S
652 q S q SADA, MARÍA G. “CHATA” (1884–1973) María “Chata” Sada was born in Iraxuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. She and her husband Juan operated a trading post, restaurant, and general store in the Big Bend area of Texas during the 1920s and 1930s, when the area was still relatively remote. Chata’s Place provided a sense of community life for Big Bend because it served as the social hub where weddings, birthday celebrations , and other festivities were held. It even doubled as a Catholic church on occasion. María married Juan Sada in 1901, and they crossed the border at Boaquillas, becoming one of two families to settle in the area. Like Spanish-speaking settlers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they made their own adobe home. However, unlike their predecessors , the Sadas did not rely on a horse and buggy, but on a newfangled automobile. María Sada took charge of Chata’s Place because her husband operated a silver mine in Coahuila. She learned English in order to serve hunters, geologists, engineers, and naturalists who ventured into Big Bend. For those who needed lodging in this isolated area, she provided hot meals and spare rooms. She also kept beer cold in a kerosene-powered refrigerator, even during Prohibition . María Sada also served as an informal bank, cashing checks for customers. She and Juan Sada adopted six children and served as godparents for others. María Sada developed a reputation as a midwife, pharmacist, judge, teacher, and gardener. She also raised livestock and, given the rugged terrain with mountain lions and rattlesnakes, was handy with a rifle. A 1955 Dallas Morning News article described her as a friendly, affectionate hostess who also had a certain regal bearing . When Juan Sada died in 1936, María closed the trading post and moved to Del Rio, Texas, to live with a son. She died in 1973. María Sada was a successful businesswoman who provided services to travelers and created community in a remote region of Texas. See also Entrepreneurs SOURCES: Orozco, Cynthia E. 1996. “Maria Sada.” In New Handbook of Texas 5. Austin: Texas State Historical Association ; Smithers, W. D. 1976. Chronicle of the Big Bend. Austin, TX: Madrona Press. Cynthia E. Orozco SALSA In Latin America popular music has traditionally been conceived through the bodies and the voices of women. Women have been major icons of romantic ballads, boleros, and folkloric music in various national traditions. From bolero interpreters such as the Argentinian Libertad Lamarque, the Puerto Rican Ruth Fernández, and the Mexican Toña la Negra to the folkloric compositions and performances of the Chilean Violeta Parra, the Peruvian Chabuca Granda, and the Argentinian Mercedes Sosa and to all-women bands such as Grupo Anacaona in Cuba and others in Cali, Colombia, in the 1980s, women have been important agents of popular music, as well as serving as inspiration for the greatest male songwriters. In contrast to this very rich female musical tradition, women in salsa music have been historically excluded as interpreters and instrumentalists. As a musical industry that emerged in New York City among secondgeneration Puerto Rican musicians, salsa music developed all-male networks of musical training and jamming sessions that kept women from participating in its popular, oral transmission. Major musicians such as Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe, Ray Barretto, and others transmitted a symbolic gendering through the music, its lyrics, its instrumentation, and album designs, which reaffirmed the male voice, subjectivity, and stage presence and the historical narratives about the music itself. Sexist attitudes that perceived women as unfit to play certain instruments and the cultural mores that kept women at home and away from the clubs and the public spaces of musical performance also added to the exclusion of women. It is surprising that, given the rich history of women in Latin American popular music, particularly in countries such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, from Salsa 653 q Salsa singer Merceditas Váldez in New York, circa 1950. Courtesy of the Justo A. Martí Photograph Collection. Centro Archives, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY. which U.S. Latino communities have emerged, only a few female names have been associated with salsa music in the United States since the late 1960s. While the name of Cuban exile singer Celia Cruz easily comes to mind when one speaks of salsa, the popular music of the urban Caribbean and of its diaspora, historical revisions and recoveries by...
OR
Buy This Book in Print