East Los Angeles’ Las Cafeteras walk the walk with this rebel version of La Bamba. “Yo no soy marinero” becomes “Yo no creo en fronteras” and “Soy capitan” is now “Yo cruzare.” Son jarocho and alt.folklorico rootsy ritmo manifest the Spanish lyrics in sound, and we must offer POCHO props for super location videography in the hood!
Here’s an audio only version:
And did you know you could make your own cajon just like in the video (that’s the box drum)? We’ve got links and stuff.
So you want to build a cajon, eh? MAKE is on the case:
A cajón (Wikipedia) is an Afro-Peruvian percussion instrument that consists, essentially, of a wooden box with at least one thin plywood “playing face.” The other five sides are commonly made of thicker plywood, and most designs feature a sound hole cut in the face opposite the playing face. Often, the top edge of the playing face is left unattached to the sides, and snares (like those on the underside of a snare drum) may be stretched across its inner surface.