By Erik Luna
A renaissance is happening in East Los Angeles and Las Cafeteras are happy to be a part of it.
Last night the band, who has former East Los Angeles College students, premiered their new music video for their song “Luna Lovers,” from their album “It’s Time,” at the Vincent Price Art Museum.
Jaranero and singer Hector Flores said that it was important to display their work to the community, because that’s their reality, and it’s where they live and hang out.
Director John Cantú gave a brief thanks to the band and crew and then showed the video. After the video was shown for a second time, Las Cafeteras came out to perform a brief set of three songs including “Trabajador Trabajadora” and “Ya Me Voy.”
“When I heard ‘Luna Lovers,’ it really struck me as a folk pop ballad, but in Son Jarocho,” Cantú said. “I started seeing visions of a video for that, and then I went to the Edison where they screen silent films all the time, and I saw ‘A Trip to the Moon,’ by George Melies, and I started thinking ‘hey trip to the moon – Luna Lovers. This is perfect.”
Cantu said that Las Cafeteras didn’t want a traditional take on love for the video, because they had a bigger concept of love. Jose Cano, who plays the flute on “Trabajador Trabajadora,” said that it’s a different concept of what they were expecting, but they all loved how it came out.
Cano’s high school friend friend Carlos Rocha stood in the back viewing the success of his friend with amazement. “Las Cafeteras vocalize what a lot of people hold in their hearts,” Rocha said. “The message they sing about is very appealing and our community is very hungry for a band like this.”
Director of VPAM Karen Rapp was pleased with how the night went. “I would love to see our campus have regular events like this,” Rapp said. “My dream would have to be to have some sort of series, whether it’s programs on a particular day of the week, or in the summer.”
Cantú went on to say that he loved showing the new music video at ELAC. “I am so honored, humbled and feel so privileged to have the opportunity to show this video to the community here in East LA,” Cantu said. “It was just an incredible night of art, music and photography, and it was just an amazing opportunity to have it in these wonderful facilities.”
According to the band, the video will be released to the public tomorrow on LA Weekly’s website.
