1	Film & TV Michelle Rodriguez returns to the big screen and heads behind the camera with two new projects. read more...
2	Music The famed Mexican rock band, Jaguares, scores its first Grammy; La Quinta Estación releases a new album; the many faces of Señor Coconut; Cucu Diamantes shines. read more...
3	Ask Julie Tax benefits of new home purchases. read more...
4	Calendar Noteworthy Hispanic events around the country in April. read more...
5	Picture This The new generation of Mexican wrestlers. read more...

Music

Jaguares roar

The famed Mexican rock band scores its first Grammy with the debut of a musically inventive and politically conscious new album.

Jaguares, the Mexican rock band made up by Saul Hernández, Alfonso André and Cesar “Vampiro” López, took the Latin music world by storm with their brew of despairing existential lyrics, innovative sounds and influences such as the Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and, especially, the Fab Four. “Their music definitely stuck with us, and remember that the psychedelic influence is still very much with us in our culture,” says frontman Hernandez.
So it was no surprise when the eclectic group won a Grammy in February in the Best Latin Rock or Alternative category for their new album, 45. It was the group’s third Grammy nomination.
The question is, for Hernandez, who also co-produces, whether this recognition from the English-speaking music world threw the group for a loop or if it had always been a goal, and one on which they’d trained their sights.
“We have never won before,” Hernandez says. “And this win pleases us especially because this album is informed by a very different intention.”
Their sound is innovative and at the same time reminiscent of those signature groups that have not only influenced music in general, but a way of perceiving the world at large.
“Yes, music is enormous and has many influences,” he says, adding that they titled this album 45, “Because there are 45 million poor in Mexico, and with the launching of the record we wanted to promote a new awareness among Mexican people, to realize that we are still a third-world country and to forge ahead. We have a great economic imbalance. To have 45 million people living below the poverty line is a dire situation.”
Entre Tus Jardines (In Your Gardens), is the single with the most airplay and boasts a reinvented style, even for the chameleonic Jaguares. Hernandez attributes the song’s success to its directness and the fact that it also addresses machismo in Latino culture.
“The lyrics talk about a couple in which the man wants to lead and realizes that the woman is way ahead of him. He thinks that he is lost, and floating in her ‘jardines’, so he has to leave that machismo aside. I think it’s time to break away from that stereotype, from that machista syndrome, and become less of a macho and more of a man,” he says.
The singer/composer then broaches a topic close to the band’s heart.
“We have followed the unfortunate femicides in Ciudad Juarez (more than 500 young female factory workers tortured and raped and murdered to date in the city that borders Texas and Mexico) and we demand justice,” he says. “I
believe it is our duty to promote those values and idiosyncrasies that enable us to forge ahead.”
In the track Viajando en el Tiempo (Traveling Through Time) the band explores other dimensions, and Hernandez explains: “I think that our world has become a very cold, dry place, and one in which capitalism is showing its first symptoms of cancer,” he says.
“We forget that there is a very organic aspect to life, and I personally like to dive into these searches because it takes my mind away from the cold and the marketing aspect of the business and everything else. We need to recover and reassess the value of human life. Life goes by very fast, so fast that we don’t have time to take stock of what we’re doing. That is why I wanted to develop this song, with that frenzy, that schizophrenia.”
Musicians have a tumultuous relationship with the music business as they straddle the worlds of artistry and marketing. They must balance the desire to spread their music and message as far as sound will carry while at the same time financing their ventures through sales. It seems Jaguares, too, toe the line.
“I wish the record labels would care more about the music and less about the merchandising,” says Hernandez. “There can only be change in the music industry if the record companies seek a rapprochement with the artists. ”
He reflects on the cyber music world of piracy and downloads. “There are many factors at play here,” he says. “In our countries, for instance, we have the tiendita that sells the pirated record and even the cop on the corner buys it. ... If you spend your [money] to buy a cerveza, you can support the music.”

Dynamite Duo

Despite the departure of a long-time member, pop band La Quinta Estación
looks to the future with the release of their latest album.

By Fernando Ruano, Jr.

Natalia Jimenez pauses before breaking into a sarcastic chuckle, a clear indication she’s been caught off guard.
“Oh, no, I haven’t worked with a voice coach in years,” says Jimenez, lead vocalist of Spanish pop band La Quinta Estación. “I’ve been singing live and in the studio for so long I’m at a point where I feel comfortable where I’m at vocally. I can’t remember the last time I did anything like that.”
The 27-year-old beauty from Madrid backs her claim with her imprint on Sin Frenos, La Quinta Estación’s fourth studio production. It’s also the group’s first album since 2006’s platinum-selling, El Mundo Se Equivoca. The band has also since seen the departure of bassist and original member Pablo Dominguez. Dominguez, who had been with the band for seven years, left La Quinta last December saying it was time for him to start a new journey.
“Sometimes in life we have to deal with the unexpected,” says guitarist Angel Reyero. “Natalia and I are going to make sure the people get what they want.”
Jimenez definitely sees to that. In a mixture of energetic pop rock and a half-dozen poignant and intense ballads, Jimenez sounds grown up and in love as she pours her voice all over the album. Exquisitely composed by Jimenez and guitarist Angel Reyero, the penetrating lyrics for the most part center on relationships, most notably fractured ones.
A newlywed, Jimenez’s raw emotion rings true in Que Te Queria, a compelling lead single. Fresh and stronger than ever, her chops carry Queria with fervor as she charges into such lyrics as “matamos la ilusion, tal vez/ y donde quedo yo,” which loosely translates to “we kill the illusion, perhaps/ and where I lie.”
Topping the charts in Spain, the somber tune explores the end of an intense romance. “We wanted something fresh and direct to the heart,” Jimenez says.
Mis Labios Por Tus Piernas is another of Sin Frenos’ ballads with cut-like-a-knife lyrics such as “cortas la distancia/ que hay entre tus ojos y mi alma,” which roughly translates to “you cut the distance/ that lies between your eyes and my soul.”
Jimenez, Reyero and Dominguez—at the time—came together at the start of the decade after countless rehearsals in Canillas.
In 2004, after the release of their second album, Flores De Alquiler, La Quinta was basking in the glory of a production that had gone triple platinum in Mexico after surpassing 195,000 in record sales.
“I’m very happy with everything that’s happening to me right now,” says Jimenez.
With Jimenez at the forefront, La Quinta quickly developed a following, namely in Spain, Mexico and Latin America. It continued to gain popularity with the band’s 2005 acoustic album, Acustico, La Quinta Estación. Recorded live, Acustico netted some of the band’s most recognizable hits including Algo Más, Perdición and El Sol No Regresa.
“It was all happening so fast I think sometimes we didn’t have the time to enjoy what was going on (around us),” says Jimenez, who says she struggled with the sudden fame. “I’m older now. I’d like to think I can deal with a little more now.”
With their international popularity escalating in Mexico, Spain and Latin America, the pop band put out El Mundo Se Equivoca. But while La Quinta has been touring over the last three years Jimenez realizes it’s going to take some convincing to lure fans skeptical because of Dominguez’s departure.
“Let’s be honest, we have a lot of work ahead of us,” says Reyero. “We’re going to make sure they [the fans] know we’re going to do whatever it takes.”
Usually not one to divulge much personal information, Jimenez and Reyero bare their souls through the music in their most recent effort.
“We didn’t want to leave any stones unturned,” says Reyero. “La Quinta Estación feels as if they’ve done as such.”

tour of thanks

Colombian pop star Fonseca will have a very busy spring. This month sees the beginning of a coast-to-coast tour, called Gratitour, from April 16 through May 9. The 12 cities that make up the U.S. portion of the tour start in Miami and end in California with several stops in between. For more information visit the artist’s official website at www.fonseca.net and see below for each of Fonseca’s dozen stops.

April 16: Miami, Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
April 17: Tampa, Indian Cultural Center
April 19: Atlanta, CW Center Stage
April 21: Charlotte, North Carolina, Neighborhood Theatre
April 23: Boston, The Roxy
April 24: New York City, The Fillmore New York
April 25: Washington, D.C., Black Cat
May 2: Houston, Warehouse Live
May 3: Dallas, The Loft
May 6: Las Vegas, House of Blues
May 7: Los Angeles, El Rey Theatre
May 9: Redwood City, California, Fox Theatre

Globe Trotting

Senor Cononut takes listeners on an adventure with Around the World.

By Lissette Corsa

To the world, 40-year-old Uwe Schmidt is Señor Coconut, the exuberant mambo avatar who seems to have emerged from a feverish haze and the effects of too many Pérez Prado records. But there are at least two sides to the German-Chilean producer, whose alter egos that exhibit such conflicting musical tendencies they’ve got him juggling on a tightrope.
Backed by the bright and brassy sound of a Latin orchestra, Señor Coconut conjures a maraca-shaking ebullient spirit. But that’s the antithesis to Schmidt’s other persona, Atom, the chilly, deconstructive DIY producer powered by technology in the seclusion of his Santiago, Chile studio. The two converge on Señor Coconut’s most recent project, Around the World (Nacional Records).
Schmidt’s latest installment takes the listener on a global tour, hop-scotching through a disparate collection of pop songs arranged as cha-cha-chas (including the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams and Prince’s Kiss), world music classics, and European synth pop nuggets outfitted with Caribbean panache. A few re-imagined Latin standards and a Schmidt original are rounded out by Daft Punk’s seminal club hit as the title track rumba.
Lest Señor Coconut should falter, a leitmotif and sonic arch provide something of a musical cushion to fall back on. This last scheme seems to have been methodically concocted by Atom. For his part, Señor Coconut denies any plotting of a master plan.
“The music I achieved was pretty much a coincidence,” Schmidt says via phone from Santiago. “I just wanted to make one album and the fact that it caught on was quite a surprise to me.”
Schmidt first discovered Latin music quite by accident, as he likes to put it, while living in Costa Rica for several months in the early 1990s. Upon returning to his hometown of Frankfurt, Germany, he began researching the music and became fixated with the big band era of Cuba and Mexico. Schmidt moved to Chile in 1997. “I wasn’t really interested in being part of anything in Germany, or in Frankfurt or Europe,” Schmidt says. “I just wanted to isolate myself to work on my own musical ideas.”
He found it offered him an uncluttered perspective to work while still being a part of Latin America. “Where I moved there was no Internet, no e-mail, so it was very isolated,” Schmidt says. “It feels far away from a lot of things and I really enjoy that.”
Señor Coconut is still very much a one-man band. Schmidt’s decision to forgo an orchestra of live musicians in favor of scattered session players conforms to his minimalist style. Around the World is as much inspired by ‘Round the World with Les Baxter, one of four LPs the exotica maestro unleashed in 1957, as by music Schmidt hears in his daily life. “I listen a lot to music in public spaces, like in supermarkets and airports and sometimes pop songs on the radio, and they get stuck in my head and reappear in a new version,” he explains. “How they end up on a record has something to do with the fact that the songs are compatible with, let’s say a cha-cha-cha, which has a very defined construction.”
On Around the World, Schmidt obtained good recordings of individual musicians playing notes based on a template of arrangements he created. Like a sonic patchwork, he digitally manipulated each note and made it sound as if the musicians had played together. The fragments of audio files aren’t totally integrated and there’s an unhinged quality Señor Coconut thrives on. Nothing is sacrosanct. Not for Schmidt. What sets him apart is a cunning ability to use refraction as a starting point for originality.

Welcome to CuCu Land

Veteran Yerba Buena vocalist, Cucu Diamantes, shines in her first solo project.

By Millie Acebal Rousseau

Yerba Buena fans are in for a musical treat. CuCu Diamantes, the band’s vocalist and co-founder, has released her debut solo album, CuCuLand. As her last name implies, CuCu is somewhat of a rare jewel. She even treated this writer to a complimentary song over the phone. “I’m like a vacuum cleaner, taking in everything,” she says. “I consider myself a gypsy.”
Her solo music, like that of Grammy-nominated Yerba Buena, is also gypsy-like in that it’s hard to categorize. It contains elements of Afro-Cuban, rock, hip-hop, salsa, R&B and Motown, among others. She sounds a little bit like a Spanish Amy Winehouse, something CuCu says she’s heard before. Her songs awaken in the listener a nostalgia for Old Cuba, the Cuba some of our parents knew. It’s something that resonates with CuCu. “My Cubania is my voice ... my voice will always be Cuban.”
The Cuban native, who spent her early years studying art in Havana, left the island to study fine arts and restoration in Rome before moving to New York City in 1993, where she helped launch the Latin funk collective, Yerba Buena. The name, she says, implies something fresh, always renewing. “You cut the grass, it comes out new.”
After nine years with the band, she decided it was time to explore her experiences in a solo album. “CuCuLand is my theater piece ... It’s my first baby,” she says. “I’m a perfectionist, and I love what I do.”
One of the album’s themes is love, if mainly from a woman’s point of view. CuCu encourages women to stay strong when a man leaves, but also touches on themes of domestic violence. “When it hurts, it’s not worth it,” she laments. She’s been tapped as a spokesperson for Amnesty International’s campaign, Stop Violence Against Women.
CuCu also is involved with other social causes, raising money for cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer’s awareness. She has appeared in some television shows recently, and is already thinking about her second album, which may contain some English songs.
As for Yerba Buena, she will continue rocking with them too.