Lalo Guerrero, Honorary Diploma

International Singer/Songwriter/Performer

Lalo Guerrero was born in Tucson’ s Barrio Libre on a cold Christmas Eve in 1916. An early love for music would take him far, learning to play the guitar when he was just nine years old. His mother was his first and only music teacher.

Guerrero became internationally recognized as the “Father of Chicano Music,” in a career that spanned generations. He was a great entertainer, and he took his guitar and music everywhere – the White House, a neighbor’s house, a concert hall, or a classroom. It was all the same to him. Lalo wanted to make people happy and his Hermanos proud of their Mexican heritage.

His corridos told stories of the struggles and triumphs of Mexican American heroes from Cesar Chavez to Ruben Salazar. His boleros brought tears, and his comic songs laughter. He often said, “I only wrote about what I saw.” Doing just that, he became the musical historian of his beloved Chicano culture.

In 1934, when Guerrero was a senior at Tucson High, his family uprooted and moved to Mexico City, “the other side of the Earth from Tucson,” he recalled. After three months, the family returned, but his class had graduated. Guerrero refused to return to finish with younger students. So, he did not earn his diploma. Twenty years later, when he was a well-known artist, he performed for an assembly at Tucson High, and the principal surprised him with an honorary diploma. “I remember it like it was yesterday,” Guerrero said. “The students gave me a standing ovation, and I was so choked up that I couldn’t even say thank you.”

Guerrero’ s honors are many, including an NEA National Heritage Fellowship (1991), National Folk Treasure, Smithsonian Institution (1980), Tejano Music Hall of Fame (1992), California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce President’s Award (1996), the Alma Award (1998), and invitations to the Jimmy Carter and George Bush White House. In 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the troubadour with the National Medal of Arts, the first Chicano ever to receive our nation’s highest arts award.

Guerrero continued to entertain his fans only months before his guitar was silenced on March 17, 2005, at the age of eighty-eight.