Myrtle Watkins (June 23, 1908 – November 10, 1968) was an American-born Mexican dancer, singer of jazz and Latin American music, and actress, best known in the United States and Mexico by the name Paquita Zarate.
In 1928, while touring the Boston area with the Bostonian Harmony Lads, singing light blues, Myrtle expressed her longing for Baltimore[3] in an article for the Afro-American newspaper.
On May 24, the cast moved to Eugene Bullard's Embassy Club, rebranding the show as Revue Noire: Hot Stuff, featuring headliners Louis Cole, Elisabeth Welch, Lillian Brown, and comic Snow Fisher.
[5] On May 31, Louis Cole, Elisabeth Welch, Myrtle Watkins, and Senegalese Folies-Bergère star Féral Benga were entertaining at the Enfants-Terribles Restaurant, quickly becoming a popular attraction.
On June 23, an artistic gala was held at the Enfants-Terribles, where Myrtle performed alongside Lucienne Boyer, Alina de Silva, the Irving Sisters, Charpini and Brancato, and M. Pisella to the sound of Pance Lowry's orchestra.
[6] By late 1930, after most of the cast at the Embassy had already returned to America, Myrtle began performing at the Champs-Élysées Nightclub before eventually making her way southwest to Spain.
Retana later mentioned in his memoirs that Myrtle performed semi-nude, imitating the Spanish dancer Carmen Tortola Valencia, under the name Perla de Oriente.
After her contract ended at the Ideals-Rosales, Myrtle joined the duo on a tour across Spain's northern coast,[8] performing in cities such as Bilbao, Oviedo, and San Sebastián.
[9] Upon returning to Madrid on July 22, she appeared at the Casanova en Stambul cabaret alongside Manuel Pizarro's Argentina Orchestra for three days.
On November 8, Myrtle participated in the Fiesta Parisina at the Eden Concert alongside Afro-Uruguayan singer Oscar Rorra, known by the stage name Caruso Negro.
From February 28 to March 16, 1932, Myrtle performed with Afro-American bandleader Levi Wine's Revista Americana, which included popular Spanish cabaret artist Bella Dorita, at the Ba-Ta-Clan in Valencia.
After hours, Myrtle would drive over to the Teatro Fuencarral, where she also appeared in Folklóricos Arrevistados, alongside Argentinean actress Perlita Greco and Rosarillo de Triana.
In early May, while Louis Douglas recovered in a local hospital from stomach pains, Myrtle, together with dancer Scrappy Jones, reorganized the company from his bedside.
A visiting journalist for the Afro-American described her as the "Josephine Baker of Spain": "Miss Watkins is a very good dancer, with plenty of pep, and a pretty shapely figure.
After returning to Spain in the fall, she opened on September 15 at Barcelona's Teatro Romea in Max Guido's Jazz Show revue, where she performed for two magnificent weeks.
At the Hollywood, she performed alongside her latest rival, 17-year-old Elsie Bayron, who, although born in Puerto Rico, had grown up in Harlem and was showcasing her repertoire from the Savoy Ballroom every night in Barcelona's popular nightclubs.
On March 11, 1934, Ada "Bricktop" Smith postponed the opening of her new Parisian nightclub, Monico's, until Myrtle arrived, advertising her as "the world’s most fascinating entertainer.
In March, Myrtle left for Berlin to appear in a film before returning in May to perform at the Boeuf Sur Le Toit with Leon Abbey's orchestra.
By March 1936, after recovering from his injuries, and with the permission of Maharajah Bhupinder Singh, Lall took a short break from cricket and returned to Europe with Myrtle, now working as her theatrical agent.
After traveling across Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia, Myrtle arrived in Czechoslovakia to perform at Prague's Savarin Cabaret (October 1–2) before moving on to Hungary.
Unable to return home to Spain due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Myrtle instead traveled back to Paris in the spring of 1937, in time for the Exposition Internationale.
He earned a scholarship from the Mexican government to study in Paris at the l'École Normale Supérieure (1932–37) and won first prize at the International Violin Competition earlier that spring.
Their success caught the attention of Calcutta's Grand Hotel, which housed popular American jazz musician Teddy Weatherford, whom Myrtle had briefly met in 1937.
Lall Singh was seized and placed in a work camp with his brother, BS Gill (who eventually died) until the country was liberated in August 1945.
Deciding it might be time to move on, Paquita and Zarate, now newly engaged, boarded the USS Hermitage, accompanied by Polish refugees, and traveled to California, arriving in San Pedro during the summer of 1943.
Upon arriving in Los Angeles, the couple traveled south to Mexico, to Zarate's hometown of El Oro de Hidalgo, to spend time with his numerous relatives.
Paquita also began telling everyone that she was an Indian princess of the Brahmin caste, sent by her parents to study in Europe—likely a story created to avoid the racial issues she might have faced as an African-American artist.
During their first visit, Zarate saw a "For Sale" sign on two concrete oxen standing outside a small green house called "Trails End" on six acres of brushland between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay.
To keep things running, they made numerous appearances over the years at the popular Amato's Supper Club and the King Surf Beach Resort's Pagan Hut restaurant.
In the spring of 1962, in Wecoma Beach (now Lincoln City), they performed in an International Music Recital, presenting their varied repertoire of dances and songs in numerous languages and on various instruments.