The combination of jazz, rock and traditional Latin American cumbia, may sound like a discordant combination, but the members of La Santa Cecilia, a Los Angeles-based quartet, combine these forms and more into Grammy award-winning music.
La Santa Cecilia will perform at the Hopkins Center tonight at 7 p.m.
Jose “Pepe” Carlos, the band’s accordion and requinto, a type of small guitar, player said that the band typically performs a hybrid of Latin American and traditional American rock music.
“We’re a bicultural band, so you’re going to be hearing anything from ranchera cumbia to rock songs to hip-hop,” he said. “I think that’s the beauty of our band — we’ve never had any musical borders.”
In addition to Carlos, the band, which released its first EP in 2009 , is made up of bassist Alex Bendana, percussionist Miguel Ramirez and vocalist and jarana — a type of Mexican guitar — player Marisol Hernandez.
Bendana said that the group’s main goal is storytelling.
“We wanted to tell stories of our experience of being Latinos here in the [United States],” he said. “I think the music is just a reflection of that, a reflection of all the American music we listen to, all the Latin, Mexican influences we had growing up.”
He said that the group was inspired by their home, Los Angeles. He said that the group continues the city’s history of bands mixing genres and that each of the members come from different musical backgrounds, from rock bands to salsa groups.
“When we formed the band, we were already doing different types of music with other people,” he said. “When we got together, we simply wanted to write our own music.”
In addition to their music, the group has also become well-known for its immigration reform activism, thanks to their song “ICE — El Heilo” (2014), which explores the experience of Latino undocumented immigrants. Until 2014, Carlos was an undocumented immigrant.
Bendana said that “ICE — El Heilo” has been played at rallies and has become a voice for immigration activists.
Ramirez said that La Santa Cecilia was not initially meant to be a political band but instead wanted to tell true stories.
“We never really had political intentions as a group,” he said. “We just kind of started telling our story and the stories within our community, and those stories began becoming political.”
He said that the group has also begun to write songs that look at and critique police brutality in the United States, as well as songs about the students who went missing in Mexico last year.
He said that the band’s fans now expect them to be more political and that it is a responsibility they are happy to assume.
“I think we’ve taken it as a responsibility to utilize our voice for something, whatever we see wrong and fit to change,” Ramirez said.
Bendana said that the group’s various musical interests are what make La Santa Cecilia so unique. He said this variety allows the group to create a completely new sound while writing their music.
Carlos said that his favorite style to play is cumbia, while Bendana’s is jazz and classic rock.
He said that though reconciling the group’s different influences and interests is the most difficult part of their writing process, the songs that are created are meaningful as a result.
“I think everyone’s so honest and so receptive to what’s going on in our communities, what’s going on here in the states, that we tend to write songs that really mean something to us,” he said. “Hopefully, we are connecting to people and giving them inspiration and giving them hope.”
Bendana said that the band wants to continue improving their music and sharing their music with people around the country.
“That’s what we live for — to share our music and to play music,” he said.
Ramirez said that he also wants La Santa Cecilia to be the best band that it can be.
In addition to their concert, the group also visited a writing class and led a discussion at a dinner hosted by the Rockefeller Center’s PoliTalk and the student group Coalition for Immigration Reform, Equality and DREAMers.
Hopkins Center outreach and arts education coordinator Erin Smith said in an interview before the dinner was held that the discussion at the dinner mostly centered on immigration to the United States due to the group’s activism around the issue. She said the students who attended the dinner prepared questions for the band members.
“It’s going to be about their personal experiences and, like they said, they have this voice now, a public voice,” she said. “It should be a good chance for the students to connect with them.”
The group also hosted a special matinee show for local students.
In the past, La Santa Cecilia has collaborated with performers from Elvis Costello to Stevie Wonder, won a Grammy in 2014 for Best Latin Rock Album and have had their music featured in television shows including “The Bridge” (2013).
The concert will be held in Spaulding Auditorium. Tickets are $10 to $25 for students and $17 to $25 for community members.
