Publisher's Synopsis
Lydia Mendoza began her long musical career as a child in the 1920s, singing for pennies and nickels on the streets on downtown San Antonio, Texas. She lived most of her adult life in Houston, Texas, where she was born. The life story of the legendary Lydia Mendoza encompasses a 60-year singing career including innumerable tours, recordings, best-selling hits, and national awards. Her performing career began with the advent of the recording industry in the 1920s and continued into the 1980s, ceasing afer she suffered a stroke which ended her performance career. Her legendary status as a Chicana working-class idol continues to this day. She is perhaps the most prominent and long-standing performer within the US-Mexican oral tradition of music. This is a bi-lingual edition: the first is the English translation, then the Spanish original. The editor concludes with an extended essay on the significance of Lydia Mendoza's career and her place in tejana music and chicana studies.
