Folklórico/Experimental
We've already seen that the Nuyorican Grupo Folklórico went back to the roots to make new experiments in the 1970s.
A similar dynamic is characterizes the seminal East LA rock group Los Lobos: rockers, who arrived at traditional Mexican
and Tejano music in the wake of the Chicano movement. Unlike the
slightly older Santana-inspired bands of the Chicano movement, who
incorporated psychedelic rock and Afro-Cuban rhythms, Los Lobos, of L.A., started experimenting with traditional Mexican music from Mexico, such as traditional son jarocho from the Mexican Gulf state of Veracruz with Afro-Mexican roots, as well as the conjunto music of the borderlands. They even featured a fandango (jarocho breakdown) in their cover of Valens' "La Bamba" (itse;f, you'll remember, a rock and roll cha-cha-chá with a melody and lyrics borrowed from an old son jarocho)for the movie of the same name (2:20).
These pioneering groups paved the way for other roots-focused groups into the present day, as young Latinos, even those born and/or raised in the US, to engage traditional music more directly, often in ways that grow out of political activism. Many of these groups also feature women playing more active roles than in the past, which suggests that many of these groups are not only reviving older musical and cultural values, but also changing some of the old-school machismo that is also part of Latino culture.
Such is the case with the East-LA Chicano group, Las Cafeteras, one of various groups who have taken up son jarocho. Their version of "La Bamba" repurposes the lyrics to talk about crossing borders, and was the theme song for a popular Telemundo soap opera.
Their story shows their links both to traditional music and cal grassroots activism.
Another young LA Chicano band, La Santa Cecilia.
El Hielo.
There are similar trends on the East coast.Young Puerto Ricans are now playing bomba:
Nuyoricans Alma Moyó
Not
only are these groups doing traditional music, they're engaging in
different kinds of fusion between different folkloric genres, and with
popular music, as with El Barrio stalwarts Yerbabuena.Another New York-based group, Kalunga has directly confornted some of the exclusions in traditional music. Against the politically loaded division between the Dominican and Haitian nations, Kalunga, consisting of both Dominican and Haitian New Yorkers, performs both Afro-Dominican and Afro-Haitian music, arguing for the unity around a shared frame of blackness.
This
trend toward investigation, questioning, and fusion of folkloric music
has also been important for young Latinos from newer immigrant groups,
as with Colombians.Traditional group La
Many of the same musicians with M.A.K.U Sound System:
Gender
Women are taking up leadership and new instrumental roles in many of these groups.
Las Bompleneras de Chicago
Spaces
In LA, the Atomic/Troy Café
and others...
 |
| Eastside Café |
and others...
La Casita/Rincón Criollo in the Bronx
Some o these spaces have been predominantly immigrants, with some US-born folks. Others vice-versa. All ofthese rpojects spring form interactions between US-born and immigrant musicians. Many groups work from spaces of collaboration, like Bulla en el Barrio, formed around a charismatic and talernted singer from Colombia.
Politics
The Zapatistas, still going strong
The protests over Vieques in Puerto Rico
Zack de la Rocha, frontman of Rage Against the Machine in the 1990s, co-sponsored Regeneración.
Fandando Fronterizo, at the US-Mexico border in San Diego
#RickyRenuncia Bombazo in New York City
The Caribbeanization of NY Jazz
Miguel Zenón, who has already worked with plena and música jíbara and the musical exploration of identity.
While many US Latinos move toward traditional music, many immigrant musicians well-versed in tradition are moving toward experimental and avant-garde projects, with jazz an important baseline for both. Here are the percussionists and culture-bearers Pedrito Martínez and Román Díaz, in a ritual setting.
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