Las Cafeteras is a Chicano band from

East Los Angeles, California East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010 United States Cen ...

. Their music fuses

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, with traditional Son jarocho and zapateado dancing.

History

The band started out as students of the Eastside Café,''El Sereno Eastside Café'' Website
/ref> a community space in El Sereno, Los Angeles, where they took Son Jarocho classes. Influenced by music from Veracruz, Mexico and eager to teach others about it, they started formally playing in 2005. Since forming, they have shared the stage with artists such as, Caifanes, Lila Downs,

Juanes file:Juanes ZMF 2015 jm49108.jpg, Juanes at the Zelt Musik Festival 2015 in Freiburg, Germany file:Juanes ZMF 2015 jm49211.jpg, Juanes at the Zelt Musik Festival 2015 in Freiburg, Germany Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 19 ...

, Ozomatli,

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros is an American folk rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2005. The group is led by singer Alex Ebert. The band's name is based on a story Ebert wrote in his youth, about a messianic figure named ...

and the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

. Their namesake derives from the organization where they took classes. To honor women, they feminized their group name by naming themselves Las Cafeteras, rather than Los Cafeteros. Las Cafeteras' songs have themes and references that range from the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the Agricultural Workers Organizing ...

, DREAM Act,

immigration reform Immigration reform is change to the current immigration policy of a country. In its strict definition, ''reform'' means "to change into an improved form or condition, by amending or removing faults or abuses". In the political sense, "immigration ...

female homicides in Ciudad Juárez Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

. Their song, "La Bamba Rebelde", a remake of The traditional Mexican song from the state of Veracruz "La Bamba", denotes their Chicano pride. They say that they construct their music as a tool for creating positive change and inspiring others to do so.

Band members

* Daniel French – vocals,

jarana A jarana is a guitar-like string instrument from Mexico. There are different regional versions of the jarana, notably: * Jarana huasteca, string instrument of the Huastec region, Mexico * Jarana jarocha, string instrument of Veracruz, Mexico * Ja ...

, MC * David Flores — requinto jarocho * Denise Carlos – vocals,

, zapateado,

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

* Jose Cano — cajón, Native American flute, harmonica * Hector Flores – vocals, zapateado * Leah Gallegos – vocals,

quijada The quijada, charrasca, or jawbone (in English), is an idiophone percussion instrument made from the jawbone of a donkey, horse or mule cattle, producing a powerful buzzing sound. The jawbone is cleaned of tissue and dried to make the teeth loos ...

, zapateado

Past members

* Annette Torres — marimbol, zapateado

Discography

*''Live at Mucho Wednesdays'' (2009) *''It's Time'' (2012) *''Tastes Like L.A.'' (2017)

References

External links

''Las Cafeteras'' Official Website

''Las Cafeteras''
on facebook
''Las Cafeteras''
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Cafeteras Chicano Mexican-American culture in Los Angeles Latin music groups Latin American music Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 2005 El Sereno, Los Angeles American musicians of Mexican descent Hispanic and Latino American musicians