Los Ahijados — The Godchildren — is the Dominican duo of brothers Cuco Valoy and Martín Valoy, formed in 1958, whose son montuno recordings from the late 1950s made them one of the country’s best-known acts outside merengue.

Serenades to son montuno

The brothers began with serenades and boleros. By 1958, Cuco Valoy and his brother were already performing son montuno inspired by Cuba’s Los Compadres. Lead vocals and second guitar belonged to Cuco Valoy; lead guitar and tres belonged to Martín Valoy, who also sang harmony. Their repertoire included «Qué será de mí», written by Bienvenido Fabián.

The name emerged during an appearance on «Buscando Estrellas», the amateur programme on La Voz Dominicana. The first single was financed with a relative’s help and recorded in a small HIZ studio; Atala Blandino helped arrange the pressing. By July 1958 the press was already describing the duo through its recordings.

On «Kubaney»

Recording mostly for the Kubaney label, they built a catalogue through the sixties and seventies: «El enterrador» (1965), «Vuelven... Los Ahijados», «Virgen de la Cueva» (1973), «Ay, mi cien pesos!» and «Sigue afincando» (1974), «La resaca» (1975), «De nuevo Los Ahijados» (1976) and «Baílalo y gózalo...!! Vol. 4» (1978). Songs such as «Timoteo», «El lunar», «El hombre misterioso», «El paso de la jaiba», «Vaivén» and «Corazón de acero», the last written by Cuco Valoy, kept returning in later compilations.

The «Los Virtuosos» years

In 1975 Cuco Valoy set the duo aside to found «Los Virtuosos», later «La Tribu», the orchestra where his son Ramón Orlando came up as arranger and Martín Valoy played bass. Martín used the pause to release his only solo album, «Hagan coro señores, llegó el Ahijado» (1981), before the brothers returned as Los Ahijados: «Vuelven Los Ahijados» (1983), the compilations «Los mejores discos» (1985) and «20 éxitos de Los Ahijados» (1988), and, in 1994 and 1995, «Nostalgia Caribeña», «Cachao vs. Los Ahijados» and «Tus ojos indios/Mariposa nocturna».

«De nuevo al son»

The brothers came together once more for «De nuevo al son» (1997), a studio album on which both Cuco Valoy and Martín Valoy are credited as lead vocalists.

Legacy

Los Ahijados carried the Cuban son montuno into Dominican popular music at a time when merengue dominated the radio, and their records stayed in circulation through four decades of Dominican family listening, from the original Kubaney pressings to the reissue compilations of the 1980s and 1990s.