The Queen Of Tejano Music (& Family)

Featuring Lydia Mendoza . Valentina . Ranchera . Mal Hombre . Tango Negro . Amor Bonito . Milena de Colombia . Songs Of The Homeland . Tejano Music

Oxford University Press : Mendoza’s prominence and stature as a Chicana idol stems from her sustained presence and perpetual visibility within a complex network of social and cultural relations in the twentieth century

NPR : Lydia learned her most famous song, “Mal hombre,” when her father took her to see a musical show at a theater. Lydia already had the text of the song in her collection of bubble gum wrappers, but she had finally heard the melody to go with the lyrics!

River’s Invitation : Lydia Mendoza (1916-2007) was the first female star in tejano music, a living Mexican-American legend on both sides of the border, with a life story that reads like a novel, full of carwrecks, alcooholic fathers and husbands, and segregation.

Froots : If the Alamo is San Antonio’s most famous attraction, then Lydia Mendoza is the city’s greatest star, a true living legend of Mexican American culture. My interest in Lydia was initially sparked by Les Blank’s film Chulas Fronteras (Beautiful Borders) which introduced my teenage self to the flavours of Tex-Mex music

SF Gate : In 1935, she married shoemaker Juan Alvarado and continued to perform in an era when wives usually gave up their careers. By 1940, Ms. Mendoza had recorded more than 200 songs in a wide variety of musical styles that included boleros, rancheras and cumbias.

Worship Guitars : “I never tried to emulate anyone. I always had my own style though I learned all about playing the guitar from my mother.” And surely if anything held the Mendoza troupe together it was Leonor Mendoza. Upon her death in the 1952 not only did the troupe fall apart completely but, without Leonor, the success of Las Hermanas Mendoza (Lydia’s sisters Juanita and Maria) was cut short by short sighted and jealous husbands.

Arhoolie Productions : `Mal Hombre,’ was the first of her solo recordings and became her theme song. It’s a mournful tune about a coldhearted man who loves a young girl and cruelly dumps her. As on most of the tracks, Mendoza sings sweetly to the sole accompaniment of her own twelve-string guitar.

Beautiful, Also, Are The Souls Of My Black Sisters : She performed at the inauguration of President Carter, and in 1999 received a National Medal of Arts, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field. At the White House medal ceremony, President Clinton praised her for bridging “the gap between generations and cultures.”