Celebrated Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte performed at Madison Sq. Backyard final week. It was their first present there, and their followers, a lot of them amongst immigrant communities, confirmed as much as rejoice.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Los Tigres del Norte is among the most celebrated Mexican teams on this planet, identified for his or her corridos. Final week, they performed Madison Sq. Backyard for the primary time ever. NPR Music’s Anamaria Sayre has this report from the present.
(CHEERING)
ANAMARIA SAYRE, BYLINE: For one evening, it felt just like the entirety of New York’s Mexican group descended on some of the historic venues on this planet.
EDUARDO HERNANDEZ: What occurred tonight at Madison Sq. Backyard, that’s, like, one thing that you just by no means dreamed. You by no means realized in your complete profession that at some point, you had been going to be right here at this place.
SAYRE: That is Eduardo Hernandez, a member of Los Tigres del Norte. The band has performed in all places, from armories to rodeos, massive cities and small cities. However because the band’s Hernan Hernandez says, Madison Sq. Backyard is a touchstone second for his or her followers.
HERNAN HERNANDEZ: Our followers, our followers need to be in a spot like this. A number of the folks that was right here, perhaps it was their first time right here, too, , like us.
SAYRE: Los Tigres have all the time made their followers – the immigrants, the folks on this nation who cook dinner within the kitchen, minimize the grass – the celebrated topic of their concert events. Lots of their largest songs even take direct inspiration from followers’ odd lives.
Elizabeth Vargas is a fan who identifies most with the track “La Puerta Negra.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LA PUERTA NEGRA”)
LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE: (Singing in Spanish).
SAYRE: It is a track about two younger lovers whose household would not approve of their relationship. “La Puerta Negra” – The Black Door – is a tool the household makes use of to maintain them aside, however the singer assures his lover that they may overcome it.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LA PUERTA NEGRA”)
LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE: (Singing in Spanish).
SAYRE: Vargas shares that there was a black door in her personal life. Her Mexican household didn’t approve of her husband, who’s standing beside her, as a result of he is Cuban.
ELIZABETH VARGAS: (Talking Spanish).
SAYRE: “It doesn’t matter what occurred, the door all the time opened for us. That track was like, wow, for me. Each time I heard it, it was for him.”
Jocelyn Romero heard her mother and father’ immigrant expertise mirrored within the track “La Carta.”
JOCELYN ROMERO: You set their – , your self of their footwear. I perceive their complete life.
SAYRE: Within the track, Los Tigres described delivering a letter from a son to his mom who’d been separated by the border.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LA CARTA”)
LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE: (Singing in Spanish).
SAYRE: The closeness she discovered along with her mother and father by way of Los Tigres impressed her to purchase them tickets to the present.
ROMERO: They had been yelling, oh, my gosh, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. Sure, I am unable to consider it.
SAYRE: In latest months, there have been conversations within the Latin music group elevating issues that ticket gross sales and live performance attendance for artists like Los Tigres is likely to be impacted by fears of ICE raids. For the band, this potential danger for followers is one thing they’re intimately accustomed to. They shared with me that they beforehand lived on this nation with out authorized standing.
ERNESTO SANCHEZ: (Talking Spanish).
SAYRE: “I do know that persons are a bit of afraid.”
That is Ernesto Sanchez, a sombrero salesman who frequents Mexican cultural occasions and concert events all through town.
SANCHEZ: (Talking Spanish).
SAYRE: “But it surely’s one thing us Mexicans like – the concern, the motion,” he jokes.
Regardless of any concern, the evening present was bought out.
SANCHEZ: (Talking Spanish).
SAYRE: “Effectively, right here we’re.”
Like many informed me over the course of the evening, the band speaks for us. They sing for us. To have them supporting us on this nation proper now could be a factor of delight. Anamarie Sayre, NPR Information.
(SOUNDBITE OF LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE SONG, “LA PUERTA NEGRA”)
LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE: (Singing in Spanish).
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