With the release this week of Mariachi El Bronx’s new album, though, at last, the tense has changed from past to present. As the fire and fury of The gives way to grace and melody of El, for first time in far too long, listeners can once again marvel at the unique suppleness of this split personality. That one group can so fluently bridge the distance between punk and mariachi is without precedent in rock’n’roll. It’s as remarkable as discovering that Megadeth are also the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band.
“I’m not in the business of tooting my own horn [but] I am very proud of what we’ve accomplished here,” Matt says. “I do think that going from The Bronx to El Bronx… is something really special and unique. I think it’s awesome.”
On a cold evening in January, Matt Caughthran beams in from the home in Los Angeles he shares with his wife. As morning sunlight casts its smile through the windowpanes of a room housing a library of records, the singer mitigates the brightness in his eyes with the aid of a black LA Dodgers cap. Two months earlier, up in Canada, an 11th inning rally against the Toronto Blue Jays in the final game of the World Series saw Matt’s beloved team secure their second title in as many years. For a city that has of late endured more than its share of misfortune, the win was much welcome.
As the group were recording their new album, up and across LA’s vast terrain, Angelinos were being burned out of their homes by wildfires. Barely six months later, on the orders of President Trump, thousands of National Guardsmen were dispatched to the city to quell unrest in the wake of raids on undocumented citizens. As it so happens, no small number of this constituency come from Mexico, the country that in the 18th century first created mariachi music.
“You can’t be a white mariachi [band], specifically, and not stand in solidarity with the Hispanic community and what’s going on right now,” Matt says. “For me personally, what’s happening in the country with regards to the immigration crackdown and people getting pulled out of their jobs and pulled out of their cars and pulled out of their communities, it’s wrong, man. It’s disgusting. It pisses me off.”