643 Trini Lopez (1937- ) “If I Had a Hammer” 1963

“Music got him and his family out of poverty. As the son of Mexican immigrants from Guanajuato, he remembers his challenging beginnings in the Little Mexico barrio in Dallas. Being poor. Violence and prejudice in his neighborhood. But everything seemed to change after his father bought him a $12 guitar from a pawnshop…Lopez stuck to his Latino roots despite growing up in a time where he was once told that no one would buy an album from an artist with a Mexican last name. ‘Lopez has got to go,’ he remembers being told about an album deal…’You know how many [Latino] artists in America that changed their name? Vikki Carr and Freddy Fender. I insisted on keep my name Lopez. I’m proud to be a Lopez. I’m proud to be a Mexicano’” (Cassandra Jaramillo, Dallas Morning News, 9/12/2017).

Trini Lopez “If I Had a Hammer”