Meza Reales, who were both vallenato king at the Vallenato Legend Festival. Her cousin was later mayor of Valledupar.Music career
Meza was taught to play accordion by Colacho Mendoza. El Tiempo wrote that "in the late 1960s, the best female performers of the diatonic accordion...were Cecilia and Fabri Meriño." At the time few women played vallenato music. Meza was admired for her accordion playing and for her beauty, and was the subject of songs by Rafael Gutiérrez Céspedes and Gustavo Gutiérrez Cabello. According to El Espectador, Fredy Molina "fell silently in love with her and never dared to tell her".In the 1970s, Meza joined the all-female vallenato band Las Universitarias, led by Rita Fernández Padilla. She played accordion on Las Universitarias' album Alma Vallenata, and sang lead vocals on the track "Nostalgia Fonsequera". She also accompanied Fernández on accordion on her solo album La Reina del Vallenato, where she sang lead vocals on "La Capital" and "Tiempos Felices".
In 1970 Meza won the Festival de la Canción in Villavicencio, and she was later on the jury at other festivals in Colombia, including the 1974 Festival de Cantantes organised by the, where she worked as a librarian. Meza later moved to Bogotá, where she worked at the and gradually stopped making music. wrote that "circumstances in her life led her to devote herself to other activities, depriving vallenato music of an undeniable talent."