Rafael Escalona Martínez

Martínez worked between 1926 and 2009 across composer, diplomat, singer and Liedermacher. The registers place that work in Vallenato. This article rests on 23 catalogued compositions and 22 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

• Name — Rafael Escalona • Birth Name — Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez • Background — person • Born — 27 May 1927 • Birthplace — Patillal, Colombia • Died — 13 May 2009 • Place of death — Bogotá, Colombia • Genre — Vallenato • Occupation — Songwriter, diplomat

Escalona was born on 27 May 1927 in Patillal, in the Colombian department of Cesar (but at that time in Magdalena). He was the seventh child of colonel Manuel Clemente Escalona Labarces, a veteran of the Thousand Days' War, and Margarita Martínez Celedón. Unusually for early vallenato figures, his family were wealthy. Escalona attended school at the Colegio Nacional Loperena in Valledupar, and there aged 15 he wrote his first song "El Profe Castañeda" about a teacher Heriberto Castañeda. Escalona left the school in 1943 after completing the third year of his baccalaureate (Colombia), and started attending the Liceo Celedón in Santa Marta. After repeating his fifth year three times, Escalona left the Liceo Celedón without graduating in 1948, allegedly because he was expelled for being caught kissing a girl in a classroom. In 1991, he received an honorary baccalaureate degree from the Colegio Nacional Loperena.

El Espectador wrote that Escalona was "considered the greatest composer of vallenato music of all time and one of the most representative figures of Colombian folklore." Although well-known for his songwriting, he never learned to play an instrument and rarely sang. Gabriel García Márquez cited Escalona as an inspiration for his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the two of them were instrumental in the creation of the Vallenato Legend Festival. Márquez once told Escalona that One Hundred Years of Solitude is "nothing more than a 350-page vallenato." He also described Escalona as "the intellectual of vallenato" (el intelectual del vallenato). Escalona's songs became popular in Bogotá in the 1960s, and helped drive the increasing popularity of vallenato in Colombia in the 1970s. He often wrote about real events and people in his life, and about the history of Cesar. He also wrote many songs for women, including but not limited to his wife Marina. Several times, beginning in 1988, he was president of SAYCO, the Colombian copyright collective. Escalona wrote his first song "El Profe Castañeda" in February 1943. His notable compositions include "La Casa en el Aire", "El Testamento", "Elegía a Jaime Molina", "La Custodia de Badillo", "La Vieja Sara", "El Copete", "El Pirata", "Honda Herida", "El Mejoral", "El Arco Iris", "El Almirante Padilla", "El Chevrolito", "La Molinera", "La Brasilera", "La Patillalera", "La Golondrina", "La Historia", and "La Creciente del Cesar".

The Vallenato Legend Festival was founded by Escalona, Alfonso López Michelsen, and Consuelo Araújo Noguera in 1968 as a way of promoting the musical culture of Cesar, which had been split from Magdalena the year before. The festival was modelled on a vallenato festival that Escalona had organised with Gabriel García Márquez in Aracataca in 1966. Escalona was on the panel of judges for several editions of the festival.

In 1992 Caracol TV produced a telenovela called Escalona (TV series) based on Rafael Escalona's life, starring Carlos Vives. The programme brought both Escalona and Vives significant recognition within Colombia and abroad. Vives recorded two soundtrack albums for the programme, Escalona: un canto a la vida and Escalona: Vol. 2.

Escalona was made public relations chief of the newly created department of Cesar in 1968 by governor Alfonso López Michelsen. When López Michelsen became president of Colombia, he appointed Escalona ambassador to Panama.

Escalona married Marina Arzuaga Mejía in 1951, and they later separated. On his death, his son Rafel Jr claimed that he had at least 23 children. Escalona died on 13 May 2009 in Bogotá. He had been interned for almost two weeks in the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogotá and had been on a ventilator and unconscious earlier that day. When he died, Colombian ex-President Ernesto Samper Pizano was on the way to visit him.

Rafael Escalona Martínez is recorded with the occupation Liedermacher. Classed in the genre Vallenato. Recorded as composer, diplomat, singer and liedermacher. Established in Library of Congress under n90645523. Established in Discogs under 1564718. Established in FAST under 1728777. Identity and origins. The authorities additionally record the headings Rafael Calixto Escalona Martínez, Maestro Escalona, Rafa Escalona and Rafael Escalona Martinez. His recorded language was Spanish.