Ah yes, .. Another gem from the vaults of MJCMAG Impresario Mario Buddha's 78 RPM collection of rare Mamaroso recordings.
"Mi Florita" was recorded by the Don Juan Cotijo Orchestra in 1949. Don Juan Cotijo, (born Ira Greenberg in 1910), was raised in New York City, and studied piano and violin as a youth. Later on he also studied musical theory and arranging privately. By 1930 he was working as a musician, vocalist, and arranger with various society bands in New York City.
His big break came when Paul Whiteman hired him in 1934, and he recorded with the Whiteman Orchestra, which primarily featured his vocals. The chance to also feature his violin playing and arranging talents, led him to join the orchestra of Xavier Cugat in 1937.
In 1939 he formed his first orchestra performing in various ballrooms and theaters in the Tri-State area. A change in musical fashion, along with the outbreak of World War Two, caused him to disband his orchestra in 1942. The same year he joined the Spike Jones Orchestra as pianist and arranger.
He reformed his own band in 1945 and played at various resorts primarily in the Catskills, until 1951. He then became a booking agent for various musical acts.
A 1966 vacation to Oaxaca Mexico exposed him to the culture of the indigenous peoples, and by 1971 he retired to New Mexico where he married a Navajo woman twenty years his junior. His final years were marked by musical involvement with the accordion and wood flutes, as well as partaking in peyote rituals. He died in 1993.