“Fumando espero” by Héctor Varela y su Orquesta Típica with Argentino Ledesma in vocals, 1955.

This musician was born in an industrial town in Manlleu, Catalonia (Spain).

He is the composer of “Fumando espero”, which premiered in 1923 and was published in Buenos Aires in the El Alma Que Canta magazine in 1928.

It is the first tango that unusually traveled from Europe to South America, but not the only one by the composer because in his vast output, several ones stood out.

He married a tobacco seller in his town (quite a premonition for the composer that would dedicate his most famous piece to cigarettes), and he settled in Barcelona, where he opened a Variety Academy.

He gathered a group of musicians, lyricists, and impresarios with whom an authentic industry was born.

So he wrote and co-wrote around thirty numbers.