Mimi Fariña

American folk musician and activist

• Born: April 30, 1945
• Birthplace: Stanford, California
• Died: July 18, 2001
• Place of death: Mill Valley, California

A key figure in the 1960’s folk revival, Fariña also was active in the social protests of the time. Her activism led her to found Bread and Roses, a nonprofit organization that offers free entertainment to people confined to institutions.

Early Life

Margarita Mimi Baez Fariña (BI-ehz fah-REEN-yah) was born in Stanford, California, to physicistAlbert V. Baez, a native of Puebla, Mexico, and Joan Bridge, from Edinburgh, Scotland. Fariña was the youngest of three sisters; the oldest was Pauline, and folk singer Joan was the middle child. A product of a Society of Friends school, the elder Joan introduced her husband and children to the Quaker religion. Quaker teachings shaped the family’s political and social views and led the daughters to embrace a commitment to nonviolence and pacifism.

Because Albert worked as a researcher and university professor, the family moved frequently and lived in various places around the United States and the world, including Redlands, California; Baghdad, Iraq; and Belmont, Massachusetts. Their sojourn in Baghdad in 1951 was particularly difficult for six-year-old Fariña, who attended a convent school. The nuns’ sternness dampened her enjoyment of academics, so she turned to the arts, particularly music and dance, which gave her a sense of accomplishment and self-worth.

In 1958, Albert accepted a position at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Boston area, and the family moved to nearby Belmont, where Fariña began high school. The folk era was starting to gain momentum, and the coffee houses in Cambridge were frequented by many rising stars, including Eric Von Schmidt, Jim Kweskin, and Bob Dylan. Fariña and her sister Joan were accomplished singers and guitarists and often performed duets in the clubs around Harvard Square. Joan dedicated herself to building her career, but Fariña did not have the freedom to participate in the folk scene because she was still in high school.

Life’s Work

Fariña and her parents moved in 1961 to Paris, where Albert was on assignment with Unesco. There she met Richard Fariña, a charismatic young writer and musician who was eight years her senior. Although he was married to Carolyn Hester, another star of the folk era, Richard was smitten by the fifteen-year-old. Eventually Richard and Carolyn divorced, and Fariña and Richard were married in a secret civil ceremony in Paris in 1963. They later were married in California with family and friends in attendance. Richard and Fariña’s wedding marked the beginning of a brief but creatively rich musical collaboration.

After their wedding, the Fariñas moved into a cabin in Carmel, California, next door to Joan, who was living with Bob Dylan at the time. In 1964, Fariña and Richard debuted together at the Big Sur Folk Festival and were warmly received by the audience. By the time they rejoined the burgeoning folk scene in Cambridge that same year, they had built a solid reputation among folk aficionados as an up-and-coming duo known for their fresh, original sound. While Richard wrote most of the songs they performed and was praised for his poetic lyrics, Fariña was known for her expertise on the guitar. They released two albums in 1965, Celebrations for a Grey Day, and Reflections of a Crystal Wind. During the summer of 1965, they performed at the Newport Folk Festival, where they received a standing ovation. Their personal and professional relationship was cut short on April 30, 1966, Fariña’s twenty-first birthday, when Richard was killed in a motorcycle accident.

After Richard’s death, Fariña continued to work as an entertainer and musician. In 1967, she joined the Committee, a comedy troupe based in San Francisco. She formed a musical partnership with singer-songwriter Tom Jans and recorded an album with him titled Take Heart. The collaboration did not last long, and they split up in 1972.

Fariña, Joan, and B. B. King performed a concert at Sing Sing Prison in New York in 1972. The event was a turning point for Fariña when she noticed that the music had a positive effect on the inmates. Performances in similar venues convinced her that both the audiences and the artists would benefit from the interaction that the concerts provided. In 1974, Fariña founded Bread and Roses, a nonprofit group that organizes free live concerts in institutional settings such as prisons, nursing homes, homeless shelters, special-needs schools, and drug rehabilitation centers. Her connections in the music industry enabled Fariña to recruit well-known musicians to donate performances, including her sister Joan, Pete Seeger, Bonnie Raitt, Judy Collins, Odetta, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young. Fariña headed the organization until her death from neuroendocrine cancer in 2001.

Significance

Fariña was an accomplished singer and master musician whose artistry shaped the folk revival of the 1960’s and who inspired a generation to participate in social action. Her most enduring legacy, however, is the founding of Bread and Roses. Reflective of its humanitarian mission, the title of the organization is derived from a poem by James Oppenheim about a 1912 garment workers’ strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Bread and Roses is active in the San Francisco Bay area, where it produces 600 shows annually in more than 110 facilities with the help of 1,400 volunteers. It has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the award for Achievement in Nonprofit Excellence bestowed by Marin County in 2008.

Bibliography

Baez, Joan. A Voice to Sing With: A Memoir. New York: Summit Books, 1987. A memoir by Fariña’s sister that includes details about their upbringing, relationship, and musical collaboration.

Hajdu, David. Positively Fourth Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001. A well-rounded portrait how four young people transformed the 1960’s folk scene.

Von Schmidt, Eric, and Jim Rooney. Baby, Let Me Follow You Down. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press Doubleday, 1979. A fascinating account of the folk revival in Cambridge, Massachusetts, written by one of the key figures of the movement.