José Mojica

Fray José de Guadalupe Mojica (14 September 1895 – 20 September 1974) was a Mexican Franciscan friar and former tenor and film actor. He was known in the music and film fields as José Mojica.

Mojica joined the world of the American film industry before entering religious life. Together with Dolores del Río, Tito Guízar, Ramón Novarro and Lupe Vélez, he was among the few Mexican people who made history in the early years of Hollywood. Regarding his activity as a friar, singer and actor, he felt that religion and art have never been at conflict. If God gave me the grace of voice and singing skills, I use them for His glory, he explained. This experience led him to find his true calling. He began taking private voice lessons while studying at the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico.

While in Chicago he landed secondary roles, with his career slowly gaining momentum in 1921 when playing leading parts in Debussy´s Pelléas et Mélisande and Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, the former alongside renowned soprano Mary Garden. Prokofiev attended Mojica's rehearsals where Mojica performed his first performance on 30 December, singing in French. and the Victor Talking Machine Company.

By the time Mojica recorded for Edison in 1925, he had become an important figure at the Chicago Opera, moving into principal roles. He left Edison and joined the Victor roster in 1927 and made several successful early sound films. He moved comfortably during the 1930s through the worlds of opera, film, and concerts, but left this milieu in 1943 to become a priest. Like Edison, Mojica would eventually become completely deaf.

His popular musical recordings show an attractive lyrical voice being used with skill and imagination in songs such as Júrame, composed for Mojica by María Grever, released by Victor in 1927. The song became an instant success and has been recorded by countless singers over the years.

Hollywood career Opera work aside, Mojica found time to pursue an acting career in Hollywood. To this end, he began to court film Directors, one of whom was King Vidor. When Vidor learned that Mojica wanted to build a hacienda with a music salon in which to 'showcase his talent', he introduced Mojica to the architect John Byers who had recently finished designing Vidor's home. Mojica told everyone he was building his mother a "replica of the hacienda her family had lost during secularization." That so irritated Byers that he removed the hacienda from the list of homes he'd designed.

The Hacienda Mojica in Santa Monica Canyon where he later lived with his mother, Dona Virginia, was in an idyllic setting on Santa Monica Creek with neighbors Leo Carrillo and Dolores del Río as well as the remnants of the original Mexican Land Grant family. This home not only served as Mojica's "showcase" but through his constant entertaining it quickly became the center of Hollywood's Latino actors community. "Mojica's Rancho on Santa Monica Creek was a place where we could relax and be ourselves, away from Hollywood's expectations of players under contracts."

This home provided him with 'a stage' in which to perform and garner attention from the nearby Studios. Mojica signed a contract with Fox Film Corporation in 1930, making his debut the same year as a Spanish outlaw in the romantic musical One Mad Kiss (1930), co-starring Argentine actress Mona Maris. He co-starred with her in other films, and often alongside Spanish actresses Conchita Montenegro and Rosita Moreno. By finding himself in leading roles through his acting career, he was able to adapt to varied roles which included Latin lovers, a Russian cossack, Sultan of a harem, and an impersonation of Dick Turpin. For the rest of the decade, he also filmed in Argentine, Mexico, Peru and Spain.

A short time before his retirement, Mojica originally performed the song Solamente una vez, written by Agustín Lara, in the 1941 film Melodías de América. This song was known later as You Belong to My Heart, with English lyrics written by Ray Gilbert, and has been recorded by many other artists, including Andrea Bocelli, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Charlie Haden and Elvis Presley.

Antigua Villa Santa Monica Antigua Villa Santa Monica is located at San Miguel de Allende, a city and municipality in the state of Guanajuato in North-Central Mexico. This estate was built in the 17th century with Spanish mining wealth when the nearby mountains were rich with silver. Abandoned at the time of the Mexican Revolution, the villa sat in ruins for years; Mojica acquired it in 1933 and rebuilt it for his mother, whose health was declining. Mojica envisioned an artistic enclave for San Miguel. Guests from the artistic community included María Félix, Dolores del Río, Pedro Armendáriz, Gary Cooper, John Ford, John Huston, Pedro Infante, Agustín Lara, Jorge Negrete, Pedro Vargas and John Wayne to this villa. Today, some trees on the property retain the nameplates of the celebrities who planted them. The Antigua Villa Santa Monica was converted into a hotel in the mid-1940s after the death of Mojica's mother.

The death of his mother in 1942 led him to reconsider his life. Two years later, he gave up his professional career and joined the Franciscan Order in Peru, distributing his estate mainly to the religious order. But first he endowed an orphanage in San Miguel.

Religious life After retiring from acting, Mojica periodically performed to support charitable causes.

In Lima, Fray Mojica founded a school to train priests. He later began directing amateur plays and later became a painter to continue his artistic legacy.

Death Mojica eventually lost his hearing entirely and became deaf. After suffering for years from acute hepatitis, he died in 1974 of heart failure at the Monastery of San Francisco in Lima, six days after his 79th birthday.

Notable recordings Date Title Composer Label 1924 Al pie de tu ventana Traditional serenade Edison 80794 1924 Eres tú Alfonso Esparza Oteo Edison 80792 1924 Golondrina mensajera Alfonso Esparza Oteo Edison 80792 1924 Princesita José Padilla Edison 80794 1925 El Nopal Mario Talavera Edison 60047-L 1925 Lejos de ti Manuel M. Ponce Edison 60049-L 1925 Marchita el alma Manuel M. Ponce Edison 82344-L 1926 Una furtiva lagrima (L'elisir d'amore) Gaetano Donizetti Edison 82344-A 1926 Gratia plena Mario Talavera/Amado Nervo Edison 76018-L 1926 Lolita Arturo Buzzi-Peccia Edison 82344-L 1927 Pais azul Jorge del Moral Victor 40020 1927 Pasas por el abismo Jorge del Moral/Amado Nervo Victor 40021 1927 Júrame María Grever Victor 40023 1927 Gratia plena Mario Talavera/Amado Nervo Victor 40026 1928 Salve, dimora Charles Gounod Victor 42962 1928 Czar Berendey's cavatine Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Victor 42963 1930 Oh! Where are you? José Mojica/Troy Sanders Victor 58579 1930 One mad kiss José Mojica/Troy Sanders Victor 58658 1930 Behind the mask James F. Hanley/Joseph McCarthy Victor 58659 1930 Lament José Mojica/Dudley Nichols Victor 58662 1930 ¿En dónde estás? José Mojica/Troy Sanders Victor 62644 1930 Un beso loco José Mojica/Troy Sanders Victor 62645

Filmography Year Title Country Genre Role Refs 1930 One Mad Kiss United States Musical/Romance José Salvedra 1930 Cuando el amor ríe United States Drama/Romance Emilio Rodríguez de Viana 1931 Hay que casar al príncipe United States Comedy/Romance Prince Alexis 1931 La ley del harem United States Musical/Romance Prince Al-Hadi 1931 Mi último amor United States Comedy Fernando Urrutia 1932 El caballero de la noche United States Adventure Dick Turpin 1933 El rey de los gitanos United States Musical/Romance Karol 1933 Melodía prohibida United States Drama Kalu 1934 La cruz y la espada United States Drama Hermano Francisco 1934 Un capitan de Cosacos United States Drama Sergio Danikoff 1934 Las fronteras del amor United States Comedy/Musical/Romance Miguel Segovia 1939 The Adventurous Captain United States Adventure/Musical/Romance don Gil de Alcalá 1940 The Miracle Song Mexico Musical/Drama/Family Ramón 1941 Melodies of America Argentina Comedy/Musical as himself 1953 El pórtico de la gloria Spain Melodrama/Religion as himself 1959 Yo pecador Mexico Drama/Musical/Religion as himself 1966 Seguiré tus pasos Mexico/Peru Family/Drama/Religion as himself