...And Speaking of Mourning
San Benito, Texas lost one of its most famous sons and one of its sweetest voices yesterday. Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Huerta, is dead at 69 of lung cancer. That makes two members of the Texas Tornados who have gone to the big concert hall in the sky. Maybe he's re-united with Boni Maroni there. She wasn't looking too healthy last I heard. When I started the project that became my dissertation back in 1990, the Tornados "Hey Baby Que Paso?" was an enormous local hit in San Antonio. I remember laughing with the other summer interns at the Institute of Texan Cultures as we walked to the museum, hearing the song blaring from car stereo after car stereo. Freddy didn't write that one, but his music has gotten this "hijo de Sue" through many wasted days and wasted nights. If I were in Texas today, I expect I'd be going to a memorial concert somewhere with Laura and some of the readers of this blog.
posted by Pete at 1:07 AM
2 Comments:
Oh, que sad. Poor guy, lung cancer's a bitch. Well, even if you can't make a memorial concert, you should still play Hey Baby Que Paso and take Lo for a spin around the living room.
Thanks, Olga. Here's a quote of Freddy from his obit.
"Whenever I run into prejudice," he told The Washington Post in 1977, "I smile and feel sorry for them, and I say to myself, `There's one more argument for birth control.'"
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