About This Stamp
One of the first and greatest stars of Tejano music, Lydia Mendoza (1916-2007) is seen strumming her 12-string guitar on this lively stamp, one of several that inaugurates the Music Icons series.
The stamp art features a black-and-white publicity photo of Mendoza taken in the 1950s. The flag of Texas, Mendoza’s home state, is splashed across the photo, its vertical blue bar and horizontal red stripe providing the stamp’s only color. The stamp sheet evokes the appearance of a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the sheet includes the stamps and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. The reverse side includes the photograph featured on the stamp and the logo for the Music Icons series.
Nicknamed La Alondra de la Frontera, the Lark of the Border, Lydia Mendoza performed the Spanish-language music of the Texas-Mexico borderlands and beyond. She is best known for her solo performances, her soulful voice accompanied only by the playing of her 12-string guitar. Mendoza recorded more than a thousand songs in a career that spanned seven decades. Through her music, she gave a voice not only to the poor and working-class people of the border, but also to Latinos throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Born into a musical family, Mendoza first performed with her mother, father, and sister in stores and restaurants. After winning a singing contest on the radio, she recorded several solo cuts for Bluebird Records in 1934, including “Mal Hombre” or “Evil Man,” which went on to become her biggest hit.
Neal Ashby and Patrick Donohue designed the stamp, working with art director Antonio Alcalá.
The Lydia Mendoza stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.
Stamp Art Director
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Designers
Patrick Donohue
Neal Ashby
Neal Ashby was born in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania. He discovered his dream career at an early age when he read a pamphlet about careers in art and was immediately hooked by the job description for art director. He graduated in 1989 from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in advertising design.
A love of music shaped Ashby’s career. He learned to play several instruments but found his way into the music business through his design talents. After ten years as the vice president and creative director for the Recording Industry Association of America, Ashby went out on his own in 2002. He opened a design firm, Ashby Design, in Alexandria, Virginia, and continues to work with music industry clients, including a long-term relationship with the Washington, D.C., electronic duo Thievery Corporation.
Ashby was nominated for the Grammy® award for Best Recording Package three times, in 2005, 2006, and 2008. His work has been displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, Washington.
Aside from his design work, Ashby loves to paint. It is strictly a hobby for him, a pastime he enjoys for the sheer pleasure of creating something visual just to please himself.
Ashby lives and works in the Washington, D.C., area. He has designed three stamps for the U.S. Postal Service®: Lydia Mendoza (2013), Ray Charles (2013), and John Lennon (2018), all issuances in the Music Icons series.