He spent much of his life in the Mexican gulf coast state and city of Veracruz. He studied piano in his youth developing his improvisational skills. He began to compose songs in the late 1920´s, and worked with many popular singers of this time. His music was influenced by the popular dances and jazz of the 1930s through the early ´40s. Lara composed hundreds of songs, and many of these have been heard in Mexican and American films of the period. A Monterrey radio station still broadcasts his recordings in an hour program every night. The City of Veracruz has immortalized him with a memorial statue. (Our photo at right).