Freddy Fender
by: Admin
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Word Count: 328
Date of Birth: June 4, 1937
Date of Death: October 14, 2006
Biography: The Mexican-American musician Freddy Fender was
born Baldemar Huerta in the late 1930's. Performing mostly country, rock, and
Tejano music Huerta was known most for his solo music and his performances in
the band Los Super Seven. In his early years, Huerta traveled the United States
working on farms with his family, when he was only five years old he turned a
sardine can and some wires into a guitar and played for fun. Huerta made his
first radio gig by the age of ten and performed the song Paloma Quierida on the
station Harlington's KGBS-AM.
After Huerta quit school when he was sixteen, he joined
the United States army corps. When he finished with that he played music in
Texan honky-tonks and played mostly for Latino audiences. After a while he
earned the nickname “The Bebop kid” and in 1957 he released two successful
songs. One, was a Spanish version of Elvis Presley's song Don't Be Cruel,
and the other was Harry Belafonte's Jamaica farewell. After recording a few hit solo songs, and
getting through some legal battles Huerta joined a couple bands and in the late
1990's made his name with Los Super Seven. In 1998 Los Super Seven one a grammy
in the Mexican-American category for their self titled album.
Huerta,
known dominantly as Freddy Fender died in October of 2006. After receiving a
kidney transplant in 2002 using his daughter's donated kidney and a liver
transplant in 2004 his condition worsened. Also suffering from a cancer in
which he had tumors on his lungs, Huerta battled Hepatitis C in his later
years. With his family all by his side, Huerta passed away from lung cancer at
the age of 69. The family announced that they would be holding a memorial
service in his birthplace San Benito, Texas.
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