About this artist
Los Indios Tabajaras was a guitar duo of two brothers, Antenor Lima and Natalicio Lima, from Ceará in the Northeast of Brazil.
Their beginnings are not clear, though most stories have them becoming accomplished guitar players after finding a guitar near Ceará, Brazil in spite of the improbability of the story. They found success in Rio de Janeiro, performing as Natalicio and Antenor Lima and dressing in ceremonial Indian costumes. Using classical guitars and playing transcriptions of classical violin and piano works, they were soon playing all over South America.
Probably as early as 1943, RCA's Latin American arm signed them to a recording contract. In the early 1950s, they took a break from performing and went back to study the guitar. After returning to the stage later that same decade, they took on the name "Los Indios Tabajaras" and released an album in the United States on an RCA-owned label Vox.
Throughout this period, they had a steady stream of releases on RCA in Mexico and one of these, a Mexican popular tune named "María Elena", became a steady seller, a success throughout Latin America and was finally released on a single in the U.S. in 1963.