Pedro Rivera Shares Crucial Moments in Chalino Sánchez’s Career: ‘At the Beginning No One Accepted Him’

Pedro Rivera started out taking photos and selling cassettes in Huntington Park, California. He dreamed of becoming a singer, and although he achieved that dream, destiny led him to make his mark in the music industry in a different way: by discovering talents who were just starting out and needed exposure. That was the case for four aspiring artists who would go on to become major stars in regional Mexican music: Chalino Sánchez, Valentín Elizalde, and two of his children, Lupillo and Jenni Rivera.

Mr. Pedro had the idea of recording them with local bands by renting a studio. This is how Cintas Acuario was born in the late 1980s — a label that, without any formal facilities, gained a reputation thanks to its founder’s knack for promoting and marketing his artists’ music by distributing it to small shops in the area and in Tijuana, across the Mexican border.

“The first artist I recorded was Graciela Beltrán,” Rivera tells Billboard Español in an exclusive interview. “We charged between $40 and $45 per show, but we sold at least 100 cassettes. That’s where the profit was.”

With the ranchera and banda singer he launched in 1988, Rivera became very popular. That’s how he caught the attention of Chalino Sánchez, a singer and songwriter of custom-made corridos.

“Our first meeting was on Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park, at a housewares store owned by my friend Anthony Prajin. [His son] George [Prajin], who is now Peso Pluma’s manager, was just a child. They weren’t involved in music, but they sold records and cassettes. Chalino would bring them boxes of 100 and leave them on consignment, just like I did with Graciela’s,” he says.

The music executive shares these and other memories just days after the release of “Rigo Campos,” a collaboration between the late Chalino Sánchez and Los Tucanes de Tijuana, made possible through technology more than 30 years after Chalino’s murder. This song is the first in a series of posthumous collaborations from the so-called “King of Corridos” that Cintas Acuario expects to release in the coming months.

Rivera also shared plans to do the same with other legends, including Jenni Rivera and Valentín Elizalde. He talks more with Billboard about Cintas Acuario and its future plans below.

Why does Cintas Acuario own some of Chalino Sánchez’s songs?

Chalino was a free spirit. He wrote corridos on request and recorded others that he liked, but he wanted to become more well-known and promote his work. He was used to recording batches of 15 songs. I wanted to pair him with a band to accompany him, but since they had a saxophone, he didn’t like it. He said they sounded like Los Tigres del Norte, and he wanted something more authentic, so he did it his own way. I reimbursed him for the group he had hired and the studio costs, and he gave me the master of a set of songs. It’s mine because I purchased it. That’s how we made the deal. We really appreciated and respected each other. He was one of the most loyal men I’ve ever met — a man of his word.

How did Chalino Sánchez find success at Cintas Acuario?

At the beginning of his career, no one accepted him. The only place that let him sing was a restaurant called Los Guamuchileños, where a band played, and they gave him a chance. The first time I tried to promote him was with “Flor Margarita,” which I had written. I took it to Radio Express, and the programmer, Pablo Carrillo, told me he’d be fired if he played that because Chalino sang weird. His style was different, and that’s exactly what we should look for to make an artist stand out.

In your opinion, what made Chalino Sánchez such a legendary artist over time?

Chalino Sánchez is the only idol who will remain forever. He was a natural-born star. He never wanted to be a singer; he wrote corridos and sold them — but people started asking him to record them, and that’s how it happened. That’s why everything he did was in his own unique style. He started by selling boxes of 100 cassettes, and then it became thousands. We would create a cover for the cassettes, leave them in stores, and they would sell out because more and more people were listening. People played his music in their cars. That’s how the legend was born.

There was a dispute with Chalino’s widow over the rights to his music. Has that been resolved?

His wife tried to take the music that belongs to me. We have documents to prove ownership, and thanks to that, we went to a notary where Chalino’s signature was verified, and she had to accept that the material is mine. That’s why the release was delayed — the song “Rigo Campos” was supposed to come out a year ago. There was also the situation where Los Tucanes de Tijuana had the corrido tied to another company, but that was resolved, and everything came together for the release to happen now.

You could say that you’ve played a role in regional Mexican music history…

I’m the forefather of regional Mexican music in the 1990s, especially the “corridos de valientes” (brave or heroic corridos). I should mention that I was the only one to record a duet with Chalino while he was alive. It was called “Que Me Entierren Cantando.” I left my career as a singer, but God gave me the opportunity to discover other great stars like Lupillo Rivera, Valentín Elizalde and Jenni Rivera.

Do you have any anecdotes about those other stars?

With Valentín Elizalde, I had the same experience as with Chalino — many people didn’t like his style. [La Qué Buena] radio host Pepe Garza told me that Valentín couldn’t sing, so he didn’t accept him. I left very sad. Four or five months later, Pepe released a promo that said, “La Qué Buena, the home of Valentín Elizalde.” When Valentín passed away, he even wanted to make a series about him.

As for my children, I can say they earned everything through hard work. Lupillo was the sales manager at Cintas Acuario, while Jenni handled welcoming songwriters and registering songs for our publishing company. They were very dedicated to their work because they dreamed of becoming singers. Their first opportunities to perform were at a place called Lido’s in Long Beach [California]. That’s how they started performing in front of an audience, even if it was just 20 people.

Besides Chalino’s material, you have music from Jenni and Valentín’s too. Are there plans to do anything with it?

Yes. My son Juan Rivera is in charge of all these projects. He’s working on the next duets with the rest of Chalino’s songs — we want to feature top-tier artists. The same will happen with the music we have from Valentín Elizalde and, of course, Jenni’s material from Cintas Acuario.

At 82 years old and with so many achievements in your life, what motivates you to keep working?

Ever since I had to pay rent to support my children, I’ve been getting up at 2:30 a.m. to work. Cintas Acuario is still open for talents who want to make a name for themselves. For the past eight years, I’ve had Luis Ponce on my team, who is a great producer and excellent collaborator. We also have El Podcast de los Famosos, where we give advice to new talents who want to start their careers in music.