Roar
Imagine, if you will, Dorothy "Buffy" Chandler dancing in the aisle to Los Tigres del Norte's "Contrabando y traición" at the Disney Concert Hall tonight. It's not so crazy. The late grande dame of L.A. high society cajoled the Southland's high bourgeoisie 50 years ago, with the help of her husband's newspaper (the L.A. Times), to build the Music Center on Bunker Hill. She wanted a Lincoln Center for L.A. The seven year-old Disney Hall is her cultural grandchild so it's not far-fetched that her spirit will roam as the OG narcocorrido band plays the home of the L.A. Philharmonic.
A few weeks ago at Disney Hall I met Joan Smith, one of Doña Chandler's Music Hall successors at a preview for the Tigres show. Smith is a former president of the Chandler-founded Blue Ribbon, a group of society ladies who gather to raise funds for the Music Center. "It's a win, win situation," she said about the Los Tigres show, which is part of the Blue Ribbon Presents Global Pop at the Music Center.
"The Music Center if for everybody," said Howard Sherman, the Music Center's Chief Operating Officer of the Music Center as he framed the Los Tigres show as one a series of world music concerts, "the Music Center needs to be opened up to the entire Los Angeles community and what better way than showcasing international artists from the diverse communities that call Los Angeles home."
Something tells me this all embracing statement doesn't mean Disney Hall will say yes to the next South Central Farm music fundraiser. A Los Tigres concert at Disney Hall is far from a World Music show. It's not the same as showcasing the latest Farsi pop singer. Los Tigres del Norte are an American band. They've lived in San Jose for decades and their songs are about the despair, hope, and love of millions of Spanish-speaking immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos. People like Jorge Corralejo, the CEO of the Latino Business Chamber of Greater Los Angeles, who says he still has a few 45 RPM records by Los Tigres. The show's a big deal, he said. "It demonstrates their sheer popularity and the greatness of the music they produce and it is art in the purest form. They chronicle the events of Latinos today."
Corralejo and others at Disney Hall told me the Los Tigres show at Disney Hall is history in the making. To me it appears to be the kind of history that's made every time the L.A. mainstream is forced to recognized Mexican Los Angeles. Think of the Million Dollar Theater on Broadway. When it opened in 1918 it was the first and most luxurious of many movie palaces to be built in downtown L.A. By the 1950s it had become a prominent venue for the most popular ranchera singers from Mexico. John F. Kennedy accepted his party's presidential nomination at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. In the last few years the venue near USC has been a popular place for L.A. promoters of Mexico City thrash-metal concerts. In 1992 radio station La X became the first Spanish language radio station to reach #1 in the L.A. market.
Dwayne Ulloa heads the Los Tigres non-profit foundation and has booked the band at venues like the in Washington D.C. "When I talk to folks at the Kennedy Center and Disney Hall, the idea is, 'Look, your consumers, your clients have come to expect the best in the world. So one night it may be Yo-Yo Ma and the next night it may be the Peking Acrobats and I think Los Tigres should be part of that repertoire.'"
San Diego State University professor Juan Carlos Ramirez Pimienta also told me the concert's historic." It's very significant that Los Tigres del Norte are given this specific venue, a venue that's not associated with the Chicano or Mexican music," he said, "in this context and with perceived and de facto attack on Mexican immigrants. It is significant that Disney Hall presents a band that traditionally sings about migrant rights. I think there's a message there saying, to my understanding, that California is not Arizona. That California values their migrant community."The Blue Ribbon's Joan Smith didn't have much to say about migrants and exploitation. She gushed about having the band and their fans at Disney Hall. The profits from the Los Tigres del Norte show go to free programs at the Music Center . "They're hot. They're really hot. I can't wait. They're so famous, they filled stadiums everywhere." Smith said but couldn't tell me whether she preferred "Jaula de oro" over "Contrabando y traición."
I'm not going to the show tonight but I'd love to hear whether the band plays either of these songs. Sure, "Contrabando y traición" is a fun outlaw tale of smuggling pot in tires and running from the law alongside Camelia La Tejana. I'm more interested in the series of Tigres songs that tell the story of los que cruzaron, the ones who crossed, such as "La Jaula de oro." Here's my translation of part of the lyrics. "What good is money, if I'm a prisoner, in this great nation, remembering makes me weep, even if the cage is made of gold, it's still a prison."
