On The Border With Maybelle Carter And Lydia Mendoza
Imagine, if you will, being a listener to a radio station on the U.S.-Mexico border in 1939. You would likely be listening to XERA, a radio station broadcast from Cuidad Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico, across the border from Del Rio, Texas. You might hear a song like "La Pollita," performed by Lydia Mendoza. When you think of the U.S.-Mexico border, music and great women singers you are most likely to think of Mendoza: As one of the earliest Mexican Americans to record, Mendoza had arguably one of the most extensive performance careers for Mexican American women singers and an immense recording archive — not to mention the tremendous popularity she enjoyed, especially among Mexican and Mexican-American working classes during the early to mid-20th century.
"La Pollita" narrates the sexuality of a single girl:
"Yo tengo para hacer crías una una pollita en mi casa
Cantando, cantando nomas lo pasa y no pone todavia
Un día, se me escapo sin que nadie lo supiera
Y llegó con sus pollitos siendo una polla soltera."(For raising chicks I have a hen in my house but sheone day she escaped without anyone knowing and she returned with her chicks even though she was an unmarried hen.)
