Guerrero Still Striking Right Chord : Music: The leader in Chicano and Mexican music for more than 50 years headlines the International Chicano Music Fest ’90 at San Diego’s Balboa Park.

Lalo Guerrero has been a key figure in Chicano and Mexican music for more than 50 years. In 1938, he wrote “Cancion Mexicana,” a tribute to Mexican music that was recorded three years later by legendary Mexican singer Lucia Reyes.

Guerrero subsequently wrote a series of swing songs with Spanish lyrics that were eagerly embraced by the brash young “Pachuco” zoot-suiters frequenting the La Bamba nightclub in Los Angeles, where he played. Sever al of these tunes, including “Los Chucos Suaves” and “Vamos a Bailar,” were later featured in the 1979 musical play and 1981 film, “Zoot Suit.”

Today, at the age of 73, Guerrero isn’t anywhere close to retiring. He continues to perform two nights a week, every Wednesday and Thursday, at Las Cazuelas Mexican restaurant near his home in Cathedral City, outside Palm Springs.

This Sunday at noon, Guerrero will headline the free International Chicano Music Fest ’90 in Balboa Park, just outside Centro Cultural de la Raza.

Just about every other weekend, he is on the road somewhere, performing at colleges and Chicano music festivals throughout the country.

“There are a lot of Chicanos in these universities, and they hire me to play for them,” Guerrero said. “They think of me as a pioneer in Chicano music and Mexican music, and they want to know about this, and they want to hear about this. I’m very fortunate that at my age, the young Chicanos have discovered me, and saved me from total extinction.

“I mean, at this age I should be taking it easy in my back yard, but they found me, and I keep getting calls.”

Guerrero was born in Tucson. He was introduced to music as a child, by his mother, a native of the Mexican state of Sonora. She taught him to play music, read music and write music. After achieving some measure of proficiency on the guitar, he set out for Los Angeles.

“I started writing love songs, romantic ballads, and some ranchero, “ Guerrero recalled. “ ‘Cancion Mexicana’ was ranchero, my first real effort at composing. It was recorded by the famous, famous Mexican singer, Lucia Reyes, in 1941, and ever since it’s remained a standard, a part of Mexican musical folklore.”

On the heels of this songwriting success came the pachuco era, and Guerrero began writing swing songs with Spanish lyrics--just the stuff the young pachucos, with their flashy zoot suits and love for gringo jazz, wanted to hear.

“The pachucos were young Mexican-Americans who developed their own kind of slang, their own kind of dress. It began in El Paso, Tex., and then they migrated into Arizona and California, where it became a big fad in the early 1940s,” Guerrero recalled.

“At the time, I was still a struggling young musician, and I knew a lot of them. I was not one myself, but in clubs where I played they were always there, dancing. So I figured I would write some swing music they could dance to with Spanish lyrics, and they loved it.”

Guerrero was subsequently signed by Imperial Records and released several albums of what came to be known as Pachuco music. He also recorded for RCA Victor Records.

“Then when the pachuco era passed, in the early 1950s, I went back into singing and writing and recording romantic music and rancheros. My love songs I did with orchestras; my rancheros I did with a mariachi band.”

In the 1960s, the Chicano movement was just beginning, and Guerrero was on hand to chronicle its rise.

“I went into writing protest songs and also political songs that would talk about the struggle of our people to get equality and justice,” he said. “I wrote corridos about people like Cesar Chavez and Ruben Salazar, and the murder of the Kennedys.

“Then, after that, in the early 1970s, I got involved with writing satire, but still having to do with this Chicano thing--songs like ‘No Chicanos on TV’ and ‘Mexican Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Busboys.’

“And that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 10, 15 years--a lot of satire, mostly in English, but with a Mexican flavor. That, and playing all over the country, just about every weekend. I’ve really done it all, and I’m still doing it. Music, to me, should be fun, and I not only make a living with it, I’m having a ball with it.”

Sharing the bill with Guerrero at Sunday’s International Chicano Fest ’90 will be Los Rock Angels from Los Angeles, who play a cross-cultural mix of Norteno, Tex-Mex, and zydeco; reggae band Judah’s Star, also from L.A.; and local Norteno band Los Alacranes, who have been together for more than 20 years and now appear every Friday night at El Gato Loco, downtown on 5th Avenue.

The concert starts at noon and is scheduled to end around dusk. It is being produced by local Chicano muralist Ruben Seja in conjunction with the Centro Cultural de la Raza, which celebrates its 20th birthday this year.

“Basically, we do something every year for Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead, an annual Mexican holiday), and this year we decided to increase it, make it bigger, to get a little more recognition for the cultural center on its 20th anniversary,” Seja said.