{"id":706,"date":"2023-02-27T05:02:58","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T10:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-spring-2023\/?p=706"},"modified":"2023-05-07T07:37:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T12:37:41","slug":"lydia-mendoza-the-queen-of-tejano-music-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-spring-2023\/2023\/02\/27\/lydia-mendoza-the-queen-of-tejano-music-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Lydia Mendoza – The “Mother of Tejano Music”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Lydia Mendoza, 1948 (age 32)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Childhood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lydia Mendoza was born in Houston, Texas in 1916. Originally from Mexico, Mendoza’s parents fled because of the political distress caused by the Mexican Revolution. She grew up poor; her parents barely made enough to feed the family. During the early 1900s, tensions between Mexicans and Texans were high. This made it difficult for Mendoza’s father to find a job in Texas, so he found a job that allowed him to work on both sides of the border. The family also started making regular trips across the border with Mendoza\u2019s father after he took a job as a mechanic with the railroad that linked Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico with Laredo, Texas. He crisscrossed the border for his job and his family often tagged along. On one of those border crossings in 1920, when Mendoza was four years old, immigration agents washed the girl\u2019s hair with gasoline to exterminate potential lice. Unfortunately, this was not an unusual occurrence considering the racial tensions at the time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Branching Into Music<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a young age, Lydia was taught to play many instruments, including guitar, mandolin, violin, and singing, by her mother and grandmother. Her grandmother had formal musical training. During her childhood, Lydia joined her family band in performing songs and variety shows for the Tejano community. At 12 years old, her family responded to an OKeh Records Company<\/strong> advertisement seeking Spanish-language recording artists placed in La Prensa, the Spanish-language newspaper in San Antonio. After successfully auditioning, the family recorded twenty songs under the professional name Cuarteto Carta Blanca and earned $140. However, they soon left San Antonio to seek work in the sugar beet fields in Detroit, Michigan. At 16, she learned how to play the guitarra doble, the 12-stringed guitar (popular in Tejano music). Hers was not a standard 12-string, however. At her request, her father rearranged the strings so that the top four pairs were in alternating notes rather than in pairs of the same notes. This personalization of the instrument created a distinctive sound.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Fame and Popularity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lydia started gaining fame after joining her family band and performing at Tejano business establishments, on the streets, and at the Plaza del Zacate. When Lydia was a teenager, Manuel J. Cortez, a Tejano broadcaster, heard her sing at the plaza and offered her a guest appearance on his radio show, Voz Latina. The audience\u2019s quick and positive response to her talent led Cortez to invite Mendoza to appear regularly on his show for $3.50 a week. A few years later in 1934, Lydia recorded four songs at a Bluebird Records<\/strong> audition in San Antonio. Of the songs that she recorded, “Mal Hombre” (“Evil Man”) rose to fame and quickly boosted her presence and popularity in the Tejano community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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OKeh Records and Bluebird Records<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Both OKeh Records <\/strong>and Bluebird Records<\/strong> played important roles in Texan music during the 1920s and 1930s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OKeh Records<\/strong> provided music for audiences neglected by other, larger record companies. Otto Karl Erich Heinemann, the founder of OKeh Records and a German immigrant, wanted to provide other immigrant audiences with music they could understand and enjoy. OKeh produced records in German, Czech, Polish, Swedish, and\u00a0Yiddish. Many immigrant communities in Texas spoke these languages, and OKeh Records became a staple in immigrant homes. Some popular Texan artists that recorded with OKeh Records include Gene Autry and Blind Lemon Jefferson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bluebird Records<\/strong>, on the other hand, provided low-cost records that featured blues and country music. Low-costs made Bluebird Records’ more accessible for low-income communities, which often were immigrant communities. As previously mentioned, these communities were abundant in Texas. Additionally, blues and country music were two genres that Texas was known for. Some popular Texan artists that recorded with Bluebird Records include Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, both OKeh and Bluebird Records are owned by Sony.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Influences from Texan and Mexican Music<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Genres<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lydia usually sang in the style of Tejano, a Mexican-American genre of music create by Mexicans who crossed the border into Texas and adopted some Texan sounds and styles. Occasionally, she would perform conjunto<\/em>, a term meaning “together” that represented multiple artists performing a piece with each other.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Instruments<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned before, Lydia was well-versed in multiple instruments. Most notably was the guitarra doble<\/em>, or the 12-stringed guitar. Since most of her works were solo, she used solely her voice and her skill on the guitar to create most of her songs. On conjunto <\/em>songs, trumpets, accordian, maracas\/shakers, and violin\/fiddle can be heard being played by other artists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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El Grito<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some of her songs, Lydia utilized a staple Mexican sound, el grito<\/em>. El grito is a distinctive yell or shout perfected by Mexican mariachi bands that sounds like a cross between a laugh and a cry. It can be the ultimate expression that someone is having a good time. Historically, el grito represents celebrates the heroes of the Mexican independence movement against Spain. Some examples of el grito<\/em> can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Close Harmony<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another common staple of Mexican music is the use of close harmony. A chord is in close harmony if its notes are arranged within a narrow range, usually with no more than an octave between the top and bottom notes.\u00a0An example of close harmony singing can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Impact on Mexican-American Community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Lydia’s most important impacts was that she sang in the vernacular. Vernacular music\u00a0is ordinary, everyday music such as\u00a0pop\u00a0and\u00a0folk music. The opposite of vernacular music is art music, which is more like what you would think of when you think of concert music performed by orchestras, bands, and choirs. By singing in the vernacular, Lydia made her music accessible to thousands of listeners, particularly the lower-income Mexican-American listeners that could not access art music due to their socioeconomic status. She became the genre\u2019s first female superstar at a time when the business of vernacular music was still in its infancy, and dominated by men. For decades she served as a role model and inspiration for other female artists. Some additional notable recognitions are noted below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Recognitions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1977 – Sang at President Jimmy Carter’s inauguration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1982 – Awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Heritage Fellowship<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1982 – Inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1985 – Inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1999 – Awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2002 – Inducted into the Tejano R.O.O.T.S. Hall of Fame and Museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2003 – Awarded the Texas Medal of Arts by the Texas Cultural Trust<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Top Three “Peak” Songs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mal Hombre (Evil Man)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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