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Whether it was playing for an immigrant rights rally in Phoenix, on the border town of El Paso overlooking Cuidad Juarez, or on the streets in Austin, Texas…Cafeteras came with LOVE to share a message of resistance & a passion for social justice with our blend of urban roots music.

South by Southwest blessed us with the opportunity of connecting with such artist as NYC’s Brazilian MC Zuzuka Poderosa, Oakland’s Los Rakas, Canada’s A Tribe Called Red, Piñata Protest, M1 from Dead Prez and Talib Kweli. Check out our SXSW Tour Wrap-up to get a taste…

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Extra! Extra! Las Cafeteras SXSW Tour Dates are in! We are super excited to share our movimiento y musica with all of y’all as we journey to SXSW in Austin!

SATURDAY | MARCH 9, 6PM
Pachanga Por La Causa | PUENTE
1306 E Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ
All Ages | Donation
http://on.fb.me/WCRkRN

SUNDAY | MARCH 10, 5PM
Bear Space Collective
501 Texas Avenue El Paso, TX
$5 | All Ages
http://on.fb.me/WEVyCW

MONDAY | MARCH 11, 12PM
Workshop at UTEP
500 W. University Ave. | El Paso, Texas 79968

TUESDAY | MARCH 12, 10PM
Social Revolucion | @Ballet Austin
501 West 3rd Street Austin, TX 78701
[ Official SXSW showcase. RSVP & Badge required. ]
www.thesocialrevolucion.com/the-lounge-y-el-party/

FRIDAY | MARCH 15, 3pm
Listen Global, Act Local | Kenny Dorhman’s Backyard
1106 East 11th St, Austin, Texas 78702
FREE | ALL AGES | No badges required
on.fb.me/V5W8NN

FRIDAY | MARCH 15, 11PM
Copa Bar & Grill (Official SXSW Showcase)
217 Congress Avenue Austin, TX 78701
21+ | SXSW wristband required
http://bit.ly/Za9Coi

SATURDAY | MARCH 16, 12PM
Austin Vida Showcase
Sahara Lounge
1413 Webberville Rd, Austin, TX 78721
FREE | 21+ | No wristbands / badges required.
on.fb.me/ZA04tj

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Join Las Cafeteras in kicking off our SXSW tour on the road to Austin! We are the only Latin@ Indie act representing L.A. at SXSW!

LAS CAFETERAS
SXSW Kick-Off Show
Wednesday, February 27 @ 9pm
2 Special Cafeteras Sets (10pm & 11pm)

@ Los Globos (Silverlake)Los Globos
3040 W Sunset Blvd. LA, 90026

$5 DONATION before 10pm
$8 after

Featuring DJ’s
CANYON CODY & ETHOS
of the legendary Global Bass Collective
SUBSUELO

http://subsuelo.org/

http://lat.ms/WZoN3i (LA Times feature)

Come send us off with that good LA / SoCal energy! Catch a special early show, with some of LA’s baddest DJs Canyon Cody & Ethos of Subsuelo. The Subsuelo DJs are taking LA’s dancefloors by storm & are known for making folks sweat. Bring a towel.

Hosted by:
LA Canvas Magazine

http://www.lacanvas.com/

W/

DJ Canyon Cody
(Planet Rock / Subsuelo)

DJ Ethos
(Ana Tijoux, KRS One, 2MEX y mas!)

http://djethos.com/

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We welcome 2013 with gratitude and excitement! We had a blast in 2012 and went out with the bang as we performed in KCET’s 53rd Annual L.A. Holiday Celebration at the infamous Dorothy Chandler Pavilion! Check out this article honoring the music that was infused in community struggle and how Las Cafeteras came to be:

Las Cafeteras: Crossing Genres to Become Agents of Change
By Pilar Tompkins Rivas

In July 2006, the South Central Farm, a thriving urban farm and community garden in the industrial corridor along South Alameda, was bulldozed as its farmers and supporters staged protests and acts of civil disobedience in efforts to save the land from being razed. The events that summer came after a two-year battle that included closed-door negotiations over the land between the City of Los Angeles and the representative of a private investment firm, a subsequent legal face-off between the investor and the newly organized farmers, and a public awareness campaign rooted in immigrant rights, urban land use, sustainable living and class warfare.

As organizers and activists held watch over the farm leading up to the forced evacuation, dance and music factored heavily into their activities and actions. Hip Hop and spoken word met Danza Azteca and the Mexican folk music genre Son Jarocho, hailing from the gulf-coastal state of Veracruz. Not only did Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine perform there with Son de Madera, a prominent Son Jarocho group from Mexico, but young activists also began to pick up and explore these cultural forms within the context of a movement of resistance, an effort to empower disenfranchised groups, and the concerted steps of community building.

The South Central Farmers’ struggle planted seeds for new sorts of cultural manifestations. Addressing the issue of land use, Lauren Bon’s “Not a Cornfield” (2005) project emerged, which eventually evolved into the hybrid laboratory/research/exhibition space Farmlab, and then Metabolic Studio, a collective of eco-art minded practitioners. An Oscar-nominated documentary film, “The Garden” directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, was released in 2008 telling the story of the farm and its people. And in the realm of music, young activists furthered their introduction to Son Jarocho by teaching each other how to play the instruments utilized in the genre, embracing the style’s mixed heritage that reflects the intermingling of Indigenous, Spanish and African peoples in colonial Mexico. Led by activist Angela Flores, who had been learning the form and playing at the South Central Farm with other musicians, a group began to coalesce through workshops conducted at the El Sereno community space, Eastside Cafe, itself a platform for multi-disciplinary exploration and experimentation, and social justice.

Empowering each other to learn music and infuse this folk tradition with influences and storytelling that reflected their own experiences, the participants eventually formed what is now the group Las Cafeteras. “We always say that we didn’t find the music, the music found us. Las Cafeteras was not born from a group of musically trained artists, we were born out of a community struggle,” the band says. Member Annette Torres describes their genesis: “Angela agreed to teach a group of us what she knew of Son Jarocho in a sort of each-one-teach-one, or DIY approach. I think we took it as a way to explore connections to our Mexican heritage and the power of the music to build community, tell stories from our communities, and create a more convivial and communal space. Son Jarocho has a built-in tradition of the fandango, a sort of community celebration and jam session where everyone, including the audience, is a participant.”

The group has received wide press attention, including an appearance on NPR’s “All Things Considered”, and has just released an album titled It’s Time. While mainstream success is burgeoning, Las Cafeteras is grounded in a performance philosophy that makes them unconventional as a young musical group. During their live shows they interact with the audience in a dialogical fashion and their lyrics incorporate tangible social messaging that reflects their backgrounds as activists. Frequently, the group takes pubic engagement a step further. At the South L.A. People’s Power Festival this summer, an event aimed at promoting civic engagement, Las Cafetera’s presence became the nexus around which local organizers and band members could draw attendees into critical discussions, register them to vote, and invite them to participate in ongoing initiatives that affect their community. This fall around the election, the group staged a social media campaign inviting fans, artists, educators and children to share their ideas and concerns around the notion of “If I Was President.” During their CD release tour, the group did an exchange with Juntos, an immigrant rights group in Philadelphia, performing for them, listening to the stories of those that they support, and later connecting with the organization when they visited Los Angeles.

It is not surprising, then, that band member Daniel French finds himself in his first year enrolled in Otis College of Art and Design’s MFA in Public Practice program, housed at 18th Street Arts Center. In addition to his work with Las Cafeteras, French acts, writes and teaches theater. “I’m in the Public Practice program to expand and deepen my practice. I’m using my time at Otis as a laboratory exploring how sound, performance and video can be used in public space to reveal and shift power dynamics and structures, spark dialog, and create convivial space. I’m really interested in how public art practice can play strategic and powerful roles in transforming a community, and how that practice can integrate information and partner with specific groups already working in the community,” says French.

Las Cafeteras is trans-disciplinary in that it mixes community organizing with music. French intends to extend his participation in the group and their methodologies for cultural production into new avenues in the visual arts. French states, “I’m really inspired by the work of folks like Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “Life is Living” project, Tania Brugera’s “Immigrant Movement Intercational,” and the ritualistic performance art of Guillermo Gomez-Peña. I’ll actually be working with a cadre of Bay Area artists on a night of interventions at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, which Bamuthi is a part of convening. So I’m taking a lot of notes of the curatorial, performance and public practices of artists and looking for inspiration and opportunities to integrate them into my work.”

French’s interests reflect an interplay between art, music and activism that has had a long trajectory within the Mexican American community in LA. Beginning in the late 1960s, the first Chicano art gallery in the city, Goez Art Studios and Gallery, led by brothers Joe Gonzalez, a sometime Mariachi singer, and “Don Juan” Johnny Gonzalez, who led bands in the golden era of 1960s Chicano Rock and Roll, developed architectural and public art proposals and projects intended to empower and beautify the East Los Angeles community. Willie Herrón, a painter, muralist and member of the Chicano collective Asco, was the front man for the prominent punk band Los Illegals through the 1980s. Beginning in the early 1990s, and in part galvanized by the Zapatista movement that resonated strongly with Chicanos in Los Angeles, an era of musical groups incorporating social justice themes drew from rap, world beats and rock, producing work infused with political messaging, such as Rage Against the Machine and Ozomatli.

Las Cafeteras is adding a new chapter to this history of activism meets music meets art, re-branding it as a mix of Mexican folk and American genres. On the surface, Hip Hop and Jarocho might not seem to work, but they do. It’s a marriage of storytelling forms completely appropriate for a millennial generation who respond to all of their contemporary influences and who are heavily invested in the idea of community, driven by issues such as the Dream Act and immigration reform. Of their goals with the project, Las Cafeteras says, “We want folks, in particular youth, to see us and say, ‘If they can do that, then so can I,’ and use whatever medium they want to become agents of change.”

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 Las Cafeteras says it knows — and you know — ‘It’s Time’

Las Cafeteras, the dynamic L.A. son jarocho band, releases ‘It’s Time’ on Tuesday, and it includes ‘La Bamba Rebelde,’ a timely take on a classic.

By Reed Johnson, Los Angeles Times

October 27, 2012, 6:00 a.m.

The new interpretation of “La Bamba” sung by the dynamic young L.A. band Las Cafeteras isn’t your abuelito’s version of the classic Mexican folk tune. Nor is it Ritchie Valens‘ 1958 hit rendition, or Los Lobos‘ smash 1987 remake.

So what’s different about Las Cafeteras’ “La Bamba Rebelde” (The Rebel La Bamba), which appears on the group’s just-issued CD “It’s Time”? For starters, there are the punchy, quasi-hip-hop vocal cadences that overlay the traditional instrumental matrix of 10-string jarana and four-string requinto guitars known as son jarocho.

Then there are the very L.A., very timely lyrical updates. “It’s the rebel ‘La Bamba’ that I will sing because we are Chicanos of East L.A., ay, arriba!” the brassy lead female vocalist declares on the track. “I don’t believe in borders! I will cross them!” Moments later, a male singer gives a proud shout-out to his San Gabriel Valley roots, while yet another voice chimes in to denounce “leyes racistas” (racist laws).

That kind of politically cognizant attitude-to-burn propels “It’s Time,” which will be released digitally on Tuesday.

“I think music has to be relevant,” jarana player Daniel French said during a recent interview with his colleague Annette Torres, a marimbol and zapateado percussionist, at the Cafe Tropical in Silver Lake. “And I think our goal is how do we write music that’s relevant to what we’re seeing and we’re hearing.”

Respecting tradition while opening space for innovation is the mantra of Las Cafeteras, a bilingual ensemble of three women and four men, all in their late 20s or early-to-mid 30s, whose music blends ska, punk, hip-hop, marimbol, spoken-word and urban-contemporary elements with the rich heritage of son jarocho, the Afro-Caribbean-influenced folk genre from the southeast Mexican state of Veracruz.

The group, which has opened shows for Lila Downs and took part last August in the annual Encuentro de Jaraneros jarocho festival in downtown L.A., will be part of the musical lineup at Saturday’s Dia de los Muertos ancestor-worship celebration at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. They’ll be performing at the noon to midnight event in rotation with the bands Ozomatli, La Santa Cecilia, Very Be Careful and Tribu.

Upcoming concert dates for the band — whose other members are Denise Carlos (jarana segunda, voice), Hector Flores (jarana tercera, voice), David Flores (requinto), Leah Rose Gallegos (vocals, quijada del burro, a.k.a. donkey jawbone) and Jose Cano (Native American flute) — include November shows in Ensenada, Tijuana and San Diego and a slot in March at South by Southwest.

In keeping with jarocho’s slave-music origins, Las Cafeteras has maintained its sharp political edge. That perspective stems in part from the band’s 2005 genesis as a group of student-friends who took son jarocho classes together at the Eastside Cafe in L.A.’s El Sereno neighborhood, and were inspired to use their music as a story-sharing, community-building, teaching tool.

“Our CD is called ‘It’s Time’ because we live in urgent times,” French said. “And we didn’t say what it’s time for, because you know what it’s time for — you know and I know. You know what you’re supposed to do, and we want you to do what you’re supposed to do. And we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. And when everybody does that, the world, it’s already changing but it’s going to come quicker.”

One song on “It’s Time” addresses the epidemic of murderous violence against the women of Ciudad Juárez. Another tune, “Trabajador Trabajadora,” gives a sympathetic shout-out to working-class families struggling to pay the rent and keep their kids fed in recessionary times.

“For the women of Las Cafeteras, we want to be the voice for other women that don’t have that voice anymore, or that are finding their own voice,” Torres said.

But the CD’s title could be read in another way. With its quicksilver 6/8 guitar lines, and the propulsive beat of its sibling art form, fandango dancing, a few bars of son jarocho inevitably signal that it’s time to party. That combination — part political rally, part pachanga blowout — has made Las Cafeteras one of the most talked-about, and, at times, argued-about, of L.A.’s third- and fourth-generation bicultural bands.

“They have this wonderful way of appropriating the music and combining it with present-day issues affecting Latinos, affecting Mexican Americans,” said Betto Arcos, a native of the Veracruz city of Xalapa who hosts “The Global Village” weekly radio program on radio station KPFK-FM (90.7) and organized the Encuentro de Jaraneros.

Arcos said that Las Cafeteras’ other most distinctive quality is the energy it brings to its live performances, allowing it to engage listeners in a kind of spontaneous musical civic dialogue.

“They engage in a more direct way” than other jarocho bands, Arcos said, “almost breaking down that barrier between the audience and them.”

In adapting son jarocho to the musical modes and cultural landscapes of Southern California, Las Cafeteras is following in a long tradition of L.A. Chicano artists, from Valens and Thee Midniters to Los Lobos and Quetzal.

About three years ago, a sort of California son jarocho family feud erupted between Las Cafeteras and several more established son jarocho-influenced artists who felt Las Cafeteras was taking too many liberties with a venerable music form. According to several accounts, the quarrel is now largely in the past, and Las Cafeteras, for one, is eager to put it behind them.

Meanwhile, more up-and-coming Spanish- and English-dominant musicians have been turning for inspiration to son jarocho. Among the new enthusiasts is David Wax of the duo known as David Wax Museum, who studied jarocho as a Harvard University student and has become friends with members of Las Cafeteras.

“You just fall in love with this sort of open, musical, energetic community-building that happens,” French said. “I think that David Wax picking that up and other folks picking that up is a testament to the beauty of that music.”

See the article: http://soc.li/ccVnwWk

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