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Félix Astol Artés

Spanish musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 14, 2024
Entity authorityQ5511569 ↗
Source-derived summary

Fèlix Astol i Artés (9 October 1813 – 21 January 1901) was a Spanish musician and composer from Catalonia best known for being the co-composer of "La Borinqueña", the national anthem of Puerto Rico.

Early life

Artés was born in Reus, in Catalonia, region of Spain on 9 October 1813, but he moved to Cuba in 1828 to evade military service. Forced to enlist, he joined the band of one of the battalions based in Havana.

Career

Once he graduated, he found employment doing tenor roles in an opera company that made its performances at the Teatro Tacón. He toured in Puerto Rico by 1840, then returned to Cuba, where he lived. Later he joined the opera company of Stefano Busatti, that finally led him to Puerto Rico in 1860. When the company disappeared he moved to Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. In Mayagüez he founded a new company of comedies: Compañía Dramática Astol (The Astol Drama Company).

Fèlix Astol, was author of several pieces of popular music, but his most famous work was the dance Bellísima trigueña (Gorgeous brunette), composed in 1867. Conceived as a love song, it has had several versions throughout Latin America.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Félix Astol Artés” is spanish musician. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Félix, Astol and Artés, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1813, 1901, 1828, 1840—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1813-10-09. For this dossier, Félix, Astol and Artés is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “spanish musician” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q5511569. VIAF identifies the subject as 6755007. The Library of Congress control number is n2002070179. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1813, 1901, 1828 and 1840.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Félix Astol Artés”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Félix Astol Artés primary sources, Félix Astol Artés archive and Félix research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Félix Astol Artés”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Félix Astol Artés” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.