I’ve been listening to music since the day I was born. My father used to sing songs to me, ranging from the Mexican equivalent to Mr. Rogers, El Cri Cri, to actually writing rhymes and songs for me. My favorite was, and still is, a song called “The Watermelon” or “La Sandia” that he wrote for me when I was four. I used to squeal and scream for the song, begging him to sing it whenever he had the chance and it stuck. His deep-rooted passion for Mexican songwriters like Jose Alfredo Jimenez, one of the heralders of Mexican mariachi music, was what I grew up with, along with Los Tigres del Norte. As a Mexican-American girl torn between being a Mexican and an American, it was an interesting musical scene for me from a very young age. Born and raised in Texas, I listened to various types of music. While I was listening to Michael Jackson, I was also being influenced by my mother’s love for Latin pop and Top 40, which included Rocio Durcal and Juan Gabriel (the Mexican Elton John). I was well immersed in Mexican and Latin American songwriters.