This life-sized bronze statue of José Ángel Espinoza Aragón is located on the malecon just north od Olas Altos Beach in Mazatlan. It depicts the songwriter standing and holding a guitar with his left hand while tipping his cowboy hat as if acknowledging a round of applause. The piece is set on a marble plinth about 7 feet high.
The plaqur reads:
"El Pueblo de Sinaloa
erige este monumento
en honor a
JOSE ANGEL ESPINOZA ARAGON
"FERRUSQILLA"
Un hombre que con su musica, interpretaciones
y actionion ha llevado
el nombre de Sinaloa y de Mexico a todo el mundo
ORGULLA SINALOENSE
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, 2 de Octubre de 2007"
which translates as:
"The People of Sinaloa
erected this monument
in honor of
ARAGON JOSE ANGEL ESPINOZA
"FERRUSQILLA"
A man with his music, performances
and has led actionion
the name of Sinaloa and Mexico to everyone
ORGULLA SINALOENSE
Mazatlan, Sinaloa, October 2, 2007"
The Spanish Wikipedia article for the musician (
visit link) informs us (translated to English by Google):
"Ferrusquilla born an October 2, 1919 in Choix, Sinaloa, Mexico. When widowed father move to the Guayabo, along the Rio Fuerte. Later they go to live in Los Mochis, where one of his teachers to Mazatlan offers move in order to continue his studies. In Mazatlan made ??many friends, and it was a group of them who in 1937 he boarded a train bound for Mexico City because he wanted to be a doctor. But fate had other plans.
In 1938 he started working at the XEQ. At first ran errands, then worked as an announcer and then as an actor and in film dubbing. Ferrusquilla acted in about 80 films. Worked with Mexican national cinema legends such as Carmen Montejo, Sara Garcia, Maria Felix, Jorge Negrete and many more. But also shared the screen with the likes of Richard Burton, Anthony Quinn, Boris Karloff, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum, Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau.
As a composer, his masterpiece was "Echame blame me" song that launched him to fame and was so popular in Spain that was filmed a movie of the same name, with performances by Lola Flores and Miguel Aceves Mejía. However there have been many songs that came from the inspiration of Ferrusquilla.
In 1976 came with Tito Guizar Lola Beltran and the Peace Medal of the United Nations (UN) in New York. The Autonomous University of Sinaloa was awarded the honorary doctorate degree in 2008."