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La Chelito
Consuelo Portela Audet (1885–1959), commonly called La Bella Chelito and La Chelito, was a Cuban-born Spanish cuplé singer from the early 20th-century, and a theater business owner.[1][2][3] She was a pioneer in the genre of picaresque cuplé.[4] Biography She was born in Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba, to Spanish parents Antonia Audet and Isidro Portella.[5][2] Her father was the captain of the Civil Guard in Cuba.[2] She started singing at the age of 14, while living in Cuba and performed at the Payret, Molino Rojo and Alhambra theaters.[5] She had critics including clergy, who labeled her as “libidinous satan” in the Diario de la Marina, the Cuban newspaper.[5] In 1910, her family returned to Spain.[5] She performed mostly in the theaters in Barcelona and Madrid.[5] In 1915, an erotic novel about the life of Chelito was written by Joaquín Belda in the work "La Coquito";[6] which was later made into a 1977 film of the same name, released in Spain. Her only film appearance was in the silent film El Conde Maravillas (1927) by José Buchs.[7] After she retired from stage in 1928, she built and managed the Muñoz Seca Theater in Plaza del Carmen, Madrid in 1930.[5] She also owned and managed the Salón Madrid; the Hall Encomienda, which became, after a reform, the Teatro Nuevo; and the Kursaal that she acquired in 1919 and renamed the Chanteclair.[2] Other notable "Queens of cuplé" were La Fornarina and Raquel Meller.[8] References
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