FAMILY : Magnolia Tacos and Dancing Vegetables : Texas folk singer and songwriter Tish Hinojosa’s first album for children ‘is my personal journey that I wanted to share.’

Tish Hinojosa isn’t known as a children’s artist. This respected singer-songwriter, the child of parents born in Mexico, has been recording for adults since 1974, earning critical acclaim for the purity of her Southwestern-flavored soprano and musical integrity.

But “Cada Nino/Every Child,” Hinojosa’s exceptionally well-crafted first children’s album (Rounder Records), is a natural step for an eclectic artist whose work crosses musical boundaries and intimately reflects her own life, social conscience and cultural heritage.

“There’s always been an element of children’s interests in my work,” Hinojosa, 40, said from her Austin, Texas, home base.

“Almost every one of my albums has a song that deals with a children’s issue or with my kids,” she said, referring to her 11-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter. “There’s always been something magical that has stayed with me about my childhood. This album is my personal journey that I wanted to share with children and maybe with the kid in adults too.”

The recording joins such well-received albums as “Frontejas,” an all-Spanish tribute to Texas-Mexico border music; “Homeland,” part of an A&M; series also featuring Blues Traveler, Zachary Richard and David Wilcox; and Hinojosa’s 1992 “Culture Swing,” named folk record of the year by the National Assn. of Independent Record distributors.

In “Cada Nino,” a mix of heart songs and humor, vegetables throw a party and “Even the Dead Are Rising Up to Dance.” The evocative “Siempre Abuelita/Always Grandma” is based on Hinojosa’s grandmother.

“The brief time I knew her left me with a very sweet impression,” Hinojosa said, “not only of a grandmother but of the country my mother came from.”

An unusual highlight is “Magnolia,” inspired by tea parties Hinojosa and her sister would pretend to have with the Beatles in the ‘60s. They made “tacos” from magnolia leaves and took turns “as to which Beatle was our boyfriend.”

The song, with its “Beatleesque, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ sort of arrangement,” as she puts it, reflects the dual nature of a bilingual childhood.

“I guess it can happen any time,” Hinojosa said, “but anybody from the ‘60s can relate to being as in touch with our Mexican culture as with what was happening in American pop culture.”

Hinojosa’s desire to create a children’s album stemmed partly from what she as a parent found was missing from the bilingual, Spanish-English music market.

“I kind of filled my own agenda of the kinds of messages and themes and song choices that I wanted to pass on to my children,” she said.

Getting the balance right between the two languages took two years.

“I really worked on that. I went back to the drawing board many times on songs to get a perfect balance of English to Spanish, to make the language conversational and easy and also fun.”

Yes, Hinojosa is aware of what she calls the “cultural misunderstanding in our country,” but she believes strongly that there is a non-Latino audience interested in a “bilingual, bicultural perspective.”

“The importance for me is to reach both sides,” she said.

Hinojosa is often misidentified as a tejano singer, “an easy mistake,” she said, “because I am a Texan and people tend to think that’s what that label means.” Her musical passion, however, is rooted in folk music.

“I was being turned on by nueva cancion, the protest music of South America, and at the same time I was very in tune with the American coffeehouse folk music scene, listening to Bob Dylan and [Joan] Baez, Paul Simon--everything that was called pop music in America.”

Discovering as a teenager that she could sing and play the music she loved, Hinojosa got her first professional gig at age 15, singing jingles for a local Mexican radio station, a job that came about when her mother called the station and “offered my services.” After that success, which led to a recording label, Hinojosa made her own calls.

Rod Kennedy, director of Texas’ acclaimed annual Kerrville Folk Festival--for 25 years a major showcase for new songwriters--has followed Hinojosa’s career since her early gigs at San Antonio College.

At Kennedy’s urging, Hinojosa entered the festival’s 1979 competition for emerging songwriters and won, putting her in the company of Nanci Griffith, to whom she has been compared, and Lyle Lovett, among other notables.

“As a youngster,” Kennedy said, “she sang the kinds of folk songs a lot of people sang. As she grew, she increasingly claimed her own heritage.” That Mexican American heritage, he said, “while rich and beautiful, is not readily accepted by every facet of Anglo society. Tish has broken that border beautifully.”

Kerrville’s community service award is another prize Hinojosa has garnered, part of the local and national recognition she has earned for years of work on behalf of children, multicultural organizations, civil liberties and other humanitarian causes.

“Pop culture has totally invaded us, and the lowest common denominator seems to be what motivates people to get to the dollar sign,” Kennedy said. “Tish is more interested in the heart and the soul.”

Hinojosa records her “broader-stroke kind of music” for adults on the Warner Bros. label. Her next album, as yet unnamed, is due out in May as both a bilingual and a Spanish release.

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Hear Tish Hinojosa

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