- Portrait of the Fiery Latin Music Sensation Tells a Remarkable and Ultimately Tragic Tale - "La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul" tells the remarkable and ultimately tragic story of the Cuban bombshell known as La Lupe, once the reigning Queen of Latin Music. Her wild, unabashedly sensual singing style made her a sensation, first in Cuba and then in New York. Unlike her sometime rival, Celia Cruz, whose death was commemorated with a mobbed Fifth Avenue processional, La Lupe died broke and forgotten in the Bronx. A must-see for every Latin music fan, Ela Troyano's "La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul" airs Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS as a presentation of the Emmy Award-winning INDEPENDENT LENS, hosted by Terrence Howard. From a poor town in Cuba to the stage of Carnegie Hall, Lupe "La Lupe" Yoli transformed Latin music. Told through interviews with such contemporaries as Mongo Santamaria (who introduced La Lupe to New York audiences, only to have his star stolen by rival bandleader Tito Puente), Johnny Pacheco and many others, as well as vintage footage of the outrageous La Lupe charming TV hosts David Frost and Dick Cavett, "La Lupe" evokes the heady heyday of the mambo era, from the casinos of pre-revolutionary Havana to the famed nightspots of Manhattan. From her tumultuous love life to her involvement with Santeria to her fiery, love/hate relationship with her many collaborators, "La Lupe" is a vibrant portrait of an unforgettable artist who dared to perform and live her life on her own terms. "La Lupe: Queen of Latin Soul" wraps up the INDEPENDENT LENS season. Filmmaker Ela Troyano is a Cuban-born director writer and producer. Her films include her feature debut Latin Boys Go to Hell (Strand Releasing, 1998) and the award winning Carmelita Tropicana (First Run Features, 1994). Troyano also directed the dramatic action television series "Reyes y Rey" and the sitcom "Angeles" for Telemundo/Sony (1998-99). Troyano directed the critically acclaimed off-Broadway A to B by Ricardo Bracho at INTAR (2002) and will collaborate with Carmelita Tropicana on Bring It On You Tube to be presented at INTAR in December 2007. Her video installations in collaboration with the Tiffany Mills Company, Godard and Landfall with composers John Zorn and Ikue Mori, will premiere at Joyce Soho in June 2007. Underwriters: Public Television Viewers and PBS.
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