Leti Garza is more than just a singer-songwriter. Her career has spanned decades as a performing artist, actor, dancer, musician, and human rights activist. Leti’s cadence and range ride like a rose about to bud, and as the harshness of misguided entanglements unloves its petals; they fall shriveled and forlorn. No one ever promised her a rose garden, yet she persists through life’s travails. In our midst, we have another great woman to applaud and revere.
As one of the few pioneering Latina women in the arts in Austin and the state of Texas, her latest single, “Mi Amor (Español),”has been well received by critics, on radio, and fans, and deservedly so.“Mi Amor (Español)” is now available on all digital platforms, and listeners can stream the single here. Yet, it took a very long time to be recognized in Texas. Back in the day, and not that long ago, “No one wanted a Latina actor on the stage or in front of an audience,” she admits. “They would cast me in roles like a maid or something faceless in the background.” We’re talking about less than thirty years ago!
In between her artistic careers, she married and had children. And raised them “as was traditionally accepted in the Latina community.” Did she regret this gap in her career, I wondered? “Not at all, because now I can pursue my artistic career at leisure. I live in Elgin, not in the small town, but far out in the countryside where I can be in nature and create my art.”
“Mi Amor (Español)” is the second release from Leti’s upcoming full-length bilingual record “Canciónes Sobre La Vida y La Muerte,” slated to drop on Jan. 25th, 2024. To celebrate the original and lyrically perceptive new album inspired by her personal experience.
Leti was instrumental in 2017 in taking the initiative to visit the Texas border camp near El Paso (the second largest in the country after Florida), where immigrant children had been separated from their parents and forced to live on concrete floors inside an American-styled concentration camp. Borderland’s EP release in 2021 tells the story of Garza’s involvement in the 2018 Christmas at Tornillo protest. Leti and others performed outside the camp, hoping the children, at least 1000 feet away and behind barbed wire fences, would hear the music. Leti and other protestors and musicians kept playing day in and day out. They slept outside the facility, and one day, when the children were let out of detention (only twice a day were these youngsters allowed to breathe fresh air), they blasted live music, Christmas carols, and loving words to the children through a portable PA system: “No están solos” — “You’re not alone.” The children reacted by simultaneously throwing their soccer balls into the air. The message was received. Her goal was to encourage others to reflect on the tragic, complex situation at the U.S.-Mexico border. It is still tragically unresolved, and hundreds of children’s parents have been lost since the US guards did not take down any information.
Leti will perform a special release show at the Sahara Lounge, located at 1413 Webberville Rd, Austin, TX 78721, on Friday, Jan. 26. She will take the stage at 8:30 p.m., and other artists will perform until midnight. Tickets for the official album release party are available at the door that evening for $12 cash or $13 via credit card. For more show details, please see here. For more information on Leti Garza, please see here.