Last Update
04/17/2009

CHICANO ROCK
A 60-Minute PBS Special

OPENING CHORDS

I’m going to do a little song for you now that’s gonna make you clap your hands and kick your feet . . .”
                                                                                                         The Blendells, 1964

There is one important chapter in the history of American music that remains little known, or simply ignored . . . 

The story of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll.   

This is the subject we plan to explore in a lively ninety-minute television documentary: CHICANO ROCK.  And with the new explosion of Latino music and new pop superstars, our timing couldn't be better.
 

Inspired by the landmark book by David Reyes and Tom Waldman, Land of a Thousand Dances, CHICANO ROCK will be the history of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll, the biography of generations of artists and audiences, and the story of a community -- East LA.   

And an important part of the making of modern America.

ROOTS

"Rising like a sleeping giant, music from the barrios of East Los Angeles began to be heard.  Whittier Boulevard was brimming with excitement.  It was a wonderful time to be young . . ."
                                                                          Little Willie G., Thee Midniters

Cannibal and the Headhunters, Thee Midniters, The Premiers, The Romancers, Tierra, El Chicano.  To some, the names of these bands from the 60s and 70s may not be immediately familiar.  But their music speaks loud and clear.  And to this day, generations continue to listen, dance and celebrate to their sounds. In contrast to other rock fans whose enthusiasms pass with each new hit parade, for Chicano audiences, songs from the 1960s are as alive as they were thirty years ago.

The roots of Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll can be traced to traditional barrios throughout the American Southwest, but most importantly, to the streets and neighborhoods of East Los Angeles.  Kids from local schools such as Garfield and Roosevelt High met, played music, and began a musical dialogue with an emerging rock ‘n’ roll tradition – African American rhythm and blues and doo wop, Anglo country and pop, and their own Latin and Mexican heritages.

As we’ll see in CHICANO ROCK, from the beginning there were Latin influences on American music.  Latin rhythms pulse through jazz, and dances from “South of the Border” are ballroom staples.  But for a post World War II generation of Chicanos, these were sounds of the past.  Like African American and Anglo teenagers, they looked to America for inspiration.

Chicano Rock ‘n’ Roll is the sound of generation after generation . . . listening and absorbing . . . reacting and responding  . . . searching for and finding an identity with music.  For the world at large it began with a 17-year-old kid from the San Fernando Valley, one of Rock’s first superstars, Ritchie Valenzuela, known around the world as Ritchie Valens.  His 1958 hits “Donna” and "La Bamba" were million-sellers.

Ritchie Valens

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Ó 2006