May 31
Today is the birthday of Lydia Mendoza. She would be 110 today.
Lydia Mendoza was born in Houston, Texas on May 31, 1916, into a family that performed on the streets of the Texas-Mexico border towns. Her mother played guitar. Her sisters sang. Lydia taught herself 12-string guitar and sang with a voice that was already fully formed before anyone outside the barrio heard it. In 1934, she recorded “Mal Hombre” for Bluebird Records in San Antonio. She was paid $3.24 for the session. The record became one of the biggest hits in the Spanish-language market and made her a star overnight.
The First Superstar of Tejano
Mendoza performed for migrant farmworkers in tent shows and for Mexican-American communities across the Southwest at a time when no major record label took that audience seriously. She recorded over 200 albums across her career. President Jimmy Carter invited her to perform at his inauguration in 1977. President Bill Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 1999. She died December 20, 2007, in San Antonio, having never entirely left the world she grew up in. The 12-string guitar and the voice were all she ever needed. Learn more at the Texas State Historical Association.