TEXANA READS: Freddy Fender's daughter offers 'brutally honest' look into singer's life
We’ve all heard it.
Freddy Fender wrote the lyrics to his famous song “Wasted Days and Wasted Night” while he was in prison in Louisiana. Of course, the catchy rhythm and blues ballad with the soulful voice of Fender’s country and Tex-Mex twang could not have been imagined anywhere else except after suffering inside the walls of a depressing “correction” facility.
Not true.
Freddy Fender, a.k.a. Baldemar Huerta from San Benito in the Rio Grande Valley, wrote it for his wife, Evangelina (Eva), who was about to leave him because of his raucous and dangerous lifestyle caused by his pursuit of a music career. She stayed with him.
You can learn this and other secrets as you read the brutally honest “biography” of Fender written by his daughter, Tammy Lorraine Huerta Fender. Along the way you will discover Fender’s and the Huerta family’s close ties to Corpus Christi and marvel at the survival instincts of both Fender and his family.
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For the record, Fender’s daughter attended Wynn Seale and Cunningham Middle Schools and his son Sonny was at Ray High School where he was a member of the Texans’ football team. The Huertas/Fenders had at least four residences in the city, starting with one on Barcelona St. and ending with a couple on Ocean Drive and another on FM 624.
This is as true a South Texas story as you will ever read. If this were fiction, you may have a hard time believing a family could be so dirt poor and reach the pinnacle of success Freddy Fender did.
About the name? As he was making his way in the music business and trying to transition into mainstream, Fender’s managers decided the name Baldemar Huerta just didn’t have that marketing aura to bring in the money. Baldemar Huerta loved guitars. He was always carrying one as a kid. Fender was his favorite brand – thus Fender. Freddie (with an i.e.) helped with alliteration. It was settled. He would be Freddy (without an i.e. he insisted) Fender and the rest is history, sort of.
Fender also sold records as El Bip-Bob Kid, Eddie Medina and Scotty Wayne.
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As the Bip-Bop kid he would take 1950s rock’n’roll tunes and translate them into Spanish. So “Don’t be Cruel” would become “No seas cruel.” They would play in radio stations in South Texas and Mexico. He would become the first Tex-Mex rocker.
The reader will discover that each professional name Baldemar Huerta used is an interesting and intriguing part of Fender’s life. His daughter covers this in much detail, sharing family secrets that may be a bit too familiar for Mexican American families in South Texas or the RGV.
This is first of two volumes about “The Life Story of Freddy Fender.” It is raw and rich in detail. The reader will marvel at Fender’s early life. One of 10 children to Margarita (Doña Mage) Garza Huerta, he was literally dirt poor. The family lived in a one-room shack with a dirt floor and an outhouse in the back. They were migrants, travelling throughout Texas and other states trying to eke out a living. There was alcohol and drug abuse and murder in the family. Ah, but Balde had his guitar, his saving grace and his ticket out of the barrio and into stardom.
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Consider that this Mexican American from the Valley went on to star as a Pancho Villa in the 1979 movie “She Came to the Valley” and would have parts in four other Hollywood films. Consider that his songs would be part of more than 20 movie soundtracks. Consider that he would make more than 50 appearances on TV talk shows. This is the stuff of legend. Balde Huerta was good enough to earn five Grammy nominations and win three Grammys. And, he has his own star as Freddy Fender in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Yes, he did time in prison. He sold marijuana in the Valley. And, he was at the scene of several murders. But he had his guitar, a freindly personality and a unique voice that could sell records like few others have.
The story of his redemption is told eloquently by his daughter. She did it with a series of first-hand interviews of those who knew Baldemar Huerta and all the personalities her father met en route to stardom. She interviewed family members and dug into the deepest and darkest secrets of the clan. She talked to friends, rivals, love interests and music stars. She left no stone unturned and came up with a first volume about the life of Freddy Fender that will have the reader asking for more. Not to worry, Vol. 2 is being worked on.
About the author
Tammy Lorraine Huerta Fender loves being a native Tex-Mex princess. She is also a true valley-girl from the Rio Grande Valley and was born in her father's hometown of San Benito, Texas. Huerta is a passionate, conservative, patriotic citizen who especially enjoys serving as a community volunteer helping the homeless and addicted. She is also a co-founder of an AA registered group. During her years of research and writing this amazing heartfelt saga of life growing up with an icon, she was determined to earn an education. She is now a senior and honor student at the University of Houston in Clear Lake. Her major is in Behavioral Science; her ultimate dream is to go to Law School and one day speak for people to defend their constitutional rights.
About the book
“Wasted Days and Wasted Nights: Freddy Fender, A Metroric Rise to Stardom”
by Tammy Lorraine Huerta Fender
2017 – Xlibris, Bloomington, IN
ISBN 978-1-4568-5105-7
435 pages
Cost: barnesandnoble.com, hardcover, $34.99; Google Play $7.99; eBay $24.51; WalMart stores $19.99; Xlibris.com (several options) $24.99 and down
Texana Reads
This weekly column focuses on new and old books about Texas or related to Texas. It includes fiction and nonfiction books, reports on political and sports books as well as cultural or historical works. The common thread among these books is their relationship to Texas, specifically South Texas.
For suggestions on topics or books, email manuelf78407@yahoo.com.
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