Biography
Serving as a chapel singer for Ferdinand V of Aragon in 1511 placed Gabriel Mena within that royal court. Evidence hints that he may have been the same individual as Texerana, whose court-musician affiliation reached back to 1500. His employment had moved by 1516 to Fadrique Enriquez, Admiral of Castile. Nineteen villancicos survive in a later anthology, at least two of them drawing on folk material. Observers of the period credited him with considerable talent and sensitivity both as poet and as musician.