Adelina Garcia (December 16, 1923 – 1999) was a

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

Chicana Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...

singer. She remains one of the most famous American singers of the ''

bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

''.

Biography

Adelina Garcia was born in December 1923 in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

and moved as a child to

Ciudad Juárez Ciudad Juárez ( , ; "Juárez City"), commonly referred to as just Juárez (Lipan language, Lipan: ''Tsé Táhú'ayá''), is the most populous city in the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Mexican state of Chihuahua (state), Chihuahua. It was k ...

, Chihuahua, Mexico, where she first expressed interest in becoming a singer. Garcia spent most of her early childhood in that northern Mexican city, where she started to become famous by singing

s at the XEP

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

. By the time she had reached her

teenage Adolescence () is a transitional stage of human physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with ...

years, she was well known across Chihuahua and other northern Mexican states. In 1937, Garcia returned to Phoenix, but she did not stay there too long, establishing herself in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

at the age of fifteen. It was during that year that Garcia was signed by

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

, a company that would release some of her

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

s and take her on a tour across the United States. In essence, she became a

teen idol A teen idol is a celebrity with a large teenage fan base. Teen idols are generally young but are not necessarily teenagers themselves. An idol's popularity may be limited to teens, or may extend to all age groups. By region Asia Ea ...

among

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

teenagers in the States. Garcia expanded her celebrity to South America during the 1940s, touring Brazil and some other countries in that continent. In 1944, she had her first concert in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. In Mexico City, she participated at radio shows on the XEW station, which helped cement her fame in that country's non-northern states. Her participation at those shows also allowed her to become well known in

Central America Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...

and the Caribbean. Garcia met composer and musician Gonzalo Curiel while in Mexico City. She and Curiel became friends and collaborators, and Curiel visited Brazil with Garcia many times after the pair met. In Brazil, Garcia made a number of albums for the Odeon label. Among Garcia's best known songs of the 1940s are "Muchachita" ("Young Girl"), "Vereda Tropical" ("Tropical River"), written, composed and originally sung by Mexican author Gonzalo Curiel, "Desesperadamente" ("Desperately") and "Mi Tormento" ("My Own Torment"). After touring heavily across the American Southwest and in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, Garcia re-settled in Los Angeles during 1955. She met musician Jose Heredia, whom she married and formed a family with. After marriage, Garcia decided to begin retiring. She started slowly, initially reducing her number of performances per year, until she stopped singing altogether. In 1997, her musical and photo collection was bought by the CEMA, a repository of historic documents from California's ethnic history. The collection consists of fourteen recordings, photos, programs and other miscellaneous items about her life. She is the mother of LA-based

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

jazzrock Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

drummer Joey Heredia, Freddy Heredia, and artist Angel Gustavo Garcia.

References

External links

Guide to Adelina Garcia collection
at the

California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) is an archival institution that houses collections of primary source documents from the history of minority ethnic groups in California. The documents, which include manuscripts, slide photograp ...

The Official Site of Drummer Joey Heredia

The official site of artist Angel Gustavo Garcia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Adelina 1923 births 1999 deaths American musicians of Mexican descent Hispanic and Latino American musicians Singers from Phoenix, Arizona American expatriates in Mexico Hispanic and Latino American women singers