Tejano “grand dame” Laura Canales, 50
Posted: Monday, April 18th, 2005 1:59 pm
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Laura Canales, who paved the way for women to infiltrate the genre of Texas border music known as Tejano, has died. She was 50.
Canales, a Kingsville native, had been hospitalized since March 28 for a gall bladder operation. Complications including pneumonia arose after the surgery and she died Saturday, said family spokesman Javier “J.V.” Villanueva, CEO of the Tejano ROOTS Hall of Fame in Alice.
“We call her the grande dame of Tejano music. … The early Selena,” said Wanda Reyes, spokeswoman for the Tejano Music Awards. …
Canales was born to a middle-class family in Kingsville, a town known for its cattle ranching about 100 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border. She came of age just as local dance bands were mixing keyboards into the Mexican-style polka known as conjunto — creating the Tejano sound now common at parties and festivals throughout Texas. … Read full obituary
