Las Cafeteras event mixes positive message with upbeat variety of music genres

The Las Cafeteras concert on October 10 in Eisenhower Auditorium was filled with vibrant music and dancing, sweeping the audience up off their feet to groove along with the energetic performers.

The group certainly brought their own style of music to the Penn State venue, fusing traditional Mexican son jarocho with a variety of other genres to create a wholly new experience for audiences.

“We don’t just play one genre. We’re not a traditional son jarocho group,” Las Cafeteras drummer Jose Guadalupe Cruz Cano said. “We mix everything up.”

And mix it up they did. Some songs were pulse-pounding, bass-heavy party music, while others like “Luna Lovers,” were soft and acoustic-driven. The variety provided a nice balance between toe-tapping spectacle and a relaxing, mellowed-out experience. I felt as though there wasn’t a dull moment, and I enjoyed the experience of getting out of my personal music comfort zone.

The audience seemed to agree, with the majority of the crowd coming to the front of the stage to dance close to the performers. The audience awarded Las Cafeteras an enthusiastic, standing ovation. Chants for an encore brought them back out for a second round of applause from the crowd.

Pure entertainment wasn’t the only focus of Las Cafeteras’ performance. The artists’ message is just as important to them, made clear by frontman Hector Flores opening the show with chants of “Black lives matter. Queer lives matter. Trans lives matter.”

From my perspective, the artists realize the power they have as performers and public figures to inspire change. They want to make the world a place where everyone can feel like they have a home.

“Las Cafeteras always says that we are storytellers before we are musicians,” lead vocalist Denise Carlos said after the event. “We’re going to talk about the things that hurt us, but we are also going to bring in joy and we’re going to invite everyone to do it, because you can’t change anything by yourself. This is a celebration of who we are.”

This was showcased with the opening performers, the Akwesasne Women Singers. The group performed traditional Mohawk music to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, which was the day before.

The message and performance honestly intertwined nicely together, with the mixing and combining of musical styles representing how we as people should be able to coexist, no matter how different and varied we may be.

Cale Blakely is a communications intern for the Center for the Performing Arts.