coldhearted scientist وداد

[Lydia Mendoza. Folk Roots/Arhoolie Foundation.]

Every once in a while, you need mariachis, but I could not find a video that was not just too campy. So I started looking at conjunto music, and finally decided to introduce the amazing tejana singer Lydia Mendoza.

NPR’s brilliant Lydia Mendoza page page allows us to hear her signature song Mal hombre in its entirety. There is oral history here and a lot more, including a recipe for chiles rellenos.

We can read all about Mendoza in this 1993 book, by the reliable James Nicolopoulos and Chris Strachwitz. There is also a new book by Yolanda Broyles-González.

We can listen right here to a few tracks from the album of hers I bought in Austin. We can hear samples of her 2001 album, La alondra de la frontera. Chulas fronteras, one of my favorite films, features Lydia Mendoza. And UC Berkeley is streaming clips from that film at us right now.

A lyric: “Mujer que asesina / con una mirada / mirada que clavas / como puñalada / Los ojos que tienes / yo te los quitara / porque no te caben / en tu linda cara. / Ojos de tragedia, pedazos de noche / de brillo tan negro como el pedernal / que rasgan el alma, y la hacen pedazos / tienen tus ojazos el filo del mal.” In her picture, you can see her eyes, which give an idea of what the lyric means.

Axé.