Group Café Tacuba to Perform at Anti-imperialist Tribune in Havana
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- 06 / 10 / 2009
This quote comes from Rubén Albarrán, vocalist with the famous Café Tacuba band, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. To celebrate it, they decided to perform in Latin America and Europe with the tour 20 Años-20 Ciudades (20 Years, 20 Cities), one of which, of course had to be Havana. There they will perform on Tuesday, June 9, at 9:00 p.m., in the José Martí Anti-imperialist tribune, a concert organized by the Cuban Music Institute and the Mexican Embassy.
"I’m thrilled to play in a place like the Anti-imperialist Tribune, the name of which strengthens the symbolism of this performance. Cuba is and has always been a sister nation; its culture has contributed essential and valuable elements to our culture, which are part of being Mexican", stated the singer of the "Cafetas" via e-mail from his headquarters in the Federal District in an exclusive interview with Granma newspaper.
Rubén said that the band, also made up by Joselo Rangel (guitar and voice), Emmanuel del Real (keyboards, guitar and voice), Quique Rangel (bass, guitar and voice) and Luis Ledezma (drums), has also borrowed the muses of Cuban music. "With regard to sound, there’s a long list of artists who are part of our group’s influences, from Ernesto Lecuona, Bola de Nieve, the Matamoros Trio, the Sonora Matancera, Benny Moré, and Merceditas Valdés, to Los Van Van and NG la Banda".
With a catalogue of eight albums, which include cult productions like Ré (1994) and Cuatro Caminos (2003), the Tacubas seem to re-discover themselves as a rock group with this tour, which has once again ratified the idyll of the "band of Mexico City", with its thousands of followers throughout the continent. "In Mexican imaginary, twenty was the peak, everything. That’s how we are", Rubén explained.
Founded in Mexico City in 1989 and the author of themes immune to the bullets of time like No controles (No Controls), Chilanga Banda (Mexican Band), the group is a symbol of Latin rock’s vanguard and has already several Grammies in its pocket. Its way of understanding music has received lots of praise from the pages of the leading newspapers in the world and from specialized critics, who have even defined them as a kind of Latin Radiohead.
Guitarist Joselo Rangel is keen to venture on this fantastic musical expedition that will make a stopover in Cuba after performing on stages in La Paz, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires, and that will take them in June and July to cities like San Juan, Mexico City, New York, Washington, San Salvador, Bogotá, Quito, Lima, Asunción, London and Barcelona.
"Each of the cities we chose for this tour is special for us. We want to celebrate with the Cuban people, who gave us a warm welcome ten years ago. We also want to see and listen to new musicians in the country", said Joselo, who also wants make his point of view on the situation of Mexican immigrants and the relationship of the new US government with Latin America very clear.
"The suffering of our compatriots crossing the US border is the suffering of any immigrant in any place of the world looking for money to support his family. I don’t think that the US policy will change with the new president. The US system is deeply rooted and I assume more than one person is needed to change it. I’m sorry to see that there are naive people who think that Obama is a saint", points out the guitarist.
Although the music of Café Tacuba has been labelled in different ways throughout time, Joselo explains that "from the beginning, we preferred not to give any name to our music. There’s rock in it of course, but it’s not the only influence. We founded Café Tacuba thinking we could sip from any musical rhythm and tradition, because rock, as Americans see it, is already old. It has to be renewed with our culture, our blood and our language."
(PL)
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