Curriculum Connections
Latin Music, Mexican-American Culture, Spanish Language, Storytelling.
California State Arts Standards:
8.MU:Pr6.b. Demonstrate performance decorum and audience etiquette appropriate for venue, purpose, context, and style.
8.MU:Cn10 Examine and demonstrate how personal interests, knowledge, and ideas relate to choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to music.
In 2005, rooted in community & tradition, a group of students learning Son Jarocho musicbecame known as ‘Los Cafeteros,’namedafter the Eastside Cafe community center they helped found. They soon changed their name to Las Cafeteras to honor the feminine spirit of the group.
Over the years, Las Cafeteras would develop a genre-bending sound & electric live performance infusing lyrically rich storytelling with the purpose of sharing the hidden stories of migrant life in Los Angeles. For Las Cafeteras, it was essential to use music as a way to build bridges among the different cultures and communities that historically have had tension. Through music, Las Cafeteras were trying to help build ‘a world where many worlds fit.’
The Las Cafeteras sound is brought to life by 4 distinct vocalist and their eclectic instrumentation, including jaranas, a donkey jawbone, a West African bass instrument, cajón, and a wooden platform used to dance Zapateado.
