Orlando Contreras

Born Orlando González Soto in La Habana in 1930, Orlando Contreras was a renowned Cuban bolero singer. Contreras began his career in the early 1950s, singing in nightclubs and casinos with outfits such as the Arty Valdés Trio and the Neno González Orchestra, and later as a solo artist. While he was among the few established artists to stay after the Cuban Revolution, Contreras eventually emigrated clandestinely to the United States in 1965. In the early 1970s he settled in Medellín, Colombia, where he became a mainstay of the bolero circuit, toured Latin America and Spain, and...