Los Lobos are an American institution. Formed in the 1970s by East L.A. high schoolers David Hidalgo, Louie Pérez, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozano, and Frank Gonzalez, the band released its first record in 1976, Sí Se Puede!, which consisted of 10 traditional Mexican and Tejano songs and was a benefit for the United Farm Workers of America. Perhaps best known for their 1984 song “Will the Wolf Survive?” and 1987 cover of Ritchie Valens’s “La Bamba” — which reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart — Los Lobos have, in their almost four decades together, released a plethora of fine albums embracing and incorporating everything from rock, R&B, country, and folk to Tejano, brown-eyed soul, boleros, cumbia, norteños, and more.
The now-legendary rock group has amassed a vast catalog of fantastic songs that have, in part, celebrated both the Chicano and the immigrant experiences, and ultimately the human experience. I recently corresponded with Los Lobos’ saxophonist/keyboardist extraordinaire, Steve Berlin, who joined the group in 1984, via email in advance of the group’s upcoming Libbey Bowl concert on Friday, June 22.
Would you say activism and awareness have always been a part of Los Lobos’ approach to making music and building community spirit? I would say yes, but with the caveat that we prefer to let our music speak for itself. It would be facile for us to overtly say this song is about this issue, etc., so we prefer to let the listener interpret it the way they hear it.