Lydia Mendoza

After hearing her sing with her family, Manuel J. Cortez, a local radio announcer, invited her to sing on his 30-minute program, “La Voz Latina”. She won the program's amateur competition. Her radio debut made her so popular that Cortez appealed to her family to allow her to be a regular on the radio. He secured a commercial sponsor willing to pay her $3.50 a week for her radio performances, and her parents agreed.

A native of Houston, Lydia Mendoza earned many honors in her long singing career, during which she became known as "La Alondra de la Frontera" (the meadowlark of the border) and "La Cancionera de los Pobres" (the songstress of the poor). In 1971, she performed at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in Montreal, Canada; in 1975, she performed for President Jimmy Carter at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington. She was inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame in 1984 and into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 1991.

https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/lydia-mendoza

Creator: Center for Mexican American & Latino/a Studies

Area: Houston / East End