She was born in Houston, Texas, into a Mexican musical family originally from San Luis Potosí.

She designed and sewed her own stage costumes, and at one point was an instructor at California State University, Fresno.

Both of her parents were musicians from San Luis Potosí, Mexico, who could trace their roots to Villa de Arriaga.

There were five sisters – Lydia, Beatriz, Francisca, Maria and Monica – and three brothers – Francisco, Manuel and Andrew.

The family made a temporary relocation back to Mexico, during which time Lydia's brother Francisco, and sister Francisca were born.

[4] Mendoza later recalled that the border agents were operating under the assumption that anyone crossing over from Mexico was bad, but that the children were the worst of all.

It was during this time that Lydia first learned the song "Mal Hombre" (Bad Man) that would become her signature tune.

According to Mendoza, her maternal grandmother was a public school teacher named Teofina Reyna, of both Italian and Spanish heritage, who gave Lydia's mother guitar lessons.

No matter how many times she would try to strum on her mother's guitar, in spite of stern warnings not to, Lydia never tired of the tones and rhythm it produced when she ran her fingers across the strings.

[10] Before Mendoza was old enough to play any musical instrument, her family had become familiar entertainment to farm laborers along the Texas–Mexico international border.

Her father was a railroad mechanic along the Texas Rio Grande Valley, while the family sang for the migrant workers in the fields.

[12] In a borrowed car, the family headed for San Antonio, and made their first recordings, as the Cuarteto Monterrey por la Familia Mendoza.

[13] Like many migrant families of the era, the Mendozas relocated to Detroit, Michigan, in 1929, as farm laborers and as auto manufacturing plant workers.

They performed throughout Michigan before returning to San Antonio, Texas, in 1932, at the onset of the Great Depression in the United States.

[1] While performing as a teenager at San Antonio's Plaza del Zacate in Milam Park, Mendoza was discovered by WOAI radio station's "La Voz Latina" Spanish-language host Manuel J. Cortez who gave her a slot on his show, where she won an amateur competition.

It was during these sessions in 1936 that she recorded her signature tune "Mal Hombre", which instantly became a hit on both sides of the United States–Mexico border.

Mendoza had never learned to either speak or read English nor did she or the family have an attorney representing her, when she signed a contract giving up her royalty rights in exchange for a cash payment of $15 per recording.

Outside of that comfortable niche, persons of all color faced discrimination at hotels, restaurants, and other places where a "whites only" policy existed.

[18] As a teenager, Mendoza married cobbler Juan Alvarado in 1935, with whom she had three daughters, Lydia, Yolanda, and María Leonor.

Mendoza then retired from performing to stay at home and raise her daughters: Her husband's family either did not like her chosen profession, or perhaps thought a woman should not be in the workplace, and their opinions influenced her.

[20] Her popularity remained steady for the rest of her performing career, which continued until a 1998 stroke forced her to retire permanently at age 82.

[13] Although she had been born in Texas and lived most of her life in the United States, the last several decades in San Antonio, Mendoza never learned to speak English.

[24] Her group was sometimes considered in the genre of Texas-Mexican conjunto, an accordion-centered musical style she helped popularize.

[27] The grants are the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts, and given to artists who help preserve American culture.

[34][35][36] In 2013, San Antonio actor Jesse Borrego unveiled the Lydia Mendoza postage stamp, the first of the United States Postal Service Music Icon series.