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Fierce Enough to Bite
Los Tigres del Norte, which includes Jorge and Hernán Hernández, have maintained a close tie with fans through their music and post-concert photo opportunities.
(By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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And they're set to figure prominently in two feature films this year. They'll make their mainstream movie debut in "La Misma Luna" (starring "Ugly Betty's" America Ferrera), about a Mexican boy who crosses the border to join his mother in the States. And their music will serve as the soundtrack for "Bordertown," which stars Jennifer Lopez as a reporter investigating the murders of the hundreds of women in Juarez. (Los Tigres was among the first musical acts to speak out about the killings, in their 2003 song "Las Mujeres de Juarez" ("Women of Juarez")).
"All these problems we have [as immigrants], we make into songs," says the band's leader, Jorge Hernández, 54, alternating between English and Spanish. "All the information we get, we try to publicize, talk about historical stuff. . . . People use our songs politically."
Indeed, during their current tour, in those after-show meet-and-greets, fans confide in them their troubles, how they're living here but would rather be there, how their U.S.-born children are turning into something that they don't recognize. Often, those stories end up in their songs.
"More than any other artist, they touch on themes that are the immigrant's experience . . . crossing the border, being here, having a culture clash," says Leila Cobo, executive director of Latin Contents and Programming for Billboard.
"Of course, Los Tigres are a success story. But they talk to people that are in the middle of the struggle, and haven't arrived yet."
For Los Tigres del Norte (literally, the Tigers of the North), music is advocacy.
"People don't just go [to our concerts] to party," says Los Tigres bassist Hernán Hernández, 50. "They go for a purpose."
Los Tigres -- Jorge, Eduardo, Hernán, Luís and Oscar -- are 21st-century troubadours, taking old-school Mexican corridos , storytelling ballads, and marrying them to a bouncy norteño beat, rich with oompah-oompahing accordions, showy saxophones and comedic sound effects. They are at once silly and serious, scrappy and sentimental, detailing the bittersweetness of life in El Norte, where if you're lucky, you can partake of the American dream, but -- as they bemoan in "La Jaula del Oro" ("The Gilded Cage") -- something gets lost in the transition.
Mis hijos no hablan conmigo . . . ,
piensan como americanos,
niegan que son MEXICANO
