Usually, I don’t write about myself in LA LA Land, but this week I will make an exception because of the event and the location. But I will keep it short. The event was a double birthday party – for myself and my daughter. The location was the historic La Fonda de Los Campaneros, the founding home of mariachi in Los Angeles. The La Fonda is a mariachi museum with vintage mariachi uniforms, instruments, posters and sheet music on display. It is also a restaurant that can seat upwards of 150 people and pump out perfect margaritas at an astounding rate. And it is a music venue tailored for mariachi bands with a triangular stage, full lighting, and state of the art sound. I’s location is emblematic of LA – a historic Mexican cultural icon in midtown on edges of Korean Town, Little Armenia, historic Pilipino town and Little Bangladesh. It all works.
We decided a double birthday required a concert as well as a party, so we booked the La Fonda for the night, filled it with about 100 of her friends, my friends and biking buddies, my wife’s friends from the LA theater community, and local bands and music industry reps. By the time the promoters, Luis Polanco of Sunset Eclectico and Julieta Isela of Republiqué PR, had laid out the tables and chairs for dinner, set up a photo booth and picture gallery for the event photographers, Las Photos, there was no dance floor. But that didn’t stop anyone.
The entertainment was two bands – the operatic cumbia-salsa-rock group led by local opera singer Crisia Regalado, and The Mexican Standoff, a bilingual country Western rock band from Mexico City and LA which boasts three Grammys among the members. The Standoff is fronted by three women, Alih Jey, Nancy Sanchez and Fernanda Ulibarri who got the crowd up and congoing despite the lack of a dance floor.
Other guests who sang include the Australian-Chilean singer, songwriter, and actress Constanza Herrero, fast-rising LA electro-pop singer Whitney Tai, and Latina folk singer-songwriter Alicia Blue. The pop star Binx shared MC duties with event producer Julieta Isela and sang “Headlights” from her first album. And she led the entire room in a round of happy birthday in English, followed by a round in Spanish. Ironically there was no mariachi – no room or time for one, but Nancy Sanchez, who also sings with her father’s mariachi band and tours with the Latin Grammy-winning Flor de Toloache mariachi, stepped in with her vihuela (5-string mariachi guitar) and treated the room to a few mariachi tunes.
Throughout the night, the young Latinas of Las Photos, a local nonprofit organization that teaches young girls from East LA the art and business of commercial photography for later careers, circulated and took pictures of virtually everyone in the room. The also operated a photo booth complete with props, costumes, and bright lights
One of the most satisfying things about the party/concert was that it brought in people of all races and locations in LA. People who would not normally encounter each other, or each other’s music, were dancing together, sharing drinks and exchanging contacts. Because the age range was wide – from teens to 70’s – it was musical teaching moments as the bands delivered standards like “Ring of Fire” and cutting edge pop from the likes of Whitney Tai, plus ballads in Spanish and English. My only regret is that I can’t have that birthday again. But my daughter can….hmmm.
