The Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T has of­fered its con­do­lences to the wife, fam­i­ly and mem­bers of the band Los Reyes (pre­vi­ous­ly Los Mucha­chos del Agua), fol­low­ing the pass­ing of parang leg­end Hen­ry Pereira.

Pereira died on Sep­tem­ber 25 fol­low­ing a long ill­ness. He was 76.

He was buried on Sep­tem­ber 29 fol­low­ing a ser­vice held at the St An­tho­ny’s RC Church in Tabaquite.

Ac­cord­ing to the Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T, Pereira was fond­ly known as the Span­ish teacher from Tabaquite.

He start­ed his teach­ing ca­reer at Rio Claro Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School and lat­er taught at the on­ly sec­ondary school in the area, Tabaquite Com­pos­ite.

As a par­ran­dero, he was a gui­tarist and lead singer of both Los Mucha­chos del Agua and Los Reyes. His parang ca­reer be­gan with Los Mucha­chos del Agua in 1973, when he start­ed as a gui­tarist for the band. But his voice took promi­nence when on one oc­ca­sion, the orig­i­nal lead singer did not show up and he was asked to do the so­lo. His per­for­mance won him the prize for Best Lead Singer.

Pereira went on to win this ti­tle nu­mer­ous times and has record­ed well-known parang songs such as Par­ran­da Fi­na, En El Cora­zon del Hom­bre, An­damos Bus­can­do, So­ca Sereno and Can­ta Noel. He was al­so one of the coun­try’s top com­posers of parang mu­sic, a skill which he passed on to many young par­ran­deros.

Na­tion­al Parang As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Ali­cia Jag­gasar ex­pressed sad­ness at his pass­ing.

“Mr Pereira will be missed. Many parang bands play his mu­sic and his con­tri­bu­tion to the art­form would live in the hearts of all par­ran­deros and parang lovers for­ev­er,” Jag­gasar said.