PROFILE W By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Senior Writer
Photography by LIZ GARZA WILLIAMS
I
t’s mid-April but Patsy Torres’ house is still decorated for Christmas. Too many things have been happening since the holidays,
she explains, including family illnesses, to worry about taking down all that stuff. Located on a quiet street in a northwestern suburb, the house itself is an oasis of peace overlooking the green landscape of the Hill Country. Torres and her husband, David Lucero, relocated to this hideaway in 2001 to escape from overzealous fans of the Tejano star who used to drive by her previous residences, stop to look and even leave messages in the mailbox. “Here, our only uninvited visitors are deer, coyotes, foxes and owls,” says Torres, who hasn’t changed much since we last interviewed her in the late 1990s. As energetic as ever, she is still a performing dynamo who is as willing to donate her time to Tejanos for Christ as to travel to China as a Texas Ambassador under the auspices of the Texas Commission on the Arts. A woman of faith and a lifelong Catholic, Torres was approached about 18 months ago by Grammy winner Sunny Ozuna and colleagues René René and Rudy-Tee, who had formed a small group of Tejano artists “dedicated to using their vocal talents to evangelize and raise money for churches and religious organizations.” They wondered if
In addition to her singing career, Patsy Torres is commited to education through her Positive Force Tour. She recently earned her Ph.D. in education and organizational leadership.
she would join them for a concert. “I thought
ally sounds reverent. “It’s something I have al-
I was filling in for someone,” explains Torres
ways wanted to do,” she admits. “I give my
been a trailblazer. She was the first Tejana
lightheartedly as we are getting settled in the
testimony every time we do a concert. I am
singer to turn her performances into min-
living room for our conversation.
honored to be a part of Tejanos for Christ.”
ishows by combining singing with dancing
Over her long career, Torres has often
“They said, ‘Do you have any Christian
But she has not forgotten her Tejano fans.
and using the entire stage. She was also the
songs you could do, and could you give your
Not long ago she recorded a collection of her
first one to film a music video and to give ex-
testimony at the concert?’ I went: ‘What?’
original songs from past and present under
posure to Tejano music on national television
They said it was to be a fundraiser for St.
the title Canciones de Patsy Torres, including
when she sang Abrázame on the CBS special
Mary Magdalene Catholic Church. I didn’t
her greatest hits Te Juro and Ya Me Voy de
Sea World’s Lone Star Celebration. Between
have any Christian songs, so I decided to sing
Esta Tierra from her first album issued in 1985.
1985 and 2010, Torres released 13 albums,
secular ones and change the words. I loved
This month, her latest, Mi Inspiración. is ex-
won the Tejano Music Award for Best Female
being part of it, though.”
pected to come out. She writes most of her
Entertainer in 1987, performed for the first
Afterwards, people came to her wanting
material herself. Torres continues to perform
time with the San Antonio Symphony in 1992
to buy a CD of the songs she had sung, but
live both at home in San Antonio and all over
(and again in 2012), and was inducted into
there wasn’t one. So Torres went to work,
the country and abroad. There are Tejano
the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in
eventually releasing Saved at Last, her first
fans in China, she discovered, as well as in
2000 and into the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame
10-track Christian album, which reveals an-
Germany, where she entertained 45,000
in 2009. For 10 years, the engaging vocalist
other face of the artist — a soulful, expres-
screaming, dancing Germans, and even in
also entertained visitors at Six Flags Fiesta
sively nuanced deep voice that, unlike so
Turkey, where she has visited twice, most re-
Texas, sharing with them aspects of the Chi-
much of contemporary Christian music, actu-
cently in 2010.
cano culture. And these are just some of her
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