Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930–1955 by Mary Ann Villarreal (review)

Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930–1955tells the stories of a small number of Mexican American female singers and entrepreneurs in central South Texas, introducing the reader to women’s pioneering roles in the emerging Spanish-language entertainment industry of the region.

The first chapter is dedicated to Rosita Fernández (1918–2006), recognized as “San Antonio’s Rose” for her contribution to the city’s tourist market. Fernández joined her uncles’ vaudeville act Los Tres San Miguel to tour the South Texas tent show circuit at the tender age of nine, starting a six-decade-long singing career. She performed on San Antonio’s WOAI radio station and, in 1949, on the first broadcast on WOAI television. In an era dominated by accordion-based conjuntomusic that appealed foremost to the Texas Mexican working-class audience, Fernández’s favorite repertoire was romantic songs ( canciones románticas) and boleros, accompanied by lush orchestras or mariachis.

The second chapter features pioneer accordionist Ventura Alonzo (1904–2000) who, together with her musician husband, opened a dance hall in Houston in the 1950s that served the local community as a social gathering place. Alonzo not only performed in the house band but also managed the venue’s business, negotiating artist contracts and handling promotions and ticket sales. Similarly, Carmen Marroquin (1921–2010), who formed a duo with her sister Laura in the 1940s, broke into the dance hall business in 1952, joining forces with her husband, Armando Marroquin, a talent scout and record producer.

The next three chapters focus on the role of Mexican American women as sole proprietors or as part of family-owned businesses in relation to the social and cultural changes in South Texas from the Great Depression and Mexican repatriation in the 1930s to the years of economic recovery, World War II, and the postwar era.

Although Spanish-language music “acts as a cultural connector for all the parts of this book” and the main focus is on female cantantes(singers) as culture makers, unfortunately music is strikingly absent from this book (p. xviii). What English-language songs did Fernández sing? What bands accompanied her? Who were the musicians? How did Alonzo learn the songs her audience requested? How did musical performance shape Texas Mexican cultural identity? The book is full of assertions about music that are not explained; as Mary Ann Villarreal claims, “These cantantes represent the formative expression of la mísica tejana, the process of blending, choosing, and fashioning a style that fit their singing talents and personalities”; cantantescould shift their music style “according to the language of their audience, and to a lesser extent, their audience’s national identity” (pp. 120, 128).

Even more perplexing is the author’s assessment of Lydia Mendoza’s “hidden histories” (p. 92). There are two excellent biographies of the famous singer (Yolanda Broyles-González, Lydia Mendoza’s Life in Music/La Historia de Lydia Mendoza: Norteño Tejano Legacies[New York, 2001]; Chris Strachwitz and James Nicolopulos, Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography[Houston, 1993]). Mendoza was recognized beyond her community and honored with the National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1982. In her long-lasting singing career, Mendoza, together with members of her family, left a legacy of over 1,200 commercially recorded songs.

The duo Carmen y Laura, Ideal Records’s first star group, cut hundreds of records with supporting musicians ranging from the conjuntosof accordionists Narciso Martínez and Paulino Bernal to Beto Villa and his Tejano Orquesta. Fernández recorded hundreds of songs for labels including RCA, Decca, Brunswick, and Ideal, some of which have been made available in digital form by Arhoolie Records. It is a serious omission that the book does not include a discography of the pioneer female vocalists...