that he would let her sing the following week and promised to hire a mariachi from the Tenampa bar to perform with her. On the day of her debut, wearing a traditional Mexican blouse and skirt her mother had made for her, she sang three popular songs, "La canción mexicana", "Yo también soy mexicana", and "El herradero". Her performance was a great success and she received an ovation from the audience. Her next performance at the Teatro del Pueblo was in the play La soldadera, directed by López Santillán, in which she played a girl who comes out of a railway wagon and sings "La soldadera", a song written for her by José de Jesús Morales. The play was also broadcast by Mexico's national radio station, XEFO, and "La soldadera" became the first song she performed on radio. The title of the song, which is Spanish for "the female soldier", also became her first stage name until it was claimed by another singer. Arturo Blancas, an Excélsior journalist and XEFO announcer, thought she looked more "like a flower" than a soldier and suggested she change her stage name to La Amapola, which means "the poppy". However, this stage name was also claimed by another woman, the sister of singer La Panchita. Blancas then chose the title of Dolores del Río's 1943 drama film as the young singer's new stage name, and Guillermina Jiménez became Flor Silvestre, which means "wild flower". Under her new stage name, Flor Silvestre won first place in an amateur contest sponsored by Mexico's most popular radio station, XEW, known as "the voice of Latin America from Mexico". Her participation in the contest earned her a contract to sing in revues at the Teatro Colonial, located on San Juan de Letrán Avenue (now Eje Central). The Teatro Colonial was "Mexico's most popular [theater]" in the 1940s, and Flor Silvestre's performances there were noticed by a showman who hired her as part of his touring company. The showman and his company toured Torreón, in northern Mexico, where Flor Silvestre was the opening act of the touring company's headliner, the famous Argentine tango singer Hugo del Carril. Flor Silvestre's family was experiencing financial problems at the time, and she sang at banquets and other places in order to win more money and help her parents. In December 1945, Flor Silvestre performed at Guadalajara's Coliseo Olímpico and was announced as