This street honors a forgotten Mexican chanteuse. The Huntington Palisades tract was laid out in 1926 by Texas-raised civil engineer Willis Waugh Williams (1884-1969), who named several of its streets named after Mexican mines – see Almoloya Drive – but saved this one for a friend: Cristina Méndez (1886-?), a soprano who performed under the stage name Alma Real: “Royal Soul” in Spanish. (Some claim Williams and Méndez were a couple but in fact Méndez was really a friend of Williams’s wife Helen Cooper Williams (1886-1968), a fellow singer.) María Cristina Méndez was born in Mexico City and made her New York debut in 1918. While she was there, a minor scandal erupted when her ex-husband stole their sons Alonzo and Germán back to Mexico. She later regained custody. In 1923, Méndez was living and performing in El Paso, TX, where she befriended the Williamses. She was singing Mexican folk songs at the Hollywood Bowl just one year later at the Bowl’s “Spanish-Mexican Night” – the first Latina soloist to grace its stage. Méndez stayed on in Los Angeles, giving concerts, marrying a second time (it didn’t last), and even taking small roles in B-movies before moving back to Mexico City in 1937. The last mention I could find of her was in 1962, when she made a special appearance at Santa Barbara’s annual Fiesta, where she had performed decades earlier.
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