Dioris Valladares was a Dominican musician born in 1912 in San Pedro de Macorís whose long career in merengue, tropical music, and bolero made him a respected figure in Dominican popular music across much of the twentieth century. San Pedro de Macorís, a cosmopolitan city shaped by waves of immigration and the rhythms of the sugar economy, was a fitting birthplace for a musician who would work across multiple styles and in multiple cultural contexts during his career.

Valladares performed and recorded during decades that saw merengue evolve from primarily regional folk music into the defining sound of Dominican national identity, and he was part of the generation that helped facilitate that transformation. His bolero work connected him to the broader Latin American romantic tradition, reflecting the close musical ties between the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Latin American world.

He passed away in 2001 at the age of eighty-eight, leaving a recording legacy that documents Dominican popular music across a remarkable span of the twentieth century.