La Copla Española – Juanita Reina

Juana Reina Castrillo, whose stage name was Juanita Reina, was born in Seville on 25 August 1925. She was known as The Queen of Copla.
She was born and grew up in the barrio of La Macarena and studied dance at Enrique El Cojo’s Academy. Her grandfather paid for her classes thanks above all to the insistence of a producer of Zarzuelas that were performed at the Teatro Cervantes in the city.
She was the eldest of Miguel Reina Mijez and Dolores Castrillo Pascual’s nine children, and although at first her father was reluctant for her to become an artist, with the help of a loan of 125,000 pesetas from a cousin, he staged her first show: Los Churumbeles.
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