Sponsored by:

Tish Hinojosa

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I was born and raised in San Antonio. In 1965, my family moved into an old historic central neighborhood. A 10-year-old at the time, the house felt like a mansion with its two-story columned front porches and five bedrooms. It wasn’t a mansion, but a big comfortable old house for a big family. It was a little run down which is what made it affordable for my father, but it did still carry a good amount of it’s 1910 charm.

This is the house that saw my adolescence, teen, and young adult years. For the first years we lived there, the landlord really wanted to sell the house to my parents, but Dad insisted “we were renters.” When my father passed away in 1972, one of the first things my mom did was go straight to the landlord to tell him she wanted to buy the house. With the help of my brother, José, she did.
Maria Del Refugio Coronado Hinojosa – Cuquita for short – loved her house. From the rose bushes she planted in the front yard to the cement driveway and two car garage she added in the back, this real estate was her pride. She entertained regularly and loved serving on her china, linens, and real silver platters. The Mexican specialties she served on these platters were exquisite and famous among her guests. Holidays and weekends always found Cuquita’s house full and celebrating. She loved it this way.

I was the youngest and last to leave my mother’s house. I love my own memories of discovering my voice, of getting my first guitar, of proms, teen dreams, and coming home at night after my first musical gigs on the River Walk. I left home in 1979 to further pursue personal and musical hopes in the mountains of northern New Mexico and then in Nashville. I got married and had a baby boy, then returned to this house in 1984 to help care for my mom who was in ill health. Cuquita died in 1985. My siblings and I couldn’t afford to maintain the house and put it up for sale with heavy hearts. Over the next 30 years it went through several owners and deteriorated quite a bit. However, the basic beauty and grace it was born with still peeks through.

In 2013, I returned to Texas from having lived in Europe for nine years. I have had some difficulties since, including serious medical issues that rose from a botched minor surgery (No, not cosmetic surgery! It was a gastro-intestinal issue).

This house has recently come up on the real estate market. I am hoping that with your help, I can purchase and put love back into it. Although I have had an enriching and magical music career, and musicians rarely “retire,” I am at an age now that has me thinking of enjoying life closer to home and offering something to my community as well.

I call it Home For The Arts because I plan to host singer-songwriters, both local and touring, present intimate concerts, art exhibits, songwriting and music workshops, kids programs, and regular community events.

I love San Antonio, and I love my old neighborhood. Cuquita would smile down from heaven if this dream of mine comes true. After all, this is “her own damn house” that I wrote about in my song “The West Side Of Town.”

I hope you will consider contributing to this project of love. Your help will be endlessly appreciated and whether small or large, your contributions will be honored by having your name engraved on a brick, a stone, or a plaque on the property, or your donation can be made anonymous. You will also always be welcomed to spend a night or attend the many happy concerts and events I hope to host at this lovely old house in the coming years.

To support my cause, click here.

Tish Hinojosa is a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas. Hinojosa’s blend of folk, country, Latino, and pop has an undeniable far reaching appeal, garnering her accolades such as a White House concert...