Cenzontles Views

• Music

Los Cenzontles is a dynamic and popular arts center in the Bay Area, and its mission to amplify their participants’ Mexican roots is evident in a song from the Center’s musical band, The Mockingbirds, called “Soy Mexicano-Americano”smdash;I am a Mexican-American. The song appears on the band’s new album, Raza de Oro, set to release this week. The group’s leader, Eugene Rodriguez, joins us from KPFA in San Francisco to discuss the message the group tries to convey and the goals of the arts center.

Los Cenzontles ( The Mockingbirds ) is a Mexican-American Roots band, heavily influenced by Tejano music, country music, rock and roll, and traditional Mexican regional music such as Son Jarocho and boleros. The band's core members also operate Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo, California.

Los Cenzontles was begun in 1989 by Eugene Rodriguez and Berenice Zuniga-Yap as part of a California Arts Council artist residency. The goal of the Los Cenzontles Project was to create a place for area youth to learn traditional Mexican music and dance. When students' training advanced, the original touring group of Los Cenzontles was formed to showcase Mexican folk music and focus on educational outreach.

In 1994, 3 major events moved Los Cenzontles to become the band as it exists today. (1) That year the recording of Papa's Dream, produced by Eugene for Los Lobos, Lalo Guerrero and members of Los Cenzontles was released. The recording was subsequently nominated for a Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children[1]. (2) Eugene Rodriguez incorporated Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center as a non-profit, responding to spiraling social problems among local youth. (3) That same year, 15 year-old Cecilia Rios, San Pablo resident and close friend of many of the Center's students, was brutally raped and murdered.[2] In response to the tragic loss, the members of Los Cenzontles composed their first original work, El Corrido de Cecilia Rios.