La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio (, usually called only "La Maldita") is a band formed in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
in 1985. They are pioneers of
rock en español
Rock en español () is a term used widely in the English-speaking world to refer to any kind of rock music featuring Spanish vocals. Compared to English-speaking bands, very few acts reached worldwide success or between Spanish-speaking countrie ...
and one of the most influential rock bands in Mexico.
They first made an impact with ''Mojado'', ''Un poco de sangre'', ''Cocodrilo'', ''Pachuco'' and ''Un gran circo'', songs that narrate the problems, adventures, and beauty of a society anxious to improve its economic status. Their wardrobe has incorporated elements of the
pachuco
Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as '' caló'', and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in El Paso ...
, an
archetypical
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ot ...
character represented by
Tin Tán in
Mexican cinema
Mexican cinema dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ideal ...
. Tin Tan is sampled in one of the group's biggest hits, 1991's ''Pachuco''.
The last studio album they recorded was in 2009. Since then, the band has collaborated with other bands, as well as having participated in tribute albums for
José José
José Rómulo Sosa Ortiz (17 February 1948 – 28 September 2019), known professionally as José José, was a Mexican singer and actor. Born into a family of musicians, José began his musical career in his early teens playing guitar and sin ...
and the
Tigres del Norte. Their sound incorporates many styles, including
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
,
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
, and traditional
Cuban
Cuban may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean
* Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent
** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof
* Cuban citizen, a perso ...
forms such as the
bolero
Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It has ...
and
Cuban Son
Son cubano is a genre of music and dance that originated in the highlands of eastern Cuba during the late 19th century. It is a syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are th ...
. Roco, the band's vocalist, dresses in a manner reminiscent of the
pachuco
Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as '' caló'', and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in El Paso ...
s.
History
![Patio_de_vecindad-Colonia-Roma-MexicoCity](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Patio_de_vecindad-Colonia-Roma-MexicoCity.JPG)
At the end of the 1980s, a movement began called
Rock en tu idioma (Rock in Your Language), and a marketing strategy was developed by record labels to draw attention of young people to the new trend, which began in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
. Influential bands like
Soda Stereo
Soda Stereo is an Argentine rock band formed in Buenos Aires in 1982 by Gustavo Cerati (lead vocals, guitar), Héctor "Zeta" Bosio (bass) and Carlos Alberto Ficicchia "Charly Alberti" (drums). As the first Hispanic group to achieve mainstream ...
,
Los Enanitos Verdes
Enanitos Verdes (literal translation: "Little green dwarves", roughly equivalent to the English phrase "Little green men") is a rock trio from Argentina, formed in 1979 in the city of Mendoza.
History
The band started in 1979, with Marciano C ...
,
Virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
,
Heroes del Silencio
Heroes or Héroes may refer to:
* Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good
Film
* ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama
* ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film
Gaming
* ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...
,
Autobús, and
Žas
Žas (''Žertva Ant Smūgio'') is a Lithuanian musical group that mostly performs pop music and alternative rock. The group was formed in 1993 as a gangsta rap group, but the group also created rock and techno music.
The band was on a hiatus and ...
, the band of
Miguel Mateos
Miguel Ángel Mateos Sorrentino (born January 26, 1954) is an Argentine rock singer-songwriter from Villa Pueyrredón, Argentina. Outside Argentina he is considered one of the most important exponents of Rock en Español, specially in the 1980s ...
, were among the pioneers who first played authentic rock music in Spanish. Consequently, Mexican bands began to sprout. Many of these were influenced by groups like
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
,
The Cure
The Cure are an English Rock music, rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith (musician), Robert Smith has re ...
,
Paralamas do Sucesso
Os Paralamas do Sucesso (also known simply as Paralamas) is a Brazilian rock band, formed in Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro, in the late 1970s. Its members since 1982 are Herbert Vianna (guitar and lead vocals), Bi Ribeiro (bass), and João Barone ...
, and others. The early bands of the movement,
Caifanes
Caifanes is a rock band from Mexico City. Formed in 1987, the group achieved international fame during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The original line-up was Saúl Hernández (vocals and guitar), Sabo Romo (bass guitar), (drums) and Diego He ...
, Maldita Vecindad,
Café Tacuba
Café Tacvba (Pronounced ''kaˈfe taˈkuβa'') is a band from Ciudad Satélite, Mexico. The group gained popularity in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1989, before they had the current lineup of Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega (lead vocals, ...
and
Maná
Maná () is a Mexican pop rock band. The band is considered one of the best-selling Latin music artists and the most successful Latin American band of all time with over 40 million records sold worldwide. The group's current lineup consists o ...
achieved huge sales and great international recognition.
La Maldita Vecindad appeared on the music scene with a new style that was unheard of in Mexico at the time. It combined strong elements of
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
, rock and traditional Mexican music. This included the attire of Roco, inspired by the
pachuco
Pachucos are male members of a counterculture associated with zoot suit fashion, jazz and swing music, a distinct dialect known as '' caló'', and self-empowerment in rejecting assimilation into Anglo-American society that emerged in El Paso ...
culture represented by
Tin Tan
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn (from la, stannum) and atomic number 50. Tin is a silvery-coloured metal.
Tin is soft enough to be cut with little force and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, ...
, the incorporation of a saxophone, and a celebration of the street culture of Mexico City.
From 1986 to 1988, the band participated actively in popular movements like the one for the victims of the
earthquake of 1985 and the elections of 1988.
Their second album ''
El circo'' turned them into a commercial success. The album reached over 800,000 copies sold (a record high at the time). In 1991, on their first U.S. tour, they played with groups like
INXS
INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
,
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth was an American rock band based in New York City, formed in 1981. Founding members Thurston Moore (guitar, vocals), Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar) and Lee Ranaldo (guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of the b ...
,
Madness,
Faith No More
Faith No More is an American rock band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979. Before settling on the current name in July 1983, the band performed under the names Sharp Young Men and later Faith No Man. Bassist Billy Gould, keyboardist/r ...
and
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1985. The band consists of vocalist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, drummer Stephen Perkins and bassist Eric Avery. Jane's Addiction was one of the first bands from t ...
. By 1992, they were often compared to other great Latin American bands like
Mano Negra and
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Los Fabulosos Cadillacs is an Argentine ska band from Buenos Aires.
Background and style
Formed in 1985, they released their first album, ''Bares y Fondas'' (Bars and Boardinghouses), in 1986 and have since released fourteen more albums. They ...
.
Throughout their career, La Maldita Vecindad has remained a creative force. It has also managed to create unique covers of songs by artists from strikingly different genres, like
Los Tigres del Norte
Los Tigres del Norte (English: ''The Tigers of the North'') are a norteño band from San Jose, California. Originally founded in Mocorito, Sinaloa, Mexico, with sales of 60 million albums, the band is one of the most recognized groups in the g ...
,
Armando Manzanero
Armando Manzanero Canché (7 December 1935 – 28 December 2020) was a Mexican Maya peoples, Mayan musician, singer, composer, actor and music producer, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the ...
and
Juan Gabriel
Alberto Aguilera Valadez (; January 7, 1950 – August 28, 2016), known professionally as Juan Gabriel (), was a Mexican singer, songwriter and actor. Colloquially nicknamed as Juanga () and El Divo de Juárez, Juan Gabriel was known for his f ...
.
Their newest album, ''Circular colectivo'', (
Nacional Records
Nacional Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. It is home to numerous artists including Manu Chao, Grammy-nominated Mexican electronica group Nortec Collective, Colombian rock band Aterciopelados, Argentine rock ...
2010) maintains much of the ska/punk energy, with a contemporary sound. The lyrics talk about the crisis that Mexican society faces in a rapidly changing global economy and pays tribute to
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk (born Ronald Theodore Kirk; August 7, 1935Kernfeld, Barry.Kirk, Roland" ''The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz'', 2nd ed. Ed. Barry Kernfeld. ''Grove Music Online''. ''Oxford Music Online''. Retrieved February 1, 2009-. "The year ...
and
Ernest Ranglin
Ernest Ranglin (born 19 June 1932) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels including Studio One (record label), Studio One and I ...
. The production by San Francisco-based
Greg Landau Greg Landau is an American, San Francisco-based record and video producer, and an instructor of music and Latin American Studies focused on the social movements that produced revolutionary music and art. He has produced eight Grammy nominated recor ...
(Susana Baca, Patato Valdez, Quetzal) and
Hector "Hecdog" Perez, has helped the band to craft a new path in Mexican music. The album features two cameos by Cuban pianist
Omar Sosa
Omar Sosa (born April 10, 1965) is a jazz pianist from Cuba.
Biography
A native of Camagüey, Cuba, Sosa studied percussion at the Escuela Nacional de Musica and Instituto Superior de Arte. In the 1980s he started the band Tributo, recording alb ...
.
Eulalio Cervantes Galarza, better known as ''Sax'', died at the age of 52 after contracting
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
in March 2021.
The name
In Mexico City, ''vecindad'' (literally meaning "neighborhood") refers to residential constructions that were built at the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Still inhabited today, these residential areas share one or more large ''patios'' and common areas such as bathrooms and laundry facilities, basically because the rented rooms do not have them. The more ''patios'' a ''vecindad'' has, the more populated these buildings are and therefore the poorer it tends to be.
The name "and the children of the fifth ''patio"'' has an interesting history. There's a Mexican movie from 1950, called "The Fifth ''Patio''" due to it narrating the history of very poor families living in a fifth ''patio'' in a ''vecindad'' in Mexico City Downtown. In the twentieth century there was a ''vecindad'' located in the ''Santa María La Ribera'' suburb, the front door of which reminded a lot of the front door of that movie's ''vecindad'', and people in the neighborhood started to call that ''vecindad'' "The Fifth Patio". Most of the band members were born and raised in that ''vecindad,'' in ''Santa María La Ribera'', Mexico City.
Members
Lineup
![Maldita_Vecindad_y_los_Hijos_del_Quinto_Patio_02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Maldita_Vecindad_y_los_Hijos_del_Quinto_Patio_02.jpg)
*Rolando ''Rocco'' Ortega: vocals
*Arturo Reyes ''Tiky'' Hagen : guitars (1985–1988)
*Enrique ''Pato'' Montes: guitars (1988-present)
*Aldo Acuña: bass (1987-present)
*
José Luis Paredes Pacho: drums (1985–2002)
*Eulalio ''Sax'' Cervantes: saxophones, trumpets, and guitar (1985-2021†)
*Adrian ''Lobito'' Navarro Maycote: percussion (1988–93)
Select discography
Albums
*1989: ''
Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio''
*1991: ''
El circo''
*1993: ''
En Vivo: Gira Pata de Perro'' (live)
*1996: ''
Baile de Máscaras''
*1998: ''
Mostros''
*2009: ''Circular colectivo''
Compilations
*2000: ''
Maldita Sea, Vol. 1: 1989–199''
*2001: ''Rock mexicano - Lo mejor de La Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del Quinto Patio''
*2004: ''El tiempo vive en la memoria 1989–2004: 15 años de éxitos Maldita Vecindad''
References
{{Authority control
Musical groups established in 1985
Mexican rock music groups
Rock en Español music groups
Musical groups from Mexico City
Nacional Records artists
1985 establishments in Mexico