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Lydia Mendoza
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Buy It Now!
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“Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography” chronicles the career of the famed Mexican-American singer and her family of musicians and vaudevillians, from the "jazz age" of the 1920s through the depths of the Great Depression, World War II and the booming postwar period.
Lydia Mendoza, one of the first Spanish-language vernacular singers and recording stars of the Southwest, is this century's most outstanding and renowned figure in Mexican-American music. In her long, groundbreaking career, Lydia Mendoza united the intimate, family song styles that were characteristic of northern Mexico at the turn of the century with the more polished and commercial performances that typify dance hall, theatrical and recording music from the 1930s to the present.
The story of Lydia Mendoza and her family is not the usual show-business rags-to-riches tale, but really the struggle of a Mexican family that fled the revolution at home to struggle for economic and cultural survival in the United States. They worked as field hands, traveled like gypsies, played and sang for pennies at the marketplace.
A child singer and musician, she was discovered by the first recording companies to capture songs and talents of the Mexican common folk and make them accessible to working-class people throughout the Spanish-speaking hemisphere. Lydia Mendoza became "La Cancionera de los Pobres" (The Songstress of the Poor) and "La Alondra de la Frontera" (the Meadowlark of the Border). This is her story and that of her family, as told over a period of ten years to a team of interviewers headed by Chris Strachwitz, one of the leading collectors and chroniclers of Mexican-American music. Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography is written in the conversational style of dictated narrative that is must reading for all of those interested in the history, music, ethnomusicology, theater, women's history and popular culture of Hispanic peoples. The text is illustrated with transcriptions of songs, vaudeville skits and historic photos, and it also includes an extensive, all-inclusive discography and notes.
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REVIEWS “‘The story of Lydia Mendoza is the story of constant struggle by an immigrant family who fled from revolution in their homeland, one of the world's poorer nations, to come to the promised land of `El Norte,' the world's wealthiest country.’So writes Chris Strachwitz in his introduction to this classic book, `The Mendoza Family Autobiography. This 409-page illustrated paperback not only chronicles the career of Mendoza, famed Mexican American singer from the 1920's through the '80s; it is also a rich source of Mexican American (or `Tex Mex') social history, discographical and vernacular music information. Strachwitz, proprietor of El Cerrito's world-famed Down Home Music shop, founder-owner of Arhoolie Records and a dozen subsidiary labels, and documentary film producer (with Les Blank) is joined in this publishing project by James Nicolopulos, a Ph.D. candidate at UC-Berkeley, who transcribed and translated hundreds of hours of taped interviews.
You may ask how and why did a German American get together with a Greek American and an Anglo Texan (Dan Dickeywho co-conducted many interviews) to document the struggles and culture of a musical Mexican American family?
Strachwitz has often been honored for his research and recording activities in vernacular music music of the people, musical `slang,' indigenous music. Traditional jazz, blues, folk, ethnic music fit comfortably into such a vernacular category.
The bulk of `Lydia Mendoza' is a wonderfully flowing narrative by Mendoza, her family and friends, tracing her singing career as well as that of the Mendoza family. Significant is the term `La Cancionera de los Pobres' (`Songstress of the Poor') given to Mendoza.
Known also as the `Meadowlark of the Border,' Mendoza recorded, from 1928 (on Okeh Records) to the '80s (Arhoolie, DLB Records) close to 1,000 titles, a bulk of them for RCA Victor's Bluebird Mexican Series label.
(Phil Elwood — San Francisco Examiner) |
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“From the early 1970s, when Chris Strachwitz of Arhoolie committed himself to issuing recordings of Mexican-American music from the Texas borderlands, he became aware of the profound regional respect for Lydia Mendoza. Her records had become popular not only in her home territory, but among Mexican-Americans throughout the U.S.A. and had achieved success in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. The special affection for Lydia Mendoza in the Spanish speaking community of Mexican descent in the United States was a primary catalyst for the compilation of this autobiography. Another, of course, was the high quality of her recorded and live performances.
The book is built around a series of interviews with Lydia, her brothers and sisters, and others associated with the family. Most of the autobiographical conversations took place in Spanish and have been carefully translated into English from tape recordings made at the time of the interviews. Important passages are presented in both Spanish and English. Special attention has been given to this endeavour, leads have been pursued and substantiating evidence for particular events located wherever possible. This labour of love has been over ten years in preparation. The translations are the work of the book's co-author, James Nicolopulos. The 11 chapters are arranged as a chronological documentary. The starting point is the life of the Mendoza family (Lydia's parents) in the eyes of their children. Their attempts to earn a living as segregated Mexican-Americans in the United States are described and how and when the family began entertaining compatriots with their music-making abilities. Eventually, this led to recording careers for the family, Lydia, and her sisters (details of which are in the accompanying discography). The family also took to the road, presenting vaudeville skits alongside their music, at cinemas and theatres across the states where Mexican-Americans settled in the U.S.A. Words to several of the skits and a number of songs made popular by Lydia are presented in Spanish and English. The profound influence of Lydia's mother, Leanor, on her children is established, and her role in sustaining the family vaudeville show is explored. A study in depth, there is much to reward the reader in this treatment. Chris Strachwitz draws a parallel with the Carter Family in the profound influence and respect received by the Mendozas throughout their long careers. There are, of course, other parallels: for example, African-American singers on the segregated black vaudeville circuit, and itinerant black songsters performing at street corners (the Mendozas earned money as buskers when they started performing). It is this spectrum of activity (and experience) that provides the mainstay and attention of the book. Tied to the history of Mexican-Americans in the U.S.A. (yet separated by particular achievement), this autobiography of Lydia Mendoza is an especially valuable documentary. It is diminished only by the lack of an index (a very bad omission for such an important work). Recommended to all with an interest in vernacular music in the Americas, and to those who think jazz, blues or country music are the only important vernacular traditions to have their origins in North America. Essential!” (John H. Cowley — Musical Traditions) |
The Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) gave the 1994 ARSC Award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research - in the Field of Recorded Folk or Ethnic Music to Chris Strachwitz and James Nicolopulos for the publication of “Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography.”
