Narrative

"Rising like a sleeping giant, music from the barrios of East Los Angeles began to be heard.  Whittier Boulevard was brimming with excitement.  It was a wonderful time to be young . . ."
                                                                          Little Willie G., Thee Midniters
     
                 
           

Cannibal and the Headhunters, Thee Midniters, The Premiers, The Romancers, Tierra, El Chicano.  To some, the names of these bands from the 60s and 70s may not be immediately familiar.  But their music speaks loud and clear.  And to this day, generations continue to listen, dance and celebrate to their sounds. In contrast to other rock fans whose enthusiasms pass with each new hit parade, for Chicano audiences, songs from the 1960s are as alive as they were thirty years ago.

The roots of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll can be traced to traditional barrios throughout the American Southwest, but most importantly, to the streets and neighborhoods of East Los Angeles.  Kids from local schools such as Garfield and Roosevelt High met, played music, and began a musical dialogue with an emerging rock ‘n’ roll tradition – African American rhythm and blues and doo wop, Anglo country and pop, and their own Latin and Mexican heritages.

As we’ll see in CHICANO ROCK, from the beginning there were Latin influences on American music.  Latin rhythms pulse through jazz, and dances from “South of the Border” are ballroom staples.  But for a post World War II generation of Chicanos, these were sounds of the past.  Like African American and Anglo teenagers, they looked to America for inspiration.

Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll is the sound of generation after generation . . . listening and absorbing . . . reacting and responding  . . . searching for and finding an identity with music.  For the world at large it began with a 17-year-old kid from the San Fernando Valley, one of Rock’s first superstars, Ritchie Valenzuela, known around the world as Ritchie Valens.  His 1958 hits “Donna” and "La Bamba" were million-sellers



OPENING CHORDS
     
           

I’m going to do a little song for you now that’s gonna make you clap your hands and kick your feet . . .”
                                                                                                         The Blendells, 1964
     
                 
           

There is one important chapter in the history of American music that remains little known, or simply ignored . . .

The story of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll.  

This is the subject we plan to explore in a lively ninety-minute television documentary: CHICANO ROCK.  And with the new explosion of Latino music and new pop superstars, our timing couldn't be better.
 
     
     


 
     
           

Inspired by the landmark book by David Reyes and Tom Waldman, Land of a Thousand Dances, CHICANO ROCK will be the history of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll, the biography of generations of artists and audiences, and the story of a community -- East LA.  

And an important part of the making of modern America.
     
                 
           

ROOTS
     
           

"Rising like a sleeping giant, music from the barrios of East Los Angeles began to be heard.  Whittier Boulevard was brimming with excitement.  It was a wonderful time to be young . . ."
                                                                          Little Willie G., Thee Midniters
     
                 
           

Cannibal and the Headhunters, Thee Midniters, The Premiers, The Romancers, Tierra, El Chicano.  To some, the names of these bands from the 60s and 70s may not be immediately familiar.  But their music speaks loud and clear.  And to this day, generations continue to listen, dance and celebrate to their sounds. In contrast to other rock fans whose enthusiasms pass with each new hit parade, for Chicano audiences, songs from the 1960s are as alive as they were thirty years ago.

The roots of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll can be traced to traditional barrios throughout the American Southwest, but most importantly, to the streets and neighborhoods of East Los Angeles.  Kids from local schools such as Garfield and Roosevelt High met, played music, and began a musical dialogue with an emerging rock ‘n’ roll tradition – African American rhythm and blues and doo wop, Anglo country and pop, and their own Latin and Mexican heritages.

As we’ll see in CHICANO ROCK, from the beginning there were Latin influences on American music.  Latin rhythms pulse through jazz, and dances from “South of the Border” are ballroom staples.  But for a post World War II generation of Chicanos, these were sounds of the past.  Like African American and Anglo teenagers, they looked to America for inspiration.

Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll is the sound of generation after generation . . . listening and absorbing . . . reacting and responding  . . . searching for and finding an identity with music.  For the world at large it began with a 17-year-old kid from the San Fernando Valley, one of Rock’s first superstars, Ritchie Valenzuela, known around the world as Ritchie Valens.  His 1958 hits “Donna” and "La Bamba" were million-sellers.
     
           



Ritchie Valens
     
            But even earlier, beginning in the 1940s, there was a Chicano musical pioneer, and winner of the 1997 National Medal of the Arts, Lalo Guerrero.  Guerrero, creator of popular hits as “Tacos for Two,” often employed a playful edge of humor in his dialogue with Anglo America, even as he helped define a distinctive Mexican-American musical voice.

A DIALOGUE WITH MUSIC
   
      “Let’s take a trip down Whittier Boulevard . . . ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!”
                                                       "Whittier Boulevard," Thee Midniters      
           
     

The impact of Rock ‘n’ Roll was not only musical; songs and styles often acted as a means of social and economic interchange – between white and black, rich and poor, north and south, men and women, immigrant and native-born.

Unlike other rock traditions, Chicano rock also was a dialogue in two languages, as well as two cultures.  Lalo Guerrero’s musical parodies (“Pancho Lopez,” to the tune of “Davy Crockett”) played on this.  But younger artists in the 50s and 60s rejected their parents’ Mexican and Latin music, finding inspiration in African American and Anglo roots.
     
     



Lalo Guerrero
 
     
     

It was during the late 1950s, 60s and 70s that Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll found its voice.  This is the music celebrated in “Brown-Eyed Soul,” a recent three-CD set released by Rhino Records.  Music that will provide much of the soundtrack for CHICANO ROCK. It’s a fascinating collection of Chicano originals and reinterpretations of African American and Anglo hits, including . . .

 “We Belong Together” by Ritchie Valens . . . “La La La La La” by the Blendell’s . . . “Queen of My Heart” by Rene and Ray . . .  “Farmer John” by the Premiers . . . “Hey, Senorita” by The Penquins . . . “My Heart Cries” by the Romancers . . . “Tell Her She’s Lovely” by El Chicano . . . “Together” by Tierra . . . “Pachuko Hop” by The Penquins . . . and of course, “Land of 1000 Dances,” by Cannibal and the Headhunters.
     
     



Cannibal and the Headhunters
 
     
     

After almost 30 years of musical dialogue, Chicano Rock found common ground with 1990 Grammy Award-winning Los Lobos, the band that created a musical meeting place for rock’s multicultural influences, including our Spanish-language musical heritage.   In 1987 Los Lobos recorded Ritchie Valens’ 1958 hit “La Bamba,” bringing the history of Chicano rock full circle.  But the story of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll is far from over.  

Although, like the Latino community itself, the musical tastes of Chicano audiences are both more varied and assimilated, new artists such as Quetzal and Ozomotli are at work.  Chicano rappers like Kid Frost chronicle the community today.  And “oldies” still have their emotional hold.   At the same time, during the 1990s music in the United States took new directions with “Rock en Español,” signaling a significant shift in America’s multifaceted musical identity.  Rock en Español is rock ‘n’ roll created and sung in Spanish.  Performed and appreciated not in Mexico or Latin America, but in the United States.

As we’ll see, CHICANO ROCK is not only a story of America’s musical past, it will offer hints of our future.

THE STORY-TELLERS
     
     

"There's so much to say, where do I begin?"
                                                                                                                 Lalo Guerrero
     
           
     

Ritchie Valens died in a 1959 plane crash, the victim of one of rock’s earliest tragedies.  But pioneers like Lalo Guerrero are alive and well.  At age 83, he will be one of many living eyewitnesses who will be the storytellers of CHICANO ROCK.

In addition to historians David Reyes and Tom Waldman, authors of Land of a Thousand Dances, the book that is the inspiration for this television special, as well as Ruben Molina, author of The Old Barrio Guide to Low Rider Music: 1950-1975.  We’ll also meet Chico Sesma, an early musical influence, Ritchie Valens’ producer Bob Keene, concert MCs such as Tony Valdez, as well as supportive DJs, including Art Laboe, Dick “Huggy Boy” Hugg, and Casey Kasem.

And most important, we’ll hear from the artists themselves, including Bobby “Rabbit” Jaramillo of Cannibal and the Headhunters, Willie Herron of Los Illegals, Romeo Prado of Thee Midniters (famous for the hit “Whittier Blvd.”), Bobby Espinoza of El Chicano, Steve and Rudy Salas of Tierra, Teresa Covarruvias of The Brat, Carlos Santana of Santana, Cesar Rosas of Los Lobos, and many, many more.
     
     



El Chicano
 
     
     

Accompanied by rare film and photographs, the storytellers of CHICANO ROCK will carry us to an important time in American cultural life.  And to a very special community -- East LA. 

It was a time when places like Kennedy Hall, the Paramount Ballroom and the Rainbow Gardens were alive with the sounds of Chicano Rock.   It was a time when kids crowded the Record Inn, eager from new releases on local labels such as Del Fi, Faro, East Side and Dig, and kept their radios tuned to Huggy Boy as they cruised Whittier Blvd.

And it was a time when a local band, Cannibal and the Headhunters, could play an East LA dance hall one night, and find themselves at Shea Stadium opening for the Beatles the next.

Mixing reminiscences and history, commentary and criticism, the people we’ll meet and the stories we’ll hear in CHICANO ROCK will be as memorable as the music.
     
           
   

 LA RAZA, USA
   
      “Brown-Eyed Soul isn’t about color. It’s a way of life – music that is passed from generation to generation like a family heirloom . . . The Latino culture is like one big family . . .”
                                                             Singer, Brenton Wood      
           
     



Los Lobos
 
     
     

Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll is the story of musicians and their music, but also it is the story of generations of listeners and their communities.  And it is a story that parallels the history of the 20th Century Chicano community itself – decades of struggle and assimilation, punctuated with bursts of ethnic pride and growing social, political and economic importance.

In clubs and concert halls, on records and the radio, at simple backyard parties and lavish quincineras, this is a musical and cultural tradition that runs long and deep.   One with special importance as we enter a new century with an increasing Latino presence in American life.

In CHICANO ROCK we’ll travel back through time, beginning when Mexican-Americans returned from World War II with memories of battle overseas, along with reminders of injustices at home like the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial.  It was a time of pachukos and braceros.  But it was also a time when Los Angeles elected its first Mexican-American City Councilman since the 19th Century.  And when a new fight for Civil Rights began, followed by an increasing sense of ethnic pride as Chicago and New York joined cities in the Southwest with Spanish-speaking communities growing at record rates.  And threading through this all is the story of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Lively, entertaining, and a long-overdue celebration, CHICANO ROCK will be a television special that is a journey of discovery, and a unique opportunity to encounter unexpected aspects of American history and popular music.  

And most important, it will be an invaluable chance for all Americans to add to the appreciation of Chicano and Latino contributions to our nation’s life and history.