The Cumbia Voice Who Ran Away at Fifteen

Leo Rey, the Chilean cumbia singer and former lead voice of the group La Noche, has spoken openly about a childhood that began without stability. He told Canal 13 that his mother was still a minor when she became pregnant, and that after about a year she could no longer support him and left him with his father. His father raised him on the move, shifting between neighbourhoods and cities and living in a small portable shack. He never went to school and taught himself to do things on his own, including reading.

He described a harsh home. He said his father beat him with rods and once chained his foot so that he could not go and play with other children. As a child he sold tokens for a table-football game, and he recalled that his father went barefoot and never bought him clothes.

He stayed in that home until about the age of 15. Another report of the same interview says 14. After a humiliating incident he told his father that he would not be hit again, and when his father turned to chase him, he ran, boarded a bus and never lived with him again.

After leaving he lived on the street for a long time, in his own words. The reports do not describe those years in detail. Eventually his mother found out where he was, asked for custody, and he went to live with her.

He went on to become one of the best-known voices in Chilean cumbia, fronting La Noche. The articles give few details about his career, but they present a singer who grew up without school, a stable home or a steady adult, and who found a place in music.