Norberto "Beto" Quintanilla Iracheta (May 23, 1948 – March 18, 2007) was a Regional Mexican singer and songwriter. He was known as "El Mero León del Corrido" (The Top Lion of the Corrido)
Biography
Beto Quintanilla was originally from General Terán, a small town in Nuevo León. The date of his birth is unknown, but was some time around 1948. As a child, Quintanilla composed poems or odes to his mother, his teacher, his school, and his country. He left school after only a year of secondary education in order to work in fields alongside his father and his five brothers. His extended family also included three male relatives and two women. The farm was not enough to support the entire family and when he was 13 years old, young Beto relocated to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, where he had found a job milking cows. He did this for a year, and then worked with an aunt in a clothing store for several years.
Quintanilla never had any formal musical training. Although he had always written poetry and songs, musical instruments and musical training were scarce, and he knew few musicians. However, at some time during his life on the ranch, he did meet a pair of musicians who played bajo sexto and accordion. He began writing songs for them, and then songs for other groups.
