Ersi Arvizu was on vacation in Hawaii a few years ago when she heard that some guy named Ry Cooder was looking for her. She got the news from colleagues who knew her from her long-gone glory days as lead singer of El Chicano, the 1970s East Los Angeles band famous for her version of the classic old bolero “Sabor a Mi.”
No way, shot back Arvizu, who had long before moved to Arizona. Besides, she was “fit to be tied,” she said, over a money dispute involving a previous El Chicano comeback concert. She was in no mood to get back in the business.
Her colleagues insisted this was the chance of a lifetime. How many veteranos wouldn’t want to work with the producer who had turned a bunch of aging, forgotten Cuban musicians into the international superstars called the Buena Vista Social Club? Maybe Cooder could do the same for old-school East L.A. artists with “Chavez Ravine,” the album he was working on at the time based on the razing of Hispanic barrios around what is now Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Arvizu wasn’t budging.
“I don’t know him, and I don’t care,” she recalled responding. “I’m not leaving Hawaii to go over there and audition for some man I don’t even know. Heck no.”
Famous last words. This week brought the release of Arvizu’s “Friend for Life,” the first solo album of her career and her first recording since leaving El Chicano more than 30 years ago. The title song was written for her newest best friend, Cooder, the multicultural connoisseur who had tracked her down after hearing her teenage voice on a 1960s single by the Sisters, a vocal trio featuring Arvizu and her sisters, Rosella and Mary.
Cooder was struck by the natural, timeless quality of Arvizu’s voice, transcending pop trends with its heartfelt delivery. It was the female voice he was seeking for “Chavez Ravine,” which featured several male artists from the macho-dominated East L.A. music scene of the ’60s and ’70s. Ironically, Arvizu is the only one who has emerged so far with a solo project under Cooder.
And why not? As Arvizu said recently, “I am unique.”
Where else, she asked, will you find a woman who grew up in East L.A., had a Top 10 hit in her teens, trained boxers with her father, went undefeated in four fights of her own, drove a truck for FedEx to make ends meet and attended college to become a “woman cop?” Yes, and who still sings with tenderness and perfect pitch after all these years.
The album is a musical memoir featuring the first songs written by Arvizu, 59. Her new bilingual songs, many penned with pianist Joey Navarro, range from deeply nostalgic boleros to gently up-tempo tunes with shades of R&B, salsa and the blues.
One recent afternoon, Arvizu returned to the East L.A. neighborhood where it all started. She visited the boxy little bungalow where she and her five siblings were raised. Her father’s backyard boxing gym is no longer there, but the beautiful shade tree she used to climb stands tall and sturdy in the front yard.
Her arrival brings out a couple of curious neighbors, including a tattooed man in a wheelchair who remembers her father, Arturo, as a local standout, “The Magnum P.I. of the barrio.” He was not only good looking, he also fixed Harleys, trained boxers (including Oscar De La Hoya as a boy), played guitar and sang duets at parties with his wife, Rita, a farm worker’s daughter and former beauty queen.
Arvizu pays tribute to her father in a moving song from the album, “Mi India” (“My Indian Girl”), his term of affection for her. But she doesn’t gloss over his faults. “He was a very jealous man, oh my God,” she recalled. He didn’t want his wife to drive and even stopped her from writing songs, Arvizu recalled, because he was suspicious when she’d get out of bed at night to sit quietly in the kitchen and write lyrics.
That memory inspired “Angel de Mil Voces” (“Angel of a Thousand Voices”), Arvizu’s tribute to her mother. The CD also includes one of four surviving songs her mother wrote, “Sin Tu Querer” (“Without Your Love”), dedicated to her husband.
“It’s sad because he held her back,” said Arvizu, who never married. “And he regretted it after she passed away. But too late.”
For the visit, Arvizu has brought along her sister and back-up singer, Rosella, to apply a touch of eye liner for a photo shoot.
“She doesn’t like makeup,” Rosella said.
“I’m not a pretty girl,” Arvizu said. “I’m not like those models. But of course, they don’t have my voice.”
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