{{Short description|Cuban-born Spanish entertainer (1885–1959)}} {{Infobox person | name = La Chelito | image = Consuelo Portela.jpeg | caption = Portela-Audet in the early 20th-century | other_names = Consuelo Portela-Audet,<br/> Consuelo Portela,<br/> La Bella Chelito | birth_name = Consuelo Portela Audet | birth_date = 1885 | birth_place = Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba | death_date = {{dda|1959|11|20|1885|df=y}} | death_place = Madrid, Spain | occupation = Cuplé singer, business person }}
'''Consuelo Portela Audet''' (1885–1959), commonly called '''La Bella Chelito''' and '''La Chelito''', was a Cuban-born Spanish cuplé singer from the early 20th-century, and a theater business owner.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Review: The Plan |url=https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/385477/ |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=Cineuropa|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Consuelo Portella Audet |url=https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/12105/consuelo-portella-audet |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=Real Academia de la Historia |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2006-05-05 |title=Consuelo Portella Audet |language=es |work=El País |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2006/05/06/cultura/1146866405_740215.html |access-date=2022-09-25 |issn=1134-6582}}</ref> She was a pioneer in the genre of picaresque cuplé.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 28, 1959 |title=LA CHELÍTO y su época |url=https://www.abc.es/archivo/periodicos/blanco-negro-19591128-14.html |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=Archivo ABC |location=Madrid, Spain |page=14 |language=es}}</ref>
== Biography == thumb|La Chelito She was born in Placetas, Las Villas, Cuba, to Spanish parents Antonia Audet and Isidro Portella.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2018-05-08 |title=Chelito, la bella cantante de cuplé que dio calabazas a un rey de España por el amor de un cubano |url=https://www.todocuba.org/chelito-la-bella-cantante-de-cuple-que-dio-calabazas-a-un-rey-de-espana-por-el-amor-de-un-cubano/ |access-date=2022-09-23 |website=Todo Cuba |language=es}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Her father was the captain of the Civil Guard in Cuba.<ref name=":0" /> She started singing at the age of 14, while living in Cuba and performed at the Payret, Molino Rojo and Alhambra theaters.<ref name=":1" /> She had critics including clergy, who labeled her as “libidinous satan” in the ''Diario de la Marina'', the Cuban newspaper.<ref name=":1" />
In 1910, her family returned to Spain.<ref name=":1" /> She performed mostly in the theaters in Barcelona and Madrid.<ref name=":1" /> In 1915, an erotic novel about the life of Chelito was written by Joaquín Belda in the work "La Coquito";<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Anastasio |first=Pepa |date=2016 |title=Erotismo feminista en España 1910-2015: Del dildo de la Chelito al posporno de De La Puríssima |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.14321/letrfeme.42.1.0037 |journal=Letras Femeninas |language=es |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=37–54 |doi=10.14321/letrfeme.42.1.0037 |issn=0277-4356|url-access=subscription }}</ref> which was later made into a 1977 film of the same name, released in Spain. Her only film appearance was in the silent film ''El Conde Maravillas'' (1927) by José Buchs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Aguilar |first=Carlos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LcLdDgAAQBAJ |title=Guía del Cine |date=2014-10-30 |publisher=Ediciones Cátedra |isbn=978-84-376-3332-9 |pages=1192 |language=es}}</ref>
After she retired from stage in 1928, she built and managed the Muñoz Seca Theater in Plaza del Carmen, Madrid in 1930.<ref name=":1" /> She also owned and managed the Salón Madrid; the Hall Encomienda, which became, after a reform, the Teatro Nuevo; and the Kursaal that she acquired in 1919 and renamed the Chanteclair.<ref name=":0" />
Other notable "Queens of cuplé" were La Fornarina and Raquel Meller.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fernández |first=Tomás |last2=Tamaro |first2=Elena |date=2004 |title=Biografia de La Bella Chelito |trans-title=Biography of La Bella Chelito |url=https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/b/bella_chelito.htm |access-date=2022-09-25 |website=En Biografías y Vidas, la enciclopedia biográfica en línea}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == {{Commons category|La Chelito}} * {{IMDb name|id=nm0691967|name=Consuelo Portela 'Chelito'}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Portela Audet, Consuelo}} Category:1885 births Category:1959 deaths Category:Singers from Madrid Category:20th-century Spanish women singers Category:Spanish silent film actresses Category:20th-century Spanish actresses Category:Cupletistas Category:Burials at Cementerio de la Almudena Category:People from Placetas Category:Spanish people in Spanish Cuba