May
Los Cenzontles, which means The Mockingbirds in Nahuatl, is more than just a musical group—it’s a cultural force. Based in San Pablo, California, this Mexican-American collective blends performance, education, and media to keep traditional Mexican music alive and evolving. The group’s members came up through the Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy, a community-rooted school they now help lead.
For over three decades, they’ve been uncovering and reviving regional Mexican styles rarely heard today, bringing them to new audiences with energy and respect. Over the years, their path has crossed with an eclectic mix of musical legends—among them David Hidalgo, Linda Ronstadt, Los Lobos, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Jackson Browne, The Chieftains, and Flaco Jimenez—each collaboration adding a new layer to their evolving sound.
Their creative output is as deep as it is diverse: 30 albums blending tradition with innovation, four documentaries, and hundreds of short videos—all available online—offer a powerful archive of cultural expression. Whether on stage, in the classroom, or on-screen, Los Cenzontles continues to shape the future of Mexican roots music by staying true to its past.
Founded by musician and educator Eugene Rodriguez, Los Cenzontles began as an artist-led effort to keep Mexican roots music alive—and has since evolved into a groundbreaking model for culturally centered arts education. The center’s work blends performance, education, and storytelling in powerful ways. A signature project, Routes of Resilience, showcases personal stories from Mexican-American communities using music, documentary film, and digital media. The project connects the past with the present, drawing on traditional and contemporary art forms. It has earned multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for its innovative approach.
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Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy
The Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy isn’t easily defined. It’s a nonprofit organization, a music academy, a community-based band, a creative space for youth and families, and a vital cultural hub for Latino artists. Based in San Pablo, a predominantly Mexican-American, working-class area in the Bay Area, Los Cenzontles is deeply connected to its surroundings. Through music and art rooted in Mexican traditions, the center nurtures a sense of belonging and resilience, empowering its community and sharing its voice far beyond city limits.
Their Mission
Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy amplifies Mexican American culture and communities through education, performance and production.
Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy is an artist-driven organization where team members serve in a variety of roles. The staff and faculty who develop the Academy’s programs and teach its classes also perform in the band and lead its productions. They include first-, second-, and third-generation immigrants, many of whom grew up in the San Pablo/Richmond community. These master artists are also dedicated community members who have committed their lives to fostering positive change through the arts.
Bird of Four Hundred Voices: A Mexican American Memoir of Music and Belonging
Bird of Four Hundred Voices, authored by Eugene Rodriguez, traces the remarkable evolution of Los Cenzontles from a barrio youth group into a globally recognized force for cultural education and preservation in San Pablo, California.
Spanning 35 years, the book delves into the group’s unwavering commitment to empowering young people, reviving endangered Mexican traditions, and creating an impressive body of work that includes numerous albums and films. Along the way, Los Cenzontles has nurtured thousands of local youth, cultivating both artistic skill and cultural pride.
Set against the backdrop of Mexican immigration and the sociopolitical tensions it has sparked, this powerful memoir explores themes of identity, cultural belonging, and creative resistance. Rodriguez offers a heartfelt and unflinching look at the Mexican American experience, illuminating the vital contributions of Latino communities to the broader American narrative.
As conversations about equity, democracy, and representation intensify, Bird of Four Hundred Voices invites readers to reconsider how we define American identity—and whose voices are heard in shaping it.
Purchased the BookWebsite:
LosCenzontles.com
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