Celebrating the stories of Mexican immigrants in music and dance, Las Cafeteras will take the stage at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Las Cafeteras will also participate during the day as part of Fort Lewis College's 8th annual Real History of the Americas event. This year's theme is "Expressing our identities through dance."
Born in the streets of Los Angeles, Las Cafeteras formed as a band in 2008 with the purpose of documenting the histories of their neighborhoods through music.
As musicians, they gathered at the Eastside Café, a Zapatista-inspired community space in East Los Angeles, where they were influenced by the culture, storytelling and poetic music of son jarocho, a traditional music from Veracruz, Mexico. It was a meeting point, a political and cultural space. Bit by bit Las Cafeteras was formed.
As children of immigrants, they were raised with the fear that their parents would be taken by the "migra." It created an identity, a community of people in the movement who speak Spanglish, and who love their culture.
The sound of Las Cafeteras is brought to life by eclectic instrumentation, including jaranas, reuinto, a donkey jawbone, a West African bass instrument called the Marimbol, cajón, and a wooden platform called the Tarima used to dance Zapateado. The music continues to evolve, and the message has garnered the band popularity with domestic and international audiences.
The band's name was derived from the initial class location, Eastside Café, but to honor women and challenge masculine language, the band members feminized their group name by calling themselves Las Cafeteras (rather than Los Cafeteros). The group is Annette Torres, Daniel French, David Flores, Denise Carlos, Hector Flores, Jose Cano and Leah Rose Gallegos - three women and four men, but, the name was selected to show a respect to women.
As noted by the L.A. Times, Las Cafeteras is "A uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music, cumbia and rock . Live, they're magnetic."
View a video performance of the Las Cafeteras' version of "La Bamba" at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xv-FjbXaqk.
Tickets for Las Cafeteras Are $24 and $19 and are available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, at 247-7657, or visit the Ticket Office inside the Durango Welcome Center at 8th St. and Main Ave., Downtown Durango. Ticket Office hours are Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Las Cafeteras show concludes the day-long Real History of the Americas event, with activities spread throughout the Fort Lewis College campus. Real History of the Americas was created in 2008 by Native American, Hispanic and multicultural students on campus to empower and share a variety of histories of the Americas on the day that is also known as Columbus Day or the Day of the Race in the United States. For a full calendar of events, please visit the Real History of the Americas tab at: www.fortlewis.edu/elcentro, or call El Centro de Muchos Colores Hispanic Resource Center at 247-7654.
