Norteño Music Among Efforts To Get Latinos To The Polls

*I loved this story, because I could hear the music while I read it. It’s about how Los Tigres del Norte have been promoting voter participation at their recent concerts. I’ve always equated Los Tigres with people dancing, grilling beef and drinking beer. Now I can add registering to vote. It makes sense. Forty-four percent of eligible Latino voters are millennials – a big chunk of the Tigres fan base. VL

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By Kate Stein, WLRN (2.5 minute read)

Norteño music developed along the Texas-Mexico border. It blends the instruments of mariachi with the rhythms of polka. And now, one of norteño’s most popular bands is hoping its music will get more Latinos to the polls.

Los Tigres del Norte — The Tigers of the North — have been putting out norteño hits for four decades. The band performed in West Palm Beach on Feb. 19. A lot of its songs touch on social and political issues: immigration, workers’ rights, drug trafficking, political representation.

Jorge Hernandez Sr., the band’s leader, says Los Tigres is especially working to make political representation a priority this year. At some concerts, Los Tigres has had tables where fans can pledge to vote in the presidential election. And they’ve helped create a website to encourage voter registration.

“What we do is invite them — to participate, not to be quiet,” Hernandez says. “They have to be part of the voice, of the Latino voice.”

Click HERE to read the full story.

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[Photo by Keneth Cruz/Flickr]

Suggested Viewing

Accordion Dreams, the much anticipated follow up to Hector Galán’s Songs of the Homeland, was broadcast nationally on PBS on August 30, 2001.

Accordion Dreamswas screened throughout the country including CineFestival of San Antonio, SXSW of Austin, the Los Angeles Latino Film Festival, CineSol Latino Film Festival, the Dallas Video Festival. A special screening was held at the historic La Villita DanceHall in San Benito, Texas and at the Great Plains Film Festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. Accordion Dreams was honored as the “best film to explicate the Latino/ethnic heritage of the Great Plains Region” with the prestigious “Rainbow Award”.

Accordion Dreams was also selected by the American Film Institute as a program participant in the 2001 Enhanced Television Workshop, where it is being developed as a prototype in the use of new technologies for the development of interactive, digital TV.

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