Ersi Arvizu not only has an awesome name that sounds like it could belong to a convertible of some sort, she also happens to be a celebrated female mariachi performer and songwriter. And she could also pretty much box your face off. Yeah, jealous?:

Ersi Arvizu grew up in East Los Angeles, the daughter of a boxing-trainer dad and a beauty-queen mom who wrote songs on the sly. She scored regional pop hits with the Sisters in the ’60s and then made her mark in Latin rock in the ’70s, singing “Sabor a Mi” with El Chicano. And when her tenure with that band ended, she laced up the gloves and won four fights herself.

“And then I sang in the lounge, ” Arvizu says. “My story should be a movie. ‘Million Dollar Baby’ was close to it, except she didn’t sing.”

When, later, she decided to put out a solo album, she took inspiration from her own experiences. Because, well. Her producer done told her to:

When it came time to record her solo debut album, producer Ry Cooder didn’t worry that Arvizu didn’t have any original material.

“You’ve got this eccentric life, ” Cooder told her. “It’s like an epic. So write songs!”

And write she did. Although many were disappointed when she eventually left the boxing world to pursue music, Ersi’s songs and musical collaborations have won her a new set of fans. Although she’s been around for 30+ years, she’s new to us. And we just got pregnant listening to her voice - which suit itself as much to Spanish-language love ballads to bluesy, jazzier fare. Like, for example, “I’m a Good Woman:”

Celebrating mariachi women [Mercury News]
Ersi Arvizu [MySpace]