The Mexican Nightingale's tragic final days in Mazatlán's yellow fever outbreak

Ángela Peralta, the celebrated soprano known as the 'Mexican Nightingale,' arrived in Mazatlán on 22 August 1883 to a grand welcome. The city had prepared a royal reception, complete with a band playing the national anthem and a carriage ride to her hotel. Yet within days, tragedy struck as yellow fever swept through her party and the city itself.

The disease was already spreading in Mazatlán when Peralta arrived. It had reached the port aboard two ships, the San Juan and the San Blas, which carried infected passengers from Panama. Heavy rains had left stagnant water across the city, creating perfect breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

On 24 August, during the first rehearsal, Peralta's musical director, Pedro Chávez Aparicio, fell ill. She took over direction herself, unaware of the danger. By the weekend, she began showing symptoms. By Monday, 27 August, she was confined to her room at the Hotel Iturbide.

Despite her worsening condition, Peralta married her lawyer and manager, Julián Montiel y Duarte, in her hotel room on 30 August. That same day, she died at the age of 38. Of the 38 people who had travelled with her, 34 became ill, and at least 14 died in the outbreak.

Peralta's body was later moved to the Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres in Mexico City in 1937. In Mazatlán, the Teatro Rubio was renamed in her honour. Her death marked the end of a brilliant opera career and a life cut short by an epidemic that devastated her entourage.