Fresh off their Friday night performance at the Segerstrom Center in Costa Mesa, La Santa Cecilia took home the Grammy award last night for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album! Yay! The honors went to Treinta Días, their major label debut. Competition in the category was diverse and fierce with Café Tacvba, El Tri, Illya Kuryaki and The Valderramas, and Los Amigos Invisibles all nominated, but the Los Angeles band rooted in Olvera Street prevailed.
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Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernandez, Jose “Pepe” Carlos, Miguel “Oso” Ramirez and Alex Bendaña are already busy readying their follow-up as a pre-Grammy article in the Los Angeles Times noting them as 'the voice of immigrants' reveals.
Fittingly, La Santa Cecilia performed at the Pre-Telecast Ceremony show and after their name was announced, took to the podium and dedicated the award to the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Requinto and accordion player Pepe Carlos is one among them and the award-winning album's first single “El Hielo” is a poignant tale of life under the threat of deportation.
The band's success has been years in the making and I can still remember taking tequila shots with them after a local SanTana fundraiser show back in 2008. Here's to a celebratory one for the win!
In the meantime, check out La Santa Cecilia's entrevista on the red carpet, where immigrant dreams do come true!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!