http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/24/AR2007122402109_pf.html
Mendoza was a pioneer. She had a dynamic, strong voice. Here's an excerpt from the W. Post obit --
Tejano Music Trailblazer Lydia Mendoza, 91
By Joe Holley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 25, 2007; B05
Lydia Mendoza, 91, a trailblazing Mexican American singer whose powerful and affecting performances earned her the title "the lark of the border," died Dec. 20 at Nix Medical Center in San Antonio. Her death was the result of injuries from a fall the day after Thanksgiving, a granddaughter said. She also had suffered a series of strokes over the years.
In a career that spanned almost 60 years, Ms. Mendoza recorded more than 800 songs on more than 50 albums and received a National Medal of Arts and a National Heritage Fellowship award. She also sang at Jimmy Carter's presidential inauguration.
"La alondra de la frontera" (the lark of the border) also was known to fans as "la cancionera de los pobres" (singer of the poor). Her music reflected the trials and daily toil, as well as the joys and hard-won happiness, that was the lot of poor and working-class Mexicans and Mexican Americans.
Women in particular responded to such perennial favorites as "Mal Hombre" ("Evil Man"), a tango she first recorded when she was 17.
"She was singing as a woman at a time when women of her color, class and race weren't singing," said Graciela S¿nchez of the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center in San Antonio.
"Every third or fourth woman of a certain age in South Texas was named Lydia, after Lydia Mendoza," said Pat Jasper, a Texas folklorist and guest curator at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. "She was an incredibly powerful figure."
Ms. Mendoza was born in Houston in 1916 to a musical family. Her mother, who sang traditional songs she had learned growing up in San Luis Potos¿, Mexico, taught her to play guitar, and Ms. Mendoza eventually would make the 12-string guitar her signature instrument.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 25 December 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)
nine months pass...
Wow, she lived to be a ripe old age. RIP.
I have two LPs of hers on Folklyric and they're both really spellbinding listens. I wish my Spanish was better.
― ian, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 23:43 (seventeen years ago)
I don't know how the CDs of her work are ordered now, but Folk Lyric made a good decision by putting her solo vocal/12-string cuts on one side and full-band (w/ her family) cuts on the other. I like that better than a mixture, or an LP of each.
― ian, Wednesday, 1 October 2008 23:45 (seventeen years ago)
two years pass...
two years pass...
There are Lydia Mendoza stamps now.
I just ordered a sheet.
Part of me is really into the idea of stamp collecting, but I will probably just use these to mail letters.
― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Tuesday, 18 June 2013 01:17 (twelve years ago)