Charlie Mosquea is a Dominican composer and singer-songwriter, the author of songs that Olga Lara, Sergio Vargas, Alex Bueno, Fernando Villalona, and Yoskar Sarante, among many others, took to the charts, including «Cualquiera se Engaña», «Quiéreme», «Pueblo Mío», «Perdido», and «Dile».

Origins

Mosquea was born on 14 April 1963 in the Nagua area and grew up in El Cedro de Miches, where there was little music beyond the Seventh-day Adventist church in which he sang and learned his first guitar chords. At fourteen his family moved to Sabana de la Mar. There he bought his own guitar with the money from selling ice cream and began singing serenades and performing at cultural events. His first song, «El Pequeño Soñador», dates from those years and was recorded in the 1980s by Los Paymasi.

After his father's death he left for Santo Domingo around 1981 with no fixed plan, working odd jobs at the market and playing guitar in the restaurants of the Malecón, where he met the nueva trova singer Víctor Suárez.

«Cualquiera se Engaña»

A newspaper article by the journalist Carlos Santana about the young songwriter reached Benjamín Burgos, then head of public relations at CBS, who arranged for him to meet the label's singer Olga Lara. Asked to bring her a song the next morning, Mosquea wrote «Cualquiera se Engaña» overnight, in a moderate style unusual for Dominican ballads of the time. Olga Lara recorded it in the mid-1980s, with Manuel Tejada among the arrangers who would later shape many of his songs, and it remains the piece for which he is best known.

It led to commissions from other singers. Discogs credits him on records by Rasputín («Mujer»), Jerry Legrand, Fausto Rey, and Los Paymasi in 1986 and 1987, and on «Adolescente Corazón» and «Déjame Enamorarte», on Vicente Pacheco's album «Tus 20 Años» (1988).

New York and the great voices

In 1989 Mosquea moved to New York. There he met Manolo Galván, who recorded «Hasta Otra Vez», and wrote «Quiéreme» for Alex Bueno in 1992; Bueno also recorded «Amores que Matan» and «Pasa Cantando». «La Tortolita» became known in the version of Víctor Waill.

For Fernando Villalona he wrote «Pueblo Mío», conceived in the park of Miches and later adopted as a song of emigrants, together with «Déjate Querer» and «Muchachita Mía». For Sergio Vargas he wrote «Lucerito» and «Dile», the latter recorded in 1999 on the album «A Tiempo». «Perdido», recorded by Yoskar Sarante, he wrote with Guillermo López. His songs were also taken up by Eddy Herrera, Antony Santos, Joe Veras («Te Quiero de Veras»), Ravel, Tito Nieves, and Sophy, among others.

As a performer

As a singer he recorded «Bohemio» (Camino Records, 1996) and «Vuelo 103» (1999), and appeared regularly as a guitarist and singer at showcases of authors' songs. He has said that he is a singer who had better luck as a composer, and that his own albums lay for years in the offices of record labels while his songs were recorded by others.

Recognition and recent work

In February 1998 Acroarte nominated him for the Casandra award for composer of the year. In April 2026 SGACEDOM presented him with a plaque during the «Crónicas Musicales» gathering at the Teatro Nacional, where he reviewed his career. That year he announced «El Realengo», a new song with Sergio Vargas, and wrote «IA», sung by Dalvin la Melodía, which circulated widely on social networks.