Quetzal is a bilingual (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

)

Chicano rock Chicano rock is rock music performed by Mexican American (Chicano) groups or music with themes derived from Chicano culture. Chicano Rock, to a great extent, does not refer to any single style or approach. Some of these groups do not sing in Span ...

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

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 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010, when it was 126,496. For statistical purpo ...

History

The band was founded by Quetzal Flores in 1993 in a Chicano owned cafe, Troy cafe, in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles. Martha Gonzalez joined the group in 1995. They helped start the Seattle Fandango Project in 2009 when Martha Gonzalez moved to Seattle to complete her PhD in Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington."Martha Gonzalez - Chicana Artivista." MarthaGonzaleznet RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014. Quetzal is an ensemble of musicians, joined for the goal of creating good music that tells the social, cultural, political, and musical stories of people in struggle. Martha Gonzalez, the band's lead singer, percussionist, and songwriter, calls it an “East LA Chican@ rock group,” summing up its roots in the complex cultural currents of life in the barrio, its social activism, its strong feminist stance, and its rock and roll musical beginnings.

Music style

Quetzal plays a mix of Mexican and

Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural el ...

rhythms,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

, and

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

. Inspired by the

Zapatistas Zapatista(s) may refer to: * Liberation Army of the South The Liberation Army of the South ( es, Ejército Libertador del Sur, ELS) was a guerrilla force led for most of its existence by Emiliano Zapata that took part in the Mexican Revolut ...

, they incorporate

fandango Fandango is a lively partner dance originating from Portugal and Spain, usually in triple meter, traditionally accompanied by guitars, castanets, or hand-clapping. Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has ...

and san jarocho in their music. In 1992, Chicano rock guitarist Quetzal Flores discovered the burgeoning revival of traditional music of Veracruz called son jarocho which is born from a community fiesta called a fandango. Quetzal Flores described the community of fandango in the L.A. area as a necessary practice because "I think it's because as human beings we are kind of lacking this sort of connection, like these one-on-one connections in this high tech world." Flores incorporated san jarocho and fandango into his own music style, which is influenced by The Smiths, Ruben Blades, Stevie Wonder, and others. Flores’s approach to music was also influenced by the East L.A. musical scene of Mexican musica ranchera, salsa, Chicano Rock, R&B, and international popular music. Raised in a family of social activists, he saw music as a means to work for social justice as well as a form of creative expression. For the band, music expresses the ultimate struggle for dignity.

Career

Quetzal was featured in the soundtrack to the 2004 short film '' Stand Up For Justice: The Ralph Lazo Story.'' In 2013, the band won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop, Rock or Urban Album. Martha Gonzalez and Quetzal Flores are co-producers of ''Entre Mujeres,'' a CD released in 2012. The band was invited to speak and perform in the U.S. Library of Congress and Kennedy Center's Homegrown music series. The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

's traveling exhibit "American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music" feature Quetzal as leaders and innovators of Chicano music. Smithsonian Folkways label released the 2013 Grammy-winning CD ''Imaginaries'', marking the importance of Gonzalez's past and ongoing work. They have also been instrumental in developing Fandango Sin Fronteras, a dialog between Chicanos and Chicanas from California and jarochos-musicians who play the Veracruz style. Quetzal's work has been the subject of a range of publications, including dissertations, scholarly books, and newspaper articles, most notably

Patricia Zavella Patricia Zavella is an anthropologist and professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz in the Latin American and Latino Studies department. She has spent a career advancing Latina and Chicana feminism through her scholarship, teaching, an ...

's ''I'm Neither Here Nor There: Mexicans' Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty''.

Album: ''Imaginaries''

''Imaginaries'' refers to scholar

Emma Pérez Emma Pérez is an American author and professor, known for her work in queer Chicana feminist studies. Biography Pérez was born in El Campo, Texas in October 25, 1954. In 1979, she received an undergraduate degree in political science and wom ...

's book, ''The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History''. To the band it's about creating and occupying a physical and conceptual space outside the established structures of capitalism and government. It's a safe space created by neighbors, or musicians, or artists, or kids, or adults, or viejitos, or a combination of any of these. They're inspired to create community around music, a communion where the listener is as much musician as the people on the stage holding the instruments. Quetzal won the Grammy for Latin rock, urban or alternative album for its release ''Imaginaries'' (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings), a foray into

cumbia Cumbia refers to a number of musical rhythms and folk dance traditions of Latin America, generally involving musical and cultural elements from American Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans during colonial times, and Europeans. Examples include: ...

, neo-'80s-style R&B, Cuban charanga and Brazilian

pandeiro The pandeiro () is a type of hand frame drum popular in Brazil. The pandeiro is used in a number of Brazilian music forms, such as samba, choro, coco, and capoeira music. The drumhead is tunable, and the rim holds metal jingles (''platinelas'' ...

, charged with the band's collectivist political passion. It is the band's first Grammy. On ''Imaginaries'', they combined the traditional son jarocho of Veracruz, salsa, R&B, and more to express the political and social struggle for self-determination and self-representation, which ultimately is a struggle for dignity. The albim had 12 tracks, 55 minutes, 40-page booklet with bilingual notes. This album is part of the Smithsonian Folkways Tradiciones/Traditions series of Latino music albums, produced with support by the Smithsonian Latino Center.

Line-up

Current band members

* Martha Gonzalez — lead and backing

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

, congas, chekere, tarima, cajon,

tap dance Tap dance is a form of dance characterized by using the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion. Two major variations on tap dance exist: rhythm (jazz) tap and Broadway tap. Broadway tap focuses on dance; it is widely perf ...

, jarana * Tylana Enomoto — backing vocals,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

* Juan Perez —

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

baby bass Ampeg is a manufacturer best known for its bass amplifiers. Originally established in 1946 in Linden, New Jersey by Everett Hull and Stanley Michaels as "Michael-Hull Electronic Labs," today Ampeg is part of the Yamaha Guitar Group. Although ...

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...

* Quetzal Flores — jarana jarocha,

requinto jarocho The requinto jarocho or guitarra de son is plucked string instrument, played usually with a special pick. It is a four- or five-stringed instrument that has originated from Veracruz, Mexico. The ''requinto'' is used in conjunto jarocho ensembles ...

bajo sexto Bajo sexto (Spanish: "sixth bass") is a Mexican string instrument from the guitar family with 12 strings in six double courses. A closely related instrument is the bajo quinto (Spanish: "fifth bass") which has 10 strings in five double courses ...

, electric and acoustic guitars * Quincy McCrary — lead and backing vocals, Rhodes piano,

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia * Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in S ...

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

* Alberto Lopez —

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Former band members

*Gabriel Tenorio *Gabriel Gonzalez *Daphne Chen *Kiko Cornejo Jr. *Dante Pascuzzo *Edson Gianesi *Danilo Torres *Camilo Landau *Rocio Marron *Ray Sandoval *Yunior Terry *Lilia Hernandez *Ruben Gomez *Maceo Hernandez *Robert Guerrero *Anton Morales *E Anthony Martinez

Discography

;Solo albums *1998: ''Quetzal'' (produced by John Avila) *2002: ''Sing The Real'' (produced by Greg Landau) *2003: ''Worksongs'' (produced by Steve Berlin) *2006: ''Die Cowboy Die'' (produced by John Avila) *2012: ''Imaginaries'' (Produced by Quetzal Flores)

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was fou ...

*2014: ''Quetzanimales'' *2017: ''The Eternal Getdown''

*2021: ''Puentes Sonoros''

;Compilation albums *''A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd'' (features Quetzal covering Pink Floyd's song "

Mother ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the case of ges ...

References

External links

Official Quetzal Website

Quetzal on Instagram

Entre Mujeres

Women Who Rock homepage
{{Authority control Rock music groups from California Latin music groups Latin American music Chicano rock musicians Mexican-American culture in Los Angeles Grammy Award winners