“With my sabanero burrito, I’m on my way to Bethlehem,” sings a child in the Christmas carol ‘Mi burrito sabanero’, also called ‘El burrito de Belén’, which is heard every Christmas in homes, not only in Colombia, but throughout Latin America .
With a tender voice and accompanied by guitars and a children’s choir, the track was born in Venezuela around 1972 by the producer and teacher Hugo Blanco. Its success has been so great that the American magazine ‘Billboard’ named it in 2021 as one of the 100 best Christmas carols in history.
“It has been covered by many artists, including Juanes and Aloe Blacc, but it is the original 1972 release by the children’s musical group La Rondallita that endures, almost 50 years later. It has become a timeless staple in Latin American countries and injects nostalgia into every Christmas season,” the music outlet noted.
In addition to the story of the pilgrimage of shepherds seeking to see the birth of baby Jesus, ‘Billboard’ highlighted “its galloping rhythm”, in which the “tuki, tuki, tuki” emerges.
What happened to the boy from the Christmas carol ‘Mi burrito sabanero’?
Hugo Blanco wanted the lyrics he had captured to be interpreted by children. Therefore, he made the proposal to Raúl 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 selected one, the matter did not flow.
At that time, Ricardo Cuenci was eight years old and was part of the choir. He just passed in front of the recording studio.
“They told me that I had a good voice. I started singing in the halls, humming and whistling. They were recording, but the one who was singing was of no use to them. They made me come in and they made me sing. (…) I didn’t pronounce the ‘s’, I said ‘tabanero’”, he recalled with a laugh in a chat with the musician César Muñoz, from the program ‘La Cata Musical’.
Hours and hours went by trying to get him to say ‘sabanero’ correctly. As it was impossible for him, the White teacher at dawn accepted that the word was heard a bit strange due to the little artist’s diction.
Regardless, the Christmas carol became popular. So, to take advantage of the success, maestro Cabrera created the group La Rondallita with the children from his choir who had participated in the Christmas track. Cuenci toured the continent and almost left Venezuela altogether to venture with the Menudo group in Puerto Rico, a dream that was cut short because his parents rejected the proposal.
“Can you imagine if I had been with Menudo? Another rooster would have crowed, we would not be with my family in this situation. What was not, was not, ”she assured with nostalgia.
The difficult life as a child of the Christmas carol ‘Mi burrito sabanero’
Fame faded. Despite the fact that she was the voice of such a track, Cuenci has said that she remains forgotten: “We never received anything, neither the choir nor La Rondallita. I would like justice to be done with me because I have people behind me who need me.”
As he had told EL TIEMPO years ago, due to a dispute between his father and the composer Blanco, he did not receive any profit. After belonging to La Rondallita, he tried to continue in music, but everything disappeared as soon as he grew up.
They accused him of theft when he reached the age of majority in Venezuela, for which he was detained for several years. “My refuge was always music, but in jail I saw psychologists and psychiatrists, and then I’m fine,” he told this newspaper in 2006.
For that year, he worked in the sanitation of pipes and in blacksmith work. In addition, he was waiting for the Venezuelan government to give him a house for his family, made up of his wife and his four children.
“No one had called me to find out about me as a singer. I have wanted to go on television to say that the ‘sabanero burrito’ does exist. I would like people to know that I am a man with a good heart, ”he told this medium at the time.
Now 55 years old, in the recent interview for the musician César Muñoz, he has asked for help from all those who have heard the Christmas carol, because he is going through difficult times: his house, he said, was robbed and ransacked.
On the GoFundMe platform, an account was opened to collect five thousand dollars.