Lalo Guerrero was born in the Barrio Viejo of Tucson, Arizona on Christmas Eve, 1916. He was one of twenty-four children with only eight surviving to adulthood. Lalo was greatly influenced by his mother, Concepcion, who sang and played the guitar beautifully. She was his first and only music teacher. It was his mother and father, Eduardo, who instilled a great love for their native Mexico in their young son Eduardo, Jr, known to his friends and family as "Lalo".A tall, skinny kid sits on a fence looking at his barrio while thinking about his parent's homeland, Mexico. He already has music in him and strums the guitar his mother gave him and taught him to play. The thoughts turn to guitar chords, that encourage lyrics. A song is born. The classic ranchera "Cancion Mexicana" written when Lalo was nineteen years old was first made famous by the great Lucha Reyes in 1941. It remains the unofficial anthem of Mexico and is a standard in the repertoire of nearly every mariachi group on either side of the border. During the depression years, Lalo's father decided to take the familia back to his homeland, as many Mexicans did at that time. But, Lalo and his many siblings experienced what many Mexican-Americans still feel in Mexico - a push/pull effect. He was pulled into the country's heart and soul, and at the same time pushed away, rejected as a "pocho" by his own countrymen.
The family returned home to Tucson. Many years later when Lalo was having his first big record hits in the U.S. Spanish-language world, he experienced the same rejection when he traveled to Mexico to further his career. His compositions were welcomed and recorded by many top Mexican artists like the Trio Los Panchos, but he remained a "pocho" and was rejected as a performer.
Lalo's career continued to flourish here and his amazing range of styles is unmatched by any artist - bolero, rancheras, mambos, cha-cha, salsa, tejano, comic parodies and even children's recordings with more than 25 albums of the hugely popular, "La Ardillitas de Lalo Guerrero" and a Grammy-nomination for the children's album "Papa's Dream" recorded with Los Lobos a few years ago. "Barrio Viejo," written when Lalo was in his late 70s, is an ode to the Tucson neighborhood of his youth that mirrors every Mexican or Mexican-American barrio, depicting a time of familia, friendship, and innocence. When you hear the song, you can smell the tortillas on the comal and the frijoles on the stove.
A music pioneer and activist, Lalo used his music to celebrate the bicultural experience and was writing bilingual songs long before it became a hot button in recent years. He brought American swing to Mexican music in the 1940s using the pachuco calo in his lyrics, creating a cultural phenomenon with hit songs like "Los Chucos Suaves" and "Vamos a Bailar".
The songs became popular again in 1977 when Luis Valdez used them in "Zoot Suit", the first Latino themed theatre production to hit Broadway.
The Chicano's collective sense of humor is immortalized in a number of Lalo's satirical melodies that poke fun, as only a Mexican American can, at cultural icons. "Elvis Perez" (1957), "La Minifalda de Reynalda" (1968) and "Pancho Lopez" (1955) among many others remain popular with today's artists. "Pancho Lopez" is a parody of the mainstream hit "Davy Crockett".
Lalo's English language Chicano version became a hit and he used the profits to open a nightclub in East Los Angeles, Lalo's. It became a local institution for the next fifteen years, hosting some of Latin America's most popular bands. He used his unparalleled humor in songs of social protest like "Battle Hymn of the Chicano"(1989), "Mexican Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Bus Boys" (1990) and "No Chicanos on TV." (1986) Listen to the lyrics of this haunting melody, and you're not sure if you should laugh or cry:
"I think that I shall never see, any Chicanos on TV.
Huggies has their three babies: black and white and Japanese.
Chicano babies also pee, but you don't see them on TV."
When Cesar Chavez led the Mexican American struggle in the fields, Lalo gave the movement song bringing their plight to a wide audience for the first time. Through another re-enactment, we'll see Lalo and Cesar long before the UFW movement when Cesar would go to Lalo's dances. Lalo's "corridos" tell the triumphs and struggles of Mexican American heroes including Cesar Chavez, Ruben Salazar and Dolores Huerta. With over four hundred compositions to his name, one song epitomizes the Chicano experience. "El Chicano".
"Este pais es me tierra, Mexico es la de mis padres, pero la sangre que llevo, es de Benito Juarez. Como Emiliano Zapata, y tambien Francisco Villa, yo soy revolucionario, en este moderno dia."This land is my country, Mexico is the homeland of my parents, but the blood that flows through me is that of Benito Juarez. Like Emiliano Zapata and also Francisco Villa, I'm a rebel with a cause in this modern day!"
Lalo dedicated his life and career to the definition and enrichment of the Chicano experience in America and this prolific artist continues creating. A recent composition, "Barrio Viejo" a tribute to his beloved childhood neighborhood, brought a standing ovation of 5000 at the 1996 Tucson International Mariachi Conference where he shared the stage with Linda Ronstadt and Vikki Carr. He repeated that triumph on the 1998 Alma Awards that aired nationally on ABC network. Today, the Latino comic trio Culture Clash features Guerrero’s “Barrio Viejo†in their stage play Chavez Ravine.A few years ago, Guerrero took his music even further, traveling to Europe for the first time where he made his concert debut at the prestigious Cite de la Musique in Paris, France. This trip was documented in a feature story by the Los Angeles Times.His biography, Lalo, My Life and Music, co-written by Sherilyn Meece Mentes has been published by The University of Arizona Press.
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