Tag: Freddy Fender

Incredible as it may seem, Freddy Fender is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

SAN BENITO — Freddy Fender Lane filled with song Saturday as a crowd seated in folding chairs or standing, with some swaying to the beat of music, joined Margarita Huerta Fender and her brother Isidro Huerta as they sang “Before the Next Teardrop Falls,” famously recorded by their uncle Baldemar Garza Huerta, the singer better known as Freddy Fender.

SAN BENITO — The San Benito Historical Society held the official presentation ceremony for the marker at 143 Freddy Fender Lane.

SAN BENITO — Capping years of work, the San Benito Historical Society is placing a state historical marker at hometown hero Freddy Fender’s family home, honoring the Grammy Award-winning singer who’s the top attraction in the city billed as the birthplace of conjunto music.

HARLINGEN — More than 100 years ago, the Rio Grande Valley’s first African American families were riding into the region, many working as farmhands across the new frontier.

SAN BENITO — More than 20 years after Rey Avila’s dream, his family is ready to unveil a treasure trove of artifacts he collected from pioneers of the folk genre born in the city he called “the birthplace of conjunto music.”

San Benito boasts several famous past residents, such as Olympic champion Bobby Morrow and Narciso Martinez, who is credited with creating the conjunto musical genre. One image smiles down from the city’s I-69 water tower, however: Freddy Fender.

San Benito hometown legend Freddy Fender, born Baldemar Huerta has been through it all, from a brief stint in prison to having multiple No.1 hit songs and winning many accolades in his career, but the one thing he strived to get before his death in 2006 was to get inducted into “Hillybilly Heaven,” the Country Music Hall of Fame as the first Mexican-American.

Music is a big part of South Texas culture. It’s more than the birthplace or home to legends ranging from Kris Kristofferson and Freddy Fender to Roberto Cantoral and Gloria Trevi; more than the site where Narciso Martinez created the norteño genre that, along with its related Tejano and conjunto styles, has become a big part of Mexican culture. It also offers a unique amalgam English and Spanish styles, creating a musical culture that is as seamlessly bilingual as the chatter we hear in local shopping centers and school hallways.

Their names are legendary in the hearts of many in South Texas. Freddy Fender's likeness adorns a water tower in San Benito. Flaco Jiménez is...