Her father, Timoteo Peregrino Reyes (born c. 1857), played guitar[3] and was a founding member of a guild of local port workers.

In February 1953, her single "Como golondrinas" peaked at number 2 on Cashbox's Mexico's Top Ten Tunes chart.

[6] She went on to record numerous hit singles and also several studio albums, including Caleidoscopio musical con Toña la Negra (1958), Noche criolla, vol.

Her second husband was Mexican jazz pioneer and bass player Víctor "Vitillo" Ruiz Pazos; they were married from 1955 to 1963.

In 1993, German film director Christian Baudissin made a television documentary about Toña la Negra that included interviews with her ex-husband, musician Víctor Ruiz Pazos, and others artists who knew her.

Rafael Figueroa Hernández, a researcher and professor at the Universidad Veracruzana, wrote the first full, in-depth biography of Toña la Negra.