Little Tina, popular Tejano style singer in the late 1960's to mid 1970's in Wisconsin recorded 3 albums in her short career as a female vocalist along with her young sister Mary who played the drums with the band Little Tina y Sus Cardenales from Delavan, Wisconsin. Ruiz later retired from performing as a singer and became a popular hair stylist in San Antonio, Texas.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
October 3, 2024
Delavan, Wisconsin - in the late 1960's to mid 1970's, one of the popular female Tejano style bands was Little Tina y Sus Cardenales, a five member group from Delavan. Little Tina was the stage name for Tina Ruiz who recorded 3 albums at ages 13, 15 and 17 with Freddie Records in Texas.
Little Tina and her band performed in Milwaukee at Tony de Rosa bar and dance venue, Salon Mexico in the Southside of Milwaukee operated by Juan Reyes known as "El Chicle", and at the Southside Division High School Prom dance celebrating the Hispanic Graduation Class of 1972 at the Sheraton-Schoeder Hotel, now known as the Hilton Milwaukee Center at 509 W. Wisconsin Ave. in Milwaukee.
Mary who was a vocalist with Little Tina also played drums with another popular Tejano band led by Beto Salinas who was a popular vocalist and played the accordion conjunto style in Milwaukee and Texas.
After moving to San Antonio, Tina opened the House of Styles & Spa, which became popular in downtown San Antonio. In 1993, Selena Quintanilla was attending the 13th Annual Tejano Music Awards and she wanted to have a unique hairstyle for the special day where she would be nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year and Orquesta Album of the Year at the 13th Annual Tejano Music Awards in 1993. Selena won both awards.
Selena contacted Tina and Mario Iturralde who also worked at the House of Styles with Tina. Both Tina and Iturralde went to Selena's dressing room at the Henry B. González Center where the Tejano Music Awards were taking place and created the famous Barrel Curl Updo hairstyle for Selena hours before she would make her presentation at the awards event, according to Michael Quintanilla's Facebook post dated March 31, 2020. Selena won two nominations in 1993 and her hairstyle became iconic, which in 1997, Jennifer López played Selena in a movie about her life and the Curl Updo hairstyle by Tina and Iturralde was also featured.
In April 2024, Tina recreated the famous Selena Barrel Curl Updo for Jackleen Rios who was performing on April 16, at the Pearl Bidi Bidi Party in San Antonio, according to KENS5.
The Little Tina y Sus Cardenales albums were recorded and released in 1970, album " Little Tina y Sus Cardenales", the second in 1972, "Gracias Paloma", and the third in 1974, "Little Tina & Mary en Corpus". Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) searched the internet for any of the Little Tina's songs or albums recorded and uploaded in YouTube and in multiple social media sources and found none.
Tina, according to her personal Facebook account posted that in February 1995, she became the owner/master designer at House of Styles.
No comments:
Post a Comment