Jose C. Alba, 83, a self-taught trumpet player and band leader whose mariachi group played during President Richard Nixon’s 1972 inaugural gala at the White House as well as at several birthday parties for Mayor Richard J. Daley, died of colon cancer on Sunday, April 28, in the Renaissance at Midway nursing home in Chicago.
Born and raised in the small farming town of Allende in central Mexico, Mr. Alba learned to play the trumpet as a teenager and performed popular ballroom dance songs with a 10-piece orchestra.
A proud, hard-working man, he also raised corn and beans on a family farm during summers and after the harvest, traveled north for six months to work in South Chicago steel foundries.
In 1956, Mr. Alba moved permanently to Chicago with his wife and seven children.
He worked as a laborer at Central Solvents & Chemical Co. and loaded 55-gallon drums onto trucks for more than 30 years. But on nights and weekends he followed his passion as a trumpet player, performing traditional Mexican folk music.
Mr. Alba was also the band leader of Mariachi Potosino, a group he and some fellow musicians formed in 1958 that was the first to play mariachi music in Chicago, said the band’s current director, Raul Aguirre.
Mariachi Potosino played the more prestigious Mexican-American events in the area and gained local and regional renown in the early 1960s when its recording of “Lloraras, Lloraras,” (“You Will Cry, You Will Cry”) a romantic song set to bolero music, became popular on the radio.
The group also performed several times on “Polka Party,” a polka version of “American Bandstand” shown on local television.
As his band gained popularity, Mr. Alba used his influence to raise money for his former hometown in Mexico. As a member of Club Durango, a group of Mexican nationals from the state of Durango who got together for fundraising, Mr. Alba helped raise money to pay for an ambulance, a high school and repairs to the local church in Allende.
He suffered a stroke in 1996 while on vacation in Allende and lost the use of his left side. His family cared for him for five years before moving him into a nursing care facility.
Mr. Alba is survived by his wife of 65 years, Virginia; two sons, Francisco and Amador; four daughters, Yolanda Santos, Cristina Cabrera, Virginia Lacerte and Esperanza Sandoval; 19 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday in Zarzycki Manor Chapels, 5088 S. Archer Ave., Chicago. Mass will be said at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at St. Turibius Catholic Church, 5646 S. Karlov Ave., Chicago.