Guillermo Buitrago

[2] Some of his hits are "La Víspera de Año Nuevo" (New Year's Eve), "Grito Vagabundo" (Vagabond Scream), "Ron de Vinola" (Vinola Rum) and "Dame tu mujer, José" (Give me your woman, José).

Buitrago was blonde, fair-skinned, tall, neatly coiffed, wore a tie with a perfect knot, and a triumphant smile that accentuated his prominent chin and his pronounced ears.

His father, Guillermo Buitrago Muñoz, was from the region of Antioquia and arrived at Ciénaga from Marinilla, most likely attracted by the "banana boom" that had been dominating Magdalena's economy for several years already by that point.

At 18, Buitrago was already working as an in-house guitarist on a program called "La hora infantile" on the radio station Ecos del Córdoba, on which children from all the local towns would sing, competing for a prize.

During the week he would complete his radio show commitments that were starting to flood in by this point, and on weekends he would travel to Ciénaga to visit his family and friends.

Aside from radio, private parties, local fairs, serenades, by 1947 Toño Fuentes, founder of Discos Fuentes in Medellín and pioneer of the LP industry in Colombia, arrived in Barranquilla looking for Buitrago's band to take them to make a recording at his studio in Cartagena.

Locals claimed he had a weakened voice and that his "young handsome face looked like a specter with burning dark circles around his eyes".

A CD was produced to restore and compile some of his greatest hits, called 16 Éxitos de Navidad y Año Nuevo.