Friday, March 18, 2005
REMEMBERING THE FATHER OF CHICANO MUSIC: Lalo Guerrero, 88, dies
Born in Tucson, his prolific career was world-renown
Muchas gracias, Lalo
DANIEL BUCKLEY
Tucson Citizen
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The Tucson-born "Father of Chicano Music" - Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero - died yesterday in Palm Springs at an assisted living facility where he has been for several months. Mr. Guerrero was 88.
President Clinton conferred on Mr. Guerrero the Medal of the Arts in 1997 as part of a group that included Lionel Hampton, Robert Redford, Stephen Sondheim and Edward Albee. Mr. Guerrero was also a National Heritage Fellowship winner in 1991 and was named a "National Folk Treasure" by the Smithsonian Institute in 1980. In 1991 he received a National Heritage Award from the National Foundation for the Arts.
Known in Mexico for the song "Nunca Jamas" (1956) - made famous by the Trio Los Panchos and later covered by Xavier Solis and Jose Feliciano, Mr. Guerrero also composed Mexico's unofficial national anthem, "Canción Mexicana," made famous by Lucha Reyes while still a teen in Tucson. Mr. Guerrero wrote and recorded literally hundreds of songs for the Vocalion (1937), Imperial (1946), RCA Victor (1953) and EMI Capitol (1962) labels, as well as his own Colonial label (1957-72).
His records sold millions of copies. In the 1950s and '60s, his music was a dominant force on the Latin record charts in the United States and the airwaves of Mexico and Latin America. During this time he had as many as three top 10 hits simultaneously on the charts and was the owner of the popular East Los Angeles nightclub "Lalo's."
His pachuco songs from the 1930s and '40s - among them "Chicas Patas Boogie," "Vamos A Bailar" and "Los Chucos Suaves" - were immortalized in Luis Valdez's musical and film "Zoot Suit," while such favorite comic songs as "There's No Tortillas," "Pancho Lopez" - in the tune of "Ballad of Davy Crockett" - "La Minifalda de Reynalda," "Tacos For Two," "Elvis Perez" and "Pancho Claus" kept both English and Spanish speakers in stitches on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border.
Mr. Guerrero created the Spanish language version of The Chipmunks - Las Ardillitas de Lalo Guerrero - for the Hispanic children's audience of the 1950s and 1960s, recording some 25-plus albums under that name. He added to his repertoire of children's music in 1996, collaborating with Los Lobos for the Grammy-nominated Music For Little People release "Papa's Dream." In 1993, comedian Paul Rodriguez invited him to co-host "El Nuevo Show de Paul Rodriguez" on the Spanish language Univision channel. He also performed in such films as "Boots & Saddles" (1935, with Gene Autry), "Arizona" (1945, with William Holden) and "His Kind of Woman" (1948, with Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell).
His political song portfolio included the powerful anthem "Wake Up Chicanos" and the poignant "No Chicanos On TV." His corridos - ballads - encapsulated the deeds of such Mexican-American heroes as Ruben Salazar and Cesar Chavez. Chavez in particular had a close association with Mr. Guerrero, frequently serving as his unofficial manager by guiding him to where Chicano farm workers would be laboring. It was with Chavez at a farm workers rally that Mr. Guerrero performed for Bobby Kennedy hours before the presidential candidate's assassination.
One of singer Linda Ronstadt's most cherished memories is having Lalo Guerrero - a close friend of her father, Gilbert Ronstadt - come to serenade her on her second birthday with the song "La Burrita." The pair sang it together at the Tucson International Mariachi Conference in 1996, where Mr. Guerrero also performed his "Canción Mexicana." Summing up his place in the musical world, Ronstadt said, "Lalo is the first great Chicano musical artist and the historian and social conscience of that community.
"Most people have career peaks," Ronstadt added. "He was always at his top form until the last of his life, partnering with the youngest and hippest right up through work with Los Lobos and Ry Cooder. He stayed current and high quality right to the end."
Born on Christmas Eve 1916, on the southeast corner of Convent Avenue and Simpson Street in Tucson, Mr. Guerrero learned the guitar as a young boy from his mother, Concepcion, who would be his only music teacher. He immortalized his boyhood neighborhood in the song "Barrio Viejo," which became a rallying song in many cities where traditional Mexican-American neighborhoods had been bulldozed, gentrified or had fallen into neglect. Mr. Guerrero's final recording was a trio of his songs (including "Barrio Viejo") contributed to Ry Cooder's "Chavez Ravine" - an album recalling Los Angeles' old Mexican neighborhoods. The disc will be released on Nonesuch Records June 7.
"You won't see anybody like that ever again," Cooder said of Mr. Guerrero. "That charisma out in the public. I don't think I ever met anyone that key to a particular genre with the exception of maybe Compay Segundo in Cuba.
"Lalo made up his own thing. There was so much variety to his work - the boleros, the pachuco songs, the rancheras and corridos - but at the same time he was an American original working in a slightly different way from the traditional Mexican way, creating a hybrid style from his own experience of the world."
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