Las Cafeteras performs music and stories for 5000 school children. The concert — and field trip to the Santa Barbara Bowl — was a first for most, and a day to remember

“Live, they’re magic: Uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music and rock.”

Los Angeles Times

From wonderment and wide grins to dancing and a collective sing-a-long, nearly 5000 Santa Barbara area elementary school children experienced many firsts when they recently spent a morning at the Santa Barbara Bowl.

The morning cultural showcase featured Las Cafeteras, a seven-piece group from East LA, that through storytelling and their Afro-Mexican rhythms, zapateado and inspiring lyrics, tell stories of a community looking for love and justice. For many of the school children — arriving from Guadalupe to Carpinteria — it was not only their first concert, but also their first visit to the Bowl. ‘What is this place?” was heard among the neophyte concertgoers as they completed the ritualistic trek to the Bowl’s main stage.

“We see it as a great way to reinvest in our local audience and our future artists,” said Rick Boller, Executive Director of the Bowl.“There is a definite lack of performing-arts education in our schools. Kids just aren’t getting it like they used to, so we have to find a way to provide it.”

Born in the streets of Los Angeles in 2008, Las Cafeteras are immigrant children who are remixing roots music and telling modern day stories with what Los Angeles Timeshas called a “uniquely Angeleno mishmash of punk, hip-hop, beat music, and rock ….”

On a week residency tour in Santa Barbara in April, the band hosted a series of concerts and storytelling, performing two lively and heartwarming shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Each performance showcased cultural music from Mexico and the Mexican-American experience. The show featured popular songs in Spanish and English as well as Las Cafeteras own creations celebrating the lives of everyday people and the cause of social justice.

Las Cafeteras performs music of the Veracruz region of Mexico featuring dancers from Ballet Folklorico de Los Angeles. Las Cafeteras create a vibrant musical fusion with a unique East LA sound and a community-focused message promoting equality and respect. In a remix of traditional sounds Las Cafeteras’ music is brought to life by an eclectic instrumentation include jaranas (a ukulele-like instrument), requinto, quijada de burro (a donkey jawbone), a bass instrument called marimbol cajon, and a wooden platform called the tarimaused to dance sapateado.

“These special performances at the Bowl are a product of a unique collaboration of organizations dedicated to providing diverse art and cultural opportunities for children and families,” added Boller. The Bowl’s free performances were funded by the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation, Children’s Creative Project, and the Towbes Foundation.

The Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation Education Outreach is dedicated to providing support and funding for performing arts education in the Santa Barbara community, and dedicates one dollar of every ticket sold at the Bowl to this end. Education Outreach, part of the Bowl’s core mission, reaches some 20,000 touch-points with students each year. Education Outreach provides funding to artists, schools and nonprofit arts programs to advance performing arts education in our area.

How You Can Help:

Want to help support local arts education and have fun? I Madonnari, the annual Italian Street Painting Festival, held May 23-25, 2015, transforms the Santa Barbara Mission plaza into 150 vibrant images. Your participation will help provide 50,000 children in more than 100 schools throughout Santa Barbara County with visual and performing arts workshops and performances. Learn how you can help at http://www.imadonnarifestival.com/