Los Tigres del Norte are the flagship band for the Mexican community in the diaspora. At this time when regional Mexican music and corridos are taking over all the music charts, we must not forget that this band, founded in Sinaloa, Mexico, is the one that reached sales of 32 million albums before Spotify and social networks. In addition, they have been playing for almost six decades, they have won 7 Grammy Awards and 12 Latin Grammy Awards. They will be performing at the Movistar Arena in Bogotá, with two sold out dates, September 21 and 23. Before their presentations, we chatted with them:
You are the ‘dads’ of a genre that started many years ago and is now number one, known as corridos. Why do you think this genre has grown so much?
The stories we sing are real, stories of the people. They are songs that tell stories of daily life, of true events. People identify themselves both in our Mexican republic and in other countries. The stories we have sung are very powerful and have a very important meaning for the public.
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Does that explain your success?
It is one of the great virtues of being connected with the public and making the stories that we have made since the beginning. They are stories that are sung and lived. We have made songs that have transcended and that we have the joy of singing every time we have the opportunity, they are songs that are asked of us and that have incredible power when they are sung.
What makes the Northern Tigers different?
We are like the initiators of this movement that was made in the seventies, eighties, nineties. Now, in 2023, suddenly all this comes up with different artists. We continue in our area, other colleagues, in their area, making other stories, and we come to combine this that emerges and becomes a phenomenon. We are excited about what is happening because that is what is sought: for there to be growth and for new generations to get to know the different realities. We continue with the classic, with the true stories, the ones that the public wants to hear.
We are aware that it has been a work of many years and that we have been pioneers of this music, not only to interpret it, but also to bring it to different countries.
They have been witnesses and protagonists of the hard lives of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Are you aware that your work is what has made this first generation of people born in the United States want to continue talking about this?
We are aware that it has been a work of many years and that we have been pioneers of this music, not only to interpret it, but also to bring it to different countries. We, for example, have been going to Colombia and other countries for more than 30 years, but, above all, in a country like Colombia, which identifies so much with stories, because I believe that at the end of the day we live the same realities, the same problems. As you said, there is a new generation or the first generation of artists of the genre here in the United States and they are the ones that are now being projected. But the reality is that there is a big gap between this generation and ours.
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Because?
Because as Mexican families are so rooted in our culture, we want our children to remain attached to that reality and to those experiences that we have in our countries of origin, but they have a hard time adapting to a society in the United States.
So what happens?
That these ways of expressing themselves arise through music, through their lyrics, through how they conduct themselves in society in this country. We also live in the United States and we know the situation and how the new generations behave in this country, the new generations of Mexican Americans. But also, they really want to know and know where they come from.
They also have a valid form of expression…
It is very nice that they express themselves and talk about what they feel. We carry a line in which we talk about reality because we had to live it. Those situations of how to get here, with everything you experience, everything you suffer to be in a country like the United States and fulfill the American dream, unlike those who are already here and are experiencing other types of problems. At the end of the day, there is going to be a time when ideologies are going to coincide, and music and lyrics are going to grow.
We have never lost our customs. We have never changed our way of thinking because of the way we live in the United States
They have been living in the United States for years. How have they remained so Mexican?
The authenticity of our roots is very deep. We were born there and when we were eleven, twelve years old, we came to the United States, but our roots are there. We have never lost our customs. We have never changed our way of thinking because of the way we live in the United States. When we arrived in this country there were no celebrations of Mexican national holidays nor the acceptance that exists today. We love our flag, we respect it; We long for our land when we are far from it.
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And it’s the irony of being so far away, being just a few steps away…
Clear! Because we live in a country so close, but at the same time so far away. So, that makes the feeling grow, the roots grow. And then you get used to it. In the case of us, who travel so much, we are feeling those Latin American values. Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, all the countries we travel touch us. Suddenly we go to the festivities of each country and see how they celebrate and how they get excited.
Their concerts must be full of anecdotes…
Yeah! A few days ago, for example, we were in a town called Comitán, in the state of Chiapas. At the town fair there was a child about 15 rows from the stage. His mother was holding his hand. He was always singing our songs, but when we started singing Camelia, the Texan, this boy, who was about ten years old, approached the stage in his mother’s arms and started crying while singing the song. These are the anecdotes that fill us with emotion, that tell us about the identification that new generations have with our songs. That song in particular was recorded in 1972 and for a nine-year-old child to feel it, to live it, is a great emotion.
And what does all this generate for you?
First it gives you a feeling of emotion and then you become aware of a commitment and responsibility to those new generations who, in some way, see us as an example. And that makes your commitment to them grow, the commitment to bring them a good message, to represent what we are in a dignified way and to continue trying to do things that can help the community, not only through songs, but through other activities.
URSULA LEVY
FOR THE TIME
@Uschilevy
2023-09-17 03:54:26
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