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WORK TITLE: Listening to Rosita
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Fullerton
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
Director of Strategic Initiatives and University Projects at California State University, Fullerton * https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-ann-villarreal-4ab710b1/ * http://www.fullerton.edu/acadaffairs/people/SeniorLeadershipTeam.php * http://thenationalforum.org/mary-ann-villarreal/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: n 2015026016
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n2015026016
HEADING: Villarreal, Mary Ann, 1971-
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100 1_ |a Villarreal, Mary Ann, |d 1971-
670 __ |a Villarreal, M. Listening to Rosita, 2015: |b ECIP t.p. (Mary Ann Villarreal) data sheet (birth date: April 4, 1971)
953 __ |a vk37
PERSONAL
Born April 4, 1971.
EDUCATION:Mount Holyoke College, A.B.; Arizona State University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and education administrator. University of Denver, CO, associate dean of Colorado Women’s College; California State University, Fullerton, director of strategic initiatives, beginning 2014, assistant vice president of strategic initiatives, chair of President’s Commission on Equity and Inclusion. Has also worked at the University of Colorado, Boulder and the University of Utah.
AWARDS:HERS Wellesley Fellowship, 2013; Américo Paredes Book Award, South Texas College, Center for Mexican American Studies, 2016, for Listening to Rosita.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to publications, including the Journal of Women’s History and the Oral Historian. Contributor of chapters to books.
SIDELIGHTS
Mary Ann Villareal is a writer and college administrator. She is the assistant vice president of strategic initiatives at California State University, Fullerton. Previously, she served as director of strategic initiatives at the university. Villareal has also worked for the University of Denver, as the associate dean of its Colorado Women’s College. She has also been a member of a the faculty of the University of Utah and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Villareal holds a bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College and a Ph.D. from Arizona State University. She has written chapters of books and articles that have appeared in publications, including the Journal of Women’s History and the Oral Historian.
In 2015, Villareal released her first book, Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955. The volume is the winner of the South Texas College, Center for Mexican American Studies’s 2016 Américo Paredes Book Award. In it, Villareal profiles several female Mexican American performers and entrepreneurs, who were influential during the early- to mid-1900s. The first of the women she highlights is Rosita Fernandez, to whom she refers in the book’s title. Fernandez was born in 1918 and began performing throughout South Texas with Los Tres San Miguel, a vaudeville show staged by her uncles. She became known for her singing, which was broadcast on radio and television stations in San Antonio. Fernandez chose songs in the bolero genre, as well as canciones románticas, though they were not as popular at the time as conjunto music. She eventually became known as “San Antonio’s Rose.” Next, Villareal discusses the career of Ventura Alonzo, who played the accordion and helped her husband run a successful music venue in Houston, Texas. Carmen Marroquin and her sister formed the well known group, Carmen y Laura, which was popular during the 1940s. Marroquin later partnered with Armando, her husband, to open a dance hall. Villareal comments on the importance of music in the cultural identity of Mexican Americans during the era.
Helena Simonett offered a mixed review of Listening to Rosita in the Journal of Southern History. Simonett suggested: “It is a serious omission that the book does not include a discography of the pioneer female vocalists. … For sure, popular music in the United States has always been male-dominated. Women who were successful in the entertainment business had to be masters of negotiation. Listening to Rosita tells the business side of the story. But this is by far not the full story one could hear.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, November, 2016, Helena Simonett, review of Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955, p. 966.
ONLINE
California State University, Fullerton Website, http://www.fullerton.edu/ (July 25, 2017), author faculty profile.
National Forum Website, http://thenationalforum.org/ (July 25, 2017), author profile.*
Mary Ann Villarreal
Assistant Vice President, Strategic InitiativesMary Ann Villarreal joined Cal State Fullerton as director of Strategic Initiatives in 2014. She earned her doctorate in History from Arizona State University and her A.B. from Mount Holyoke College. Her portfolio includes High-Impact Practices (HIPs), coordinating the AMP Steering Committee, faculty diversity and recruitment, and serving as a representative in national organizations. Dr. Villarreal will continue to chair the President's Commission on Equity and Inclusion (PCEI). Prior to joining Cal State Fullerton, she served as associate dean at the Colorado Women’s College, University of Denver. She has also held faculty positions at the University of Colorado, Boulder and at the University of Utah. Her recent manuscript, Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana and Culture, 1930-1955 (University of Oklahoma Press, October 2015), was awarded the 2016 Américo Paredes Book Award by South Texas College, Center for Mexican American Studies.
Mary Ann Villarreal
Director, Strategic Initiatives & University Project
California State University Fullerton
As Director, Strategic Initiatives and University Projects at California State University, Fullerton, Mary Ann Villarreal manages the implementation, execution, and coordination of the university’s strategic plan. She joined the university staff in June 2014, having previously served as Associate Dean at the University of Denver – Colorado Women’s College. There she oversaw the college’s enrollment management team and four degree programs: Business Administration, Law and Society, Communication, and Information Technology Studies. Mary Ann previously held tenure track positions at the University of Utah and University of Colorado at Boulder. Her research focuses on South Texas and the formation of a Texas Mexican identity through the lens of business. Her teaching areas include oral history, the American West, and Chicano/a history. Villarreal has published in The Oral Historian and the Journal of Women’s History and book chapters in An American Story: Mexican American Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation and Border Rhetorics: Citizenship and Identity on the US-Mexico Frontier. Her manuscript, “Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955” is under contract with the University of Oklahoma Press. A 2013 HERS Wellesley fellow, Villarreal earned her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College and Ph.D. from Arizona State University.
QUOTED: "It is a serious omission that the book does not include a discography of the pioneer female vocalists. ... For sure, popular music in the United States has always been male-dominated. Women who were successful in the entertainment business had to be masters of negotiation. Listening to Rosita tells the business side of the story. But this is by far not the full story one could hear."
Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and
Culture, 1930-1955
Helena Simonett
Journal of Southern History.
82.4 (Nov. 2016): p966.
COPYRIGHT 2016 Southern Historical Association
http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text:
Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955. By Mary Ann Villarreal. Race and Culture in the American West.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. Pp. xxxvi, 177. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8061-4852-6.)
Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955 tells the stories of a small number of Mexican American female
singers and entrepreneurs in central South Texas, introducing the reader to women's pioneering roles in the emerging Spanish-language
entertainment industry of the region.
The first chapter is dedicated to Rosita Fernandez (1918-2006), recognized as "San Antonio's Rose" for her contribution to the city's tourist
market. Fernandez joined her uncles' vaudeville act Los Tres San Miguel to tour the South Texas tent show circuit at the tender age of nine,
starting a six-decade-long singing career. She performed on San Antonio's WOAI radio station and, in 1949, on the first broadcast on WOAI
television. In an era dominated by accordion-based conjunto music that appealed foremost to the Texas Mexican working-class audience,
Fernandez's favorite repertoire was romantic songs (canciones romanticas) and boleros, accompanied by lush orchestras or mariachis.
The second chapter features pioneer accordionist Ventura Alonzo (1904-2000) who, together with her musician husband, opened a dance hall in
Houston in the 1950s that served the local community as a social gathering place. Alonzo not only performed in the house band but also managed
the venue's business, negotiating artist contracts and handling promotions and ticket sales. Similarly, Carmen Marroquin (1921-2010), who
formed a duo with her sister Laura in the 1940s, broke into the dance hall business in 1952, joining forces with her husband, Armando Marroquin,
a talent scout and record producer.
7/9/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
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The next three chapters focus on the role of Mexican American women as sole proprietors or as part of family-owned businesses in relation to the
social and cultural changes in South Texas from the Great Depression and Mexican repatriation in the 1930s to the years of economic recovery,
World War II, and the postwar era.
Although Spanish-language music "acts as a cultural connector for all the parts of this book" and the main focus is on female cantantes (singers)
as culture makers, unfortunately music is strikingly absent from this book (p. xviii). What English-language songs did Fernandez sing? What
bands accompanied her? Who were the musicians? How did Alonzo learn the songs her audience requested? How did musical performance shape
Texas Mexican cultural identity? The book is full of assertions about music that are not explained; as Mary Ann Villarreal claims, "These
cantantes represent the formative expression of la musica tejana, the process of blending, choosing, and fashioning a style that fit their singing
talents and personalities"; cantantes could shift their music style "according to the language of their audience, and to a lesser extent, their
audience's national identity" (pp. 120, 128).
Even more perplexing is the author's assessment of Lydia Mendoza's "hidden histories" (p. 92). There are two excellent biographies of the famous
singer (Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez, Lydia Mendoza's Life in Music/La Historia de Lydia Mendoza: Norteno Tejano Legacies [New York, 2001];
Chris Strachwitz and James Nicolopulos, Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography [Houston, 1993]). Mendoza was recognized beyond her
community and honored with the National Heritage Fellowship Award in 1982. In her long-lasting singing career, Mendoza, together with
members of her family, left a legacy of over 1,200 commercially recorded songs.
The duo Carmen y Laura, Ideal Records's first star group, cut hundreds of records with supporting musicians ranging from the conjuntos of
accordionists Narciso Martinez and Paulino Bernal to Beto Villa and his Tejano Orquesta. Fernandez recorded hundreds of songs for labels
including RCA, Decca, Brunswick, and Ideal, some of which have been made available in digital form by Arhoolie Records. It is a serious
omission that the book does not include a discography of the pioneer female vocalists of Texas Mexican music.
For sure, popular music in the United States has always been male-dominated. Women who were successful in the entertainment business had to
be masters of negotiation. Listening to Rosita tells the business side of the story. But this is by far not the full story one could hear.
HELENA SIMONETT
Vanderbilt University
Simonett, Helena
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Simonett, Helena. "Listening to Rosita: The Business of Tejana Music and Culture, 1930-1955." Journal of Southern History, vol. 82, no. 4,
2016, p. 966+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA470867715&it=r&asid=03980079412c06a68cc17fc0ef03a61c. Accessed 9 July
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A470867715