Reason: Are you generally optimistic or pessimistic about Hispanic immigration in America?
Perez: Optimistic. Mexican-American people have progressed. There’s a Mexican American mayor here in Los Angeles. There are BMWs parked in the driveways of homes in East L.A. Kids have gone off to college and become lawyers and teachers and doctors and professionals. So, yeah, it’s not like you can throw this kind of blanket statement over our whole culture and say we’re just a bunch of people that are over here sapping the life out of America—the kind of thing your Lou Dobbses of the world would like to project.
So I’m optimistic. But it’s also just fatiguing to know that there’s people out there still with that Lou Dobbs mindset—the idea that we don’t belong here. Well, we were invited here, you know, we were invited here to supplement the workforce during World War II.
Reason: The new album is really moody, almost dark in places. You say the immigration debate is fatiguing. But has it made you cynical?
Perez: I don’t think I’m cynical. Though I’ve always projected hope in my work, I have to admit, this one is a little desperate. Because of that, I spoke with David [Hidalgo, the band’s lead singer] when this thing started to reveal itself. I’ve been writing songs with him for 35 years. I told him, “These are the words that are going to come out of your mouth. Are you okay with them?” He said, “This is what we need to do right now.”
I don’t want to project hopelessness or despair. Yeah, it’s dark. It’s moody. But when you put it on, I don’t think people feel that this is a hopeless narrative. It’s just the story we need to tell right now.
reason: I think there’s a blues analogy here. You’re writing about troubling topics, and the overall mood is gloomy. But the vibe the listener takes away is uplifting.
Perez: Yeah. “The Valley” is a good example of that, where people are traveling to a new place. It’s kind of frightening. You’re in a new place, a place that’s completely unfamiliar to you. But there’s also this exalting sense of discovery and possibility.
Reason: There’s always a debate in new immigrant classes about assimilation versus heritage, particularly between generations. Your music evokes that gap in a lot of ways. You’ve had some crossover success, but you don’t neatly fit into any genre.
Perez: We grew up just like any other kids growing up in the U.S. We were influenced by rock radio. Sure, there was Mexican music played in the house, but we just wanted to homogenize with everybody else. We wanted to play rock ’n’ roll. We wanted to listen to rock ’n’ roll. We wanted to leave the Mexican music home with our parents.
But after we’d been musicians for awhile, we rediscovered Mexican music. It wasn’t a popular move for teenage boys by any means. We didn’t do it for any kind of shock value or anything like that. We just did it because it felt right.
Reason: Do you think your music has a different appeal for your Spanish-speaking audience than for your English-speaking audience?
Perez: I have to admit that we’ve been kind of a tough sell for our own people. We sort of miss both the parents and the kids. First-generation Mexican nationals living in the U.S. want to preserve their culture from Mexico. They want to keep things just one way. We don’t go over real well with Spanish-speaking people here in the U.S. because they can get the real deal. They have Spanish-language radio. They can buy CDs from rock bands and folk bands who sing solely in Spanish.
We’re hugely respected by Mexican-American kids, the second and third generations, maybe to a fault. They kind of put us on pedestal for veneration. But at the same time, I don’t think they actually listen to our music. They listen to whatever is current and contemporary and exciting for them. I don’t blame them for that. I think we’ve just gotten to a point where we’ve become heroes to Mexican-Americans for what we’ve accomplished. And I’m grateful for that. But I don’t know that our music is particularly popular with the younger Mexican-Americans.
Reason: The music business and its demographics have changed a lot since you started recording. The U.S. obviously now has a much larger Hispanic population. Globalization has created a world market for all sorts of music. And the Internet, movies, and television have created a really cosmopolitan music consumer. Has all of that affected the way you write and record and market your music?
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