“Best Latin Alternative Band – 2013” – LA Weekly
“Creative, Socially Conscious, it’s perfect”- NPR
“Urgent, relevant music” – BBC
Born in the streets of Los Angeles, Las Cafeteras are immigrant children who are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories with what LA Times has called a “uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music, cumbia and rock … Live, they’re magnetic.”
As a group, Las Cafeteras are known for their energetic multi-lingual performances that combine Afro-Mexican (son jarocho), hip hop, folk, Native-American & many more styles with a community focused message.
The band started out as friends who were organizers and activist for immigrant rights, educational justice and for environmental justice among many other issues who usually met at protest and marches.
Las Cafeteras formed as a band in 2008 with the purpose of documenting the histories of their neighborhoods through music. As musicians, they started as students of 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.
Their namesake derives from the organization where they took classes, the Eastside Café. However, to honor women and challenge masculine language, they feminized their group name by calling themselves, Las Cafeteras, rather than Los Cafeteros.
Las Cafeteras‘ songs have themes and references that range from the Civil Right Movement, United Farm Workers, Queer Rights, Immigration reform to the female homicides in Cuidad Juarez. The song, “La Bamba Rebelde”, a remake of the traditional Son Jarocho song, La Bamba, denotes their Chicano pride.
Their debut studio album “It’s Time” has received great reviews across the country and has featured on NPR, KCRW & the LA Times.
Las Cafeteras will be performing Thursday 2/20 at Club Europa with Chicha Libre
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