A disciple of Enrique Jiménez "el Mellizo" (1825–1903), he began singing at the age of fourteen in the Café del Palenque in Jerez de la Frontera.
After marrying the dancer Mariquita Malvido, succeeding in Malaga, and traveling half of Spain with his performances, he settled in Madrid in 1891, where he enjoyed his greatest success.
On his return to Madrid, he took part again in the intimate parties and meetings of the colmaos Los Gabrieles, Villa Rosa, and Fornos.
This rivalry led to the businessmen agreeing on schedules so that the public of one place could move to the other and have the opportunity to listen to the two singers on the same night.
[2] In the middle of the 1920s, he stopped singing, dying in the greatest poverty in a pension in the Madrid street Mesón de Paredes, in the early 1940s.