Latinos Rediscover Their Own Crooner

As a teen growing up in Tucson in the 1930s, Lalo Guerrero listened to his musical idols, Rudy Vallee, Al Jolson and Bing Crosby, and dreamed of one day counting himself among the ranks of top American pop singers.

But in those days there was no room on the hit parade for a young Chicano crooner. So, with his traditional love ballads and, later, more politically oriented corridos (story ballads), Guerrero made his mark as a singing star among U.S. Latinos and throughout Latin America. He will perform tonight at South Coast Repertory in a benefit concert for the theater’s Hispanic Playwrights Project.

“I never really hit the mainstream of popular American music,” Guerrero, 72, said Tuesday on the phone from his home in Palm Springs. “I’m a big fish in a small pond. I’d like to be a big fish in a big pond, but it didn’t work out that way. . . .

“I’m just very happy that I could make a living doing what I love to do.”

Guerrero was taught guitar as a teen by his mother, herself a talented singer and player. When he was in high school, Guerrero would accompany a love struck buddy of his named Gilbert Ronstadt on 2 a.m. serenades of Ruthmary Copeman. Gilbert and Ruthmary married and became the parents of Linda Ronstadt. “I’ve known Linda since she was a baby,” Guerrero said.

In 1937, at 20, Guerrero grabbed his guitar, headed for the big city and landed in the midst of the Latin craze, working as a band singer in all Hollywood’s celebrated Latin nightspots: the Mocambo, Ciros, the Trocadero, La Bamba. Such stars as Gregory Peck, Kirk Douglas, Clark Gable, Olivia De Haviland and Tyrone Power were among the clientele.

“Since there was no television at that time, every night was Saturday night at those clubs,” Guerrero recalled. “It was very interesting, it was very nice. I long for those days.”

But television, Guerrero said, effectively killed the club scene. In the 1940s he embarked on a recording career, first as part of the Imperial Trio and later on his own. His early Spanish-language hits included “Pecadora” and “Cancion Mexicana,” which has become a standard.

Guerrero flirted with mainstream success in the early ‘50s when his English-language parody of “The Ballad of Davy Crockett,” entitled “The Ballad of Pancho Lopez,” unexpectedly zoomed to No. 3 on the national charts (sample line: “He could eat 12 tacos/When he was only 3”). The song’s success earned Guerrero a meeting with Walt Disney--and his lawyers.

The Disney people politely asked for--and got--their share of the songwriting royalties. Guerrero ended up establishing a chummy relationship with the company and went on to write a number of songs for some of Disney’s Latin-flavored cartoon excursions.

Most of his success, however, remained in the Latino community and in Mexico and Latin America, where his recordings were popular. “Among our people, I would be as popular as Frank Sinatra is among Anglos,” he said.

His 20-odd albums include ballads, children’s recordings (which he described as a Spanish-language version of the Chipmunks) and country-flavored songs called rancheras . Four of his swing-flavored ‘40s hits, popular among the pachucos , were used in the musical “Zoot Suit.”

In the ‘60s, inspired by such events as the migrant farm labor movement and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, Guerrero began writing and recording his politically oriented corridos .

He would write the songs--far cries from his Davy Crockett parody--”whenever I saw injustices of any kind,” Guerrero said. The songs were somber calls for justice; Guerrero said he stayed away from insult or vitriol. “They just make a point,” he said.

He continues to tackle social issues, from immigration to the dearth of Latinos on television, but now he treats them with humor. Willie Nelson’s “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” becomes, in Guerrero’s hands, “Mexican Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Busboys.”

“It’s protest in a way, but it’s kind of like sugar-coating the pill,” he said.

Guerrero moved from Los Angeles to Palm Springs in 1973 and embarked on 10 years of six-nights-a-week performances at Las Casuelas restaurant. He did a little touring and recording, but when he cut down his performing schedule six years ago he found that he had been rediscovered by a young generation of Latinos, and he began playing at college campuses throughout the Southwest. “To them, I’m sort of a pioneer, back-to-the-roots thing,” Guerrero said.

His performances are bilingual and heavy on narration, not only to accommodate non-Latino fans but also for the young Latinos who, several generations removed from Latin America, often do not speak Spanish themselves.

“I feel that I’ve been able to build bridges of understanding with my music between the Anglos and Hispanics,” Guerrero said. “I’ve still got some pipes left, and I play the guitar well. I should, I guess--after all, I’ve had more than 50 years of practice.”

Lalo Guerrero sings tonight at 7:30 at South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, to benefit the Hispanic Playwrights Project. A reception begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $25. Information: (714) 957-4033.