A phenomenally successful "family business" for more than 50 years, the currency of Los Tigres del Norte has been to detail the struggles and triumphs, romances and heartbreak of working people, families, immigrants, outlaws and farmers. Inevitably, singing about those who seek a better life, sometimes through illegal means, would attract accusations of being 'Mexico's gangsta rap.' And yet the accolades speak for themselves: Los Tigres is the only Mexican band to win 7 Grammy awards and 12 Latin Grammys.
Songs that tackle pressing, real-life issues such as violence along the Mexico/US border (Las Mujeres de Juárez), heartbreak (Golpes en el Corazón), drug dealing (La Reina del Sur), the migrant experience (Somos Mas Americanos) and even lesbian love (Era Diferente) have kept Los Tigres del Norte relevant and widely listened to well into the 21st century.
As the biggest modern-day exponents of corridos (folk songs that began over a century ago as a way of sharing news about the events of the Mexican Revolution), the close-knit quintet have helped spread their country's regional music all over the world, collaborating with some of the biggest names in Mexican music, including Alejandro Fernandez, Paulina Rubio and Marco Antonio Solis, along the way. Walking seamlessly amidst billionaires, celebrities and paupers, in 2018, Los Tigres became the first musical act since Johnny Cash to film a concert at Folsom Prison.
Both beloved and scorned, the sleek image of the four Hernández brothers (plus cousin) in suits is as recognisable as their music. And literally being a 'band of brothers' has meant that the boys, whose roots lie in the western Mexican state of Sinaloa, have always had each other to fall back on.
Most of us are familiar with bands that contain siblings - Oasis, The Bee Gees, The Carpenters, Alvin and the Chipmunks etc - but Los Tigres del Norte are surely the outright winners when it comes to the sheer number of family members involved, beating even The Jacksons. For, at one time or another, all 11 Hernández brothers have helped keep the name alive and kicking, whether it be performing on stage or working 'behind the scenes'
Looking smart in a burgundy suit jacket, white shirt and colourful pocket square, Luis Hernández, who at 49 is the youngest of the clan, appears via Zoom from San Jose, California, where he has lived since 1989, along with all of his brothers.
"My brother Jorge, is the founder, together with my brother Hernan and my brother Raul, whose place I took in 1996,” he explains. "Now, my brother Eduardo is in the group and my brother Freddy (who sadly passed away in 1993) also participated, playing percussion. Each of us has been active in some way with the group - I have another brother called Artemio, he also worked with us but doing other things. It's a family business completely - those that aren't brothers are very close to us. My cousin Oscar [Lara] who plays drums, he's my cousin but we've always considered him as our brother."
Luis was born in Mexicali in northern Mexico and moved to San Jose in the US when he was young. His parents were poor campesinos and, in the early days, he and his brothers sent money back to Sinaloa to pay their father's medical bills following a back injury.
"Everyone can feel a connection with what we sing about, not only Latin Americans but people from other countries, who know what we sing about," he observes. "What we've also noticed when we've worked in Europe is that our music causes, let's say, curiosity, for the puns and for the themes that we address - social problems, problems related to immigration that you in Europe experience every day, same as here in the United States.”
Sadly, much of what we hear about Mexico in the news tends to be negative and Luis admits that Los Tigres feel a responsibility to present a positive image of the country when travelling abroad (they also have their Los Tigres del Norte Foundation, which is committed to fostering appreciation and preservation of Mexican and Mexican American folklore).
"We have always tried to show, on and off stage, what Mexico is and what Mexico represents, in spite of the fact that our music tackles a lot of social themes and things that happen in Mexico - our harsh reality," he explains. "We always try and send a positive message in our songs and act solely as interpreters.”
Without being explicit, Luis is referring to the blame that the Mexican elites started to lay on corrido groups and particularly the new generation of narcocorrido musicians that emerged in the noughties, allegedly linked to the drugs lords, with lyrics arguably glorifying their illegal activities. In some cases, the narcocorrido singer is given a list of characteristics, events, favourite cars and weapons to include in the song for which they are later rewarded royally with cash, or gifts such as diamond inset pistols and expensive watches. Luis is quick to distance himself from such groups, who are also hugely popular.
"There is a wave of younger artists who want to send a message, to talk about what people go through in their everyday lives within their society, but who also want to copy and behave like the characters in these stories that they're telling,” he says. "In our case, I think we have managed to put this to one side and maintain the role of narrators of stories of everyday life, and to try to relate to people, outside of Mexico and outside of the United States too, because here there is a large Mexican and Latin American community who are struggling with problems every day.
"We always try to send a positive message, through our songs, our authenticity, our lyrics, our image, our story.” He insists. “Everything that's happened over the course of our career makes me think that we're sending a positive message and I think that's why we’ve broadened our appeal to other countries too."
Los Tigres del Norte weren't the first act to popularise Mexican regional music - bands like Los Donneños and Los Alegres de Terán came out before them - but they are now its most well-known exponents, having successfully infused norteño, a popular accordion-based polka music indigenous to Northern Mexico, with oboleros, cumbias, rock, waltzes and even country (they covered Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues, for example, when they played the famous Californian prison in 2018, 50 years after Cash).
At their imminent concert in London in April, the audience can expect to hear songs from throughout the group's long career, which went up a gear in 1974 thanks to their breakthrough single, Contrabando y Traición (Camelia La Texana), about a drug deal and love story gone wrong. In 1984 Los Tigres had their first chart-topper, Jaula de Oro and 1985's A Ti Madrecita marked their first million-seller - while 1989's Corridos Prohibidos kicked off the modern narcocorrido movement, paving the way for the 21st century's 'alterna-movimiento'.
In 2014, the band released the album Realidades, which contains the song Era Diferente about a lesbian teenager who falls in love with her best friend. According to founding member Jorge Hernández, this marked the first time a norteño group had ever written a gay love song.
On which tunes tend to get the biggest reaction, Luis says: "Well for example the first Tigres del Norte hit that we can never leave out in a concert is Contrabando y Traición (Camelia La Texana). It's the first corrido that Los Tigres del Norte recorded and it's the one that catapulted the career of Los Tigres del Norte - people always ask for it, children and adults. The song causes lots of joy; children sing it, adults sing it, women identify with it because here the main character in the song is a woman...”
"There's also one called La Banda del Carro Rojo - it's one of the corridos too, and it was turned into a very well-known film. We also sing another one which we can't leave out, Jefe de Jefes. That album was also very successful - an album made up of corridos that that song appears on. Everyone identifies with him...Another story that isn't a corrido but one that people always ask for, La Puerta Negra, for example, La Mesa del Rincon - they are more upbeat songs, ones that make audiences go crazy when they hear them.”
"In the last show we did, we played around 63 songs," notes Luis. Clearly not bored of dipping into the songs he loves playing, and the band’s impressive back catalogue, he continues…
"La Camioneta Gris, La Jaula de Oro, which no matter where we sing it, is a song that always gets a good reception. Somos Mas Americanos is also very well known... Golpes en el Corazón is a completely different style, it's a ballad, it's a song about spite and love but one that gets the crowd excited when they hear it. We have so many songs that I may have forgotten one... Tres Veces Mojado, these songs have to be in the setlist. Ni Parientes Somos, for example, men and women react very excitedly to that song, and one song that is being requested a great deal at all of our events is one called El Avión de la Muerte. It's a corrido and wherever we go, it's one that's really in demand."
Despite their outstanding success - 70 albums since the late 60s and 40 films - their upcoming gig in London will be the first time this revered fivesome have brought their distinctive sound to the English capital, which Luis says he is feeling "very excited" about:
“There's now something of a trend, for Mexican regional music in Europe, which is bringing us to the UK in April."
Why has it taken Los Tigres so long to add London to the tour itinerary?
"We have been in Europe before, in Spain and Germany, but it wasn't the right time for the UK. Now Latin community in the UK is growing and there is a lot more awareness of and access to our music, now that streaming services are more dominant than mainstream media. We know that our music is listened to over there through platforms like Spotify. Plus, it seems like a good opportunity to play our music for people who haven't heard it but just know the name Los Tigres del Norte."
Get ready to get your money's worth, London!
Los Tigres del Norte will be appearing at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, on Sunday, April 14, as part of the La Linea Festival. https://www.comono.co.uk/la-linea/.
