Born out of a small café in Little Tokyo and driven by Chicano rock, rhythm and blues, Afro-Cuban rhythms, rancheras, salsa and soul, for the past three decades the Los Angeles-based ensemble Quetzal has been creating music focusing on progressive cultural and political stories about real people and struggle.
They’ve recorded nine albums and won a Grammy along the way, yet they’ve never been too interested in commercial success or selling out huge venues.
For the last three decades the group, founded and led by Quetzal Flores, an affable and soft-spoken self-described “Chicano Artivista,” and Flores’ wife and lead bilingual singer Martha Gonzalez, Quetzal has become an integral part of Los Angeles’ musical and political tapestry.
And the band is now marking its milestone anniversary with a free concert on Saturday, Aug. 19 at La Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
“It doesn’t feel like 30 years, but then it does when I think about it. If it wasn’t for us rooting ourselves in a different value system, we wouldn’t exist. There would be no reason to exist,” said 50-year-old Flores, as he sat in the backyard of his bright green El Sereno home while sporting a pink guayabera shirt and fedora-style hat, just a couple of weeks before the show.
The anniversary concert will feature songs from their wide catalog of activist music that has helped define the Los Angeles Chicano music scene since the early ’90s.
“They represent a giant community that exists in Los Angeles that often gets cornered into a label like ‘minority.’ In reality, we are a huge presence here and Quetzal is the soundtrack to all of these communities, whether it’s the Spanish speaking community, or fifth generation Mexican-American communities, Quetzal represents all of these communities in their music and their lyrics,” said Mark Torres, a radio show host for 90.7 FM/KPFK who was one of the first to play the band’s music on-air.
Activist roots
Born in Salinas, Flores was…
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