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]

La Chelito
Portela-Audet in the early 20th-century
Born
Consuelo Portela Audet

1885
Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba
Died20 November 1959(1959-11-20) (aged 73–74)
Madrid, Spain
Other namesConsuelo Portela-Audet,
Consuelo Portela,
La Bella Chelito
Occupation(s)Cuplé singer, business person

Biography
La Chelito

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 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
  1. "Review: The Plan". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  2. "Consuelo Portella Audet". Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish). Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  3. "Consuelo Portella Audet". El País (in Spanish). 2006-05-05. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  4. "LA CHELÍTO y su época". Archivo ABC (in Spanish). Madrid, Spain. November 28, 1959. p. 14. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  5. "Chelito, la bella cantante de cuplé que dio calabazas a un rey de España por el amor de un cubano". Todo Cuba (in Spanish). 2018-05-08. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
  6. Anastasio, Pepa (2016). "Erotismo feminista en España 1910-2015: Del dildo de la Chelito al posporno de De La Puríssima". Letras Femeninas (in Spanish). 42 (1): 37–54. doi:10.14321/letrfeme.42.1.0037. ISSN 0277-4356.
  7. Aguilar, Carlos (2014-10-30). Guía del Cine (in Spanish). Ediciones Cátedra. p. 1192. ISBN 978-84-376-3332-9.
  8. Fernández, Tomás; Tamaro, Elena (2004). "Biografia de La Bella Chelito" [Biography of La Bella Chelito]. En Biografías y Vidas, la enciclopedia biográfica en línea. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
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