As a child, Fender and his parents traveled throughout the United States as a circus act.
At age 5, he turned a sardine can and screen door wire into a homemade guitar, and by age 10,
had his first radio appearance on Harlingen's KGBS-AM radio station, where he sang
"Let's Spend The Night Together" and reportedly won a tub of food worth $5.
At the age of 16, Fender quit school and started a three year hitch in the United States Marine Corps.
He returned to Texas and played nightclubs, bars and honky-tonks throughout the south,
mostly to Latino audiences. In 1957, then known as "El Bebop Kid," he released two songs to
moderate success in Mexico and South America: Spanish language versions of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel,"
and Harry Belafonte's "Jamaica Farewell." This has made Baldemar Huerta the first Latino to have recorded and
performed the first rock and roll song hit of "No Seas Cruel" in spanish.
He is known for his rockabilly music and his cool persona as "Eddie Con Los Shades rock and roll album
which like more of his rock and roll CD's are still being sold as of today.
In 1958, the musician changed his name from Baldemar Huerta to Freddy Fender.
He took Fender from an amplifier, and 'Freddy' because the alliteration sounded good to him
and it would,"...sell better with Gringos!" He then headed for California