Co-founder, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter for the band Los Lobos, named 2021 National Heritage Fellows, Louie Pérez is one of the great storytellers. For more than 40 years, he’s written songs from the Chicano experience that speak to the joys, struggles, challenges, and hopes of everyday life. Los Lobos is an East LA band who came together almost 50 years ago, and, miraculously, it still consists of the same four founding members; Pérez, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, and Conrad Lozano (Steve Berlin—the new kid—came on board in 1984).

Los Lobos began as rockers who came to appreciate the traditional Mexican music of their parents—so much so that they devoted themselves to it for ten years. They played (and play) authentic music, but they approached it with the energy of rockers. Their big breakthrough came when they contributed music to the soundtrack of La Bamba, including the title song which became a mega-hit. As Pérez says, “a little band from East LA, that had a number one record of a traditional Mexican song. The name of the band was Los Lobos. That’s quite a statement. Another snapshot of Chicano culture as it moves forward.”

Their entire discography can be seen as snapshots of Chicano culture as they moved through and with different musics from rock to traditional to zydeco to R&B but always referring back to their Chicano roots. In this musical podcast, Pérez takes us through the formation of Los Lobos, their love of traditional Mexican music, their lifelong commitment to bring that music and culture to the world, the extraordinary journey of “La Bamba,” their roots in East Los Angeles, and the brotherhood the band shares.

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