Original of Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Manuel M. Ponce was born in 1882 and only a few weeks before his family moved to the city of Aguascalientes and lived there until he was 15 years old.

He was famous for being a "musical phenomenon"; according to his biographers, it had not turned four years of age when, after having listened to the piano classes received by his sister Josefina, he sat in front of the instrument and without more introductions he interpreted one of the pieces that he had heard. Immediately their parents had him receive classes in piano and musical notation.

In 1901 Ponce entered the National Conservatory of Music, already with a certain prestige as a pianist and composer. There he remained until 1903, the year in which he returned to the city of Aguascalientes. This was only the beginning of his peregrination. In 1904 he marched to Italy for a superior study of music in the School of Bologna.

He continued studying in Germany between 1906 and 1908 and returned to Mexico to become a teacher for piano and the one for history of music. In 1912 he composed his work "Estrellita" (little star), which is not a normal love song, as is usually thought, but "Nostalgia Viva" (live nostalgia).

That same year, Ponce gave in the "Arbeau Theater" the memorable concert of Mexican Popular music that, although he scandalized by the ardent defenders of the European, came to constitute a fundamental landmark in the history of the national song. With this valuable activity of promotion of the music of the country and with melodías like "Estrellita", "A la orilla de un palmar", "Alevántate", "La Pajarera", "Marchita el Alma" and "Una Multitud Más", Ponce gained the honorable title of "Creator of the Modern Mexican Song . He was also the first Mexican composer of popular music that projected its music to the foreigner: "Estrellita", for example, has been part of the repertoire of the main orchestras of the world and countless singers, although quite often the interpreter ignores the origin of the song as well as the name of the author.

Before he died he received the "National Arts and Sience Prize" in 1948, the year of his death.

His body was buried in the Roundhouse of the Illustrious Men in the Pantheon of Dolores in the Capital City. In his honor is a board of recognition in the later part of the column of the Exedra, next to the source dedicated to this musical poet.