Lydia Mendoza
May 1916–December 20, 2007
In the 1930s, San Antonio plazas thrummed with music. Among the few female performers were the Mendozas—Leonora and her daughters, including sixteen-year-old Lydia, who captivated listeners with her clarion voice and skillful accompaniment on the twelve-string guitar.
Lydia sometimes performed solo, singing folk and popular songs whose lyrics she’d often learned from gum wrappers. She attracted the attention of a local radio announcer, who offered her $3.50 a week to perform on air, a godsend for the struggling family.
Mendoza’s solo recording career began with Bluebird Records. Her first hit, "Mal Hombre," an indictment of machismo culture, became her signature song. She was a pioneer of Música Tejana, a rich hybrid of conjunto, rancheras, and other styles that captured the passions and heartaches of border life. No matter the song style, Mendoza once said, "When I sing that song, I live that song."
Mendoza went on to perform for large audiences throughout the United States, Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia. Her success opened doors for other Tejana singers. Nicknamed the "Lark of the Border," Mendoza recorded hundreds of songs and toured until a stroke ended her legendary career.
Mendoza was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame and awarded the National Medal of the Arts. In 1982, she became the first Texan awarded the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
For More about Lydia Mendoza
The Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, a collaboration of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, the Arhoolie Foundation, and the UCLA Digital Library, contains a detailed biography of Lydia Mendoza along with details and audio excerpts from each of her songs. Her music is available for purchase through Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Mendoza appears in Chulas Fronteras, a documentary about Tejano culture, by Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, 1976. She was also featured in a 2010 episode of NPR’s Morning Edition.
In 2019, Lydia Mendoza was honored with a Texas Historical Marker next to her gravesite. The unveiling, which was attended by Mendoza’s descendants and members of the public, is discussed in detail in this article in the San Antonio Report.
Selected Bibliography
Acosta, Teresa Palomo. "Mendoza, Lydia." Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed September 13, 2018.
Broyles-González, Yolanda. Lydia Mendoza's Life in Music/La Historia de Lydia Mendoza: Norteño Tejano Legacies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Mendoza, Lydia. Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography. Compiled by Chris Strachwitz and James Nicolopulos. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993.
Patoski, Joe Nick. "The Best of the Texas Century–Culture: Voice of the Century." Texas Monthly, December 1999.
"Texas Music Source." Texas Monthly, December 31, 1969.
Vargas, Deborah R. Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Villarreal, Mary Ann. Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015.
Spanish Translation
Download the Spanish translation of this Texas Originals script.
Portrait of Lydia Mendoza. Courtesy of the Rose Marine Theater and The Portal to Texas History.