Los Illegals
sprang out of East L.A.
in 1980 as part of the L.A. punk rock scene, Chicano-style.
They had an album, “Intenal Exile,” on
A&M Records in 1981, produced by Mick Ronson of David
Bowie fame, and played the punk/new wave circuit in Hollywood.
This all became possible when they co-founded a venue on the
Eastside called Club Vex. They were able to create a
scene that amazingly even drew Westside bands such as the
Blasters and X to the barrio. Although Los Illegals
were most active and visible in the 80s, they are not to be
confined to that decade. They’re an ongoing concept
that continues to evolve and have a social and cultural impact.
In 1997, Los Illegals
recorded an album with Concrete Blonde on Miles Copeland’s
Ark 21 label. In 1999, they participated on a CD and
documentary called “Searching for Jimi Hendrix,”
which also featured tracks by such diverse artists as Los
Lobos, Laurie Anderson, Rosanne Cash and Chuck D.
Los Illegals
formed in 1979 with the following original lineup: Willie
Herrón, keyboard, Jesus Velo, bass, Richard Vogel, drums,
Eddie Ayala, lead vocals, and the Valdez brothers, Manuel
and Tony, on lead and rhythm guitar, respectively. Richard
and Eddie soon parted ways with Los Illegals
due to creative differences and formed their own band, Odd
Squad. Los Illegals
added Bill Reyes on drums and Willie took over as lead vocalist
to bring Los Illegals
to their desired combination. Willie, being an edgy
and passionate vocalist backed by his keyboard, Bill, a solid
drummer and percussionist, Jesus, a strong bass player, who’s
highly intelligent and a contributor of good musical and lyrical
ideas, Manuel, a phenomenal lead guitarist with great power
and technique, and Tony, a solid rhythm guitarist rounding
out the band. To understand Los Illegals'
vision and political stance, one must first know something
about lead vocalist and chief songwriter, Willie Herrón.
Willie happens to be a world-class visual artist, whose murals
in East L.A. are among the most powerful and important.
His paintings have appeared in major galleries and museums,
as well as on public and commercial buildings. He was
also a member of a guerilla artists group called ASCO that
created quite a stir on the streets of East L.A. in the 70s.
Aside from his artistic endeavors, Willie has been in rock
bands since his early teens. He was first influenced
by some of the harder-edged British Invasion bands of the
60s, such as the Animals and the Kinks. In the early
70s, he was very much inspired by David Bowie, which got Willie
interested in taking a more theatrical approach to music and
to experiment with hair color and glam rock looks. Willie
grew up in a very tough neighborhood in East L.A., where his
brother was almost mortally wounded by a street gang. Herrón’s art and music reflect the intensity of the
surroundings in which he grew up. When the punk movement
arrived, it provided a perfect social and musical framework
for that intensity and vision. He liked to use the moniker
of pachuco punk to describe Los Illegals’
music and it did fit, even though they weren’t literally
pachucos. The Mexican-American pachucos who originated
in the 1930s were the original punks. They had an “in
your face” attitude, were tough, and had a confidence
and pride in who they were. So in that sense the term
pachuco punk was perfect for Los Illegals.
They liked to use other buzz words to describe their music
such as mariachi punk, heavy mambo, psycho cha cha, techno-flamenco,
and flamenco metal. They were also once described as
"Tito Puente on acid."
In 1980, with nothing to lose and
nowhere to go, Los Illegals
and Radical Nuns opened Club Vex in East L.A. Los Illegals
had suffered rejection, not only from the Hollywood establishment,
but from Latinos, who according to Jesus Velo, “didn’t
want to be reminded who they are.” It all started
with a fateful meeting between Willie Herrón and Sister Karen Bocalero of the liberation theology minded division of the
Catholic Church. Club Vex was located in what was the
Catholic Youth Organization Hall (C.Y.O. Hall) on Brooklyn
Ave. (now Cesar Chavez Blvd.) in East L.A. In the 60s,
many dances featuring top East L.A. bands played there, including
my band, Mark & the Escorts. In fact, we played
our first gig there in 1963, when I was 13 years old.
At the Club Vex, new East L.A. bands like Los Illegals,
the Brat, and the Undertakers played there at first.
Vex nights were two Thursdays a month. Los Illegals
began to invite Westside bands and music industry people.
A major article appeared in the Calendar section of the L.A.
Times about Los Illegals
and the Vex and things started happening. In addition
to the aforementioned X and the Blasters, Bad Religion and
other bands also came east. Los Illegals
began to play on the Westside at venues like the Whiskey,
the Roxy, Madam Wong’s, and the Palladium. They
were on the bill with bands such as Oingo Boingo, Bauhaus,
the Go Gos, and the Motels, and hung out with R.E.M.
A deal with A&M Records resulted from the positive exposure.
The next step was to pick a producer. They had quite
a group from which to choose. Ray Manzarek of the Doors,
Brian May of Queen, and Mick Ronson, former guitarist for
David Bowie. After meeting with all three candidates,
they chose Mick Ronson. Their first single was a song
written by Willie Herrón and his artist friend and former ASCO member, Gronk. It’s a powerful and energetic
punk anthem about the trials and tribulations of a Mexican
illegal alien in L.A. This was followed by their album,
“Internal Exile,” released in 1983.
“Internal Exile” is a
high-energy Chicano punk album with songs dealing with issues
such as immigration, poverty, street gangs, violence, and
alienation. Some highlights of the album are: the Spanish
version of “El Lay,” “The Mall,” a
song about hating shopping malls, and the self-explanatory
“We Don’t Need a Tan.” Aside from
“El Lay,” my favorite cut is a pachuco punk song
called “Wake up John.” It’s got the
spirit of Don Tosti’s Pachuco Boogie Boys’ pachuco
swing recordings of the late-40s and early-50s. Jesus Velo also acknowledges the influence of Lalo Guerrero's pachuco
songs of the era. After the release of “Internal
Exile,” Los Illegals
went out on the road to promote it. They toured Arizona,
New Mexico, Texas, and Northern California. Once in
Texas, they were stopped by a state trooper. When Los
Illegals
emerged from their vehicle clad in red leather and sporting
punky hair cuts, the officer was sure they were aliens.
He just wasn’t sure if they were from the other side
of the border or some distant galaxy. In San Francisco,
while opening for a heavy metal band, they were cursed at
and pelted with debris. Los Illegals
held their ground and did their entire show. After the
show, they were hugged and congratulated by proud and emotional
Mexican bus boys and waiters. After the tour, Los Illegals
began recording tracks for their second album, “Burning
Youth.” It was never released and the band and
A&M parted ways.
In 1985, Willie Herrón called me
on the phone and asked me to join Los Illegals
for a show they were doing in collaboration with a Chicano
performance art group called The Alienz. Members of
the Alienz included Olga Perez, Armando Norte, Consuelo Norte,
Marisa Leal, and Mario Flores. It was a major show called
“Piecemeal Too,” put on by New York’s Mabou
Mines performance art troupe. Tony Valdez had left Los
Illegals
in 1983, so they needed someone to play acoustic guitar and
keyboards and provide some vocals. Jesus Velo was
unavailable because he was attending law school, so guitarist
Mike Tovar was recruited to play bass. It proved to
be an intense project which took a lot more time and energy
than most of us bargained for. Our piece involved scaffolding,
a multi-media presentation (slides, film, sound effects, and
backdrops), Aztec dancing, a fight scene, complex lighting,
costume changes, and last but not least, rock music.
I was involved in the Aztec dance and the fight scene, aside
from my musical duties. The Aztec dance was a simple
one because, believe me when I tell you, I'm not a dancer.
The event had performances by Black, Asian, White, and Latino
performance artists groups. It took place on a Friday
and Saturday night in a huge multi-room warehouse in downtown
Los Angeles. On Sunday it was repeated outdoors at MacArthur
Park, also downtown. After the initial planning meetings,
we constructed the set and rehearsed at the warehouse all
week. The elaborate set had the drummer, Bill Reyes,
elevated at the highest level, lead guitarist, Manuel Valdez
and bassist Mike Tovar were also elevated, but lower than
Bill. Willie and I were on platforms up front, where
we traded verses singing “Echos of the Fallen”
for the finale. After the Saturday night show, we had
to disassemble the whole set, load it onto trucks, and set
it up at MacArthur park, which took until 9 or 10 in the
morning. I went home and got maybe two hours sleep and had
to be back at the park in the early afternoon. The
highlight of the experience for me was playing outdoors at
MacArthur Park. When we got to our finale, all the other
artists came on stage, dancing and clapping, while the song must
have gone on for at least 15 minutes. The audience was not
only composed of art and music aficionados, but winos, hookers
and other assorted street people. I went on to do some other gigs with
Los Illegals
that year, including a memorable anniversary party for High
Performance Magazine. We also did some 12-track recording
sessions on which I played acoustic guitar. It was all
a very interesting and worthwhile experience and we had a
lot of laughs in the process.
In 1988, Bill Reyes played drums
and percussion on my “On the Boulevard” four song
E.P., and played on four tracks of my self-produced “Radio
Aztlán” album in 1992. He was also a member of
my original group at the time, also called Radio Aztlán.
I first met Bill when he was ten or twelve years old.
He lived down the street from my band’s drummer,Ernie
Hernandez, where my late 60s band, Nineteen Eighty Four, rehearsed
in Monterey Park, California. He would come by and watch
us play. Little did we know he would become a drummer,
let alone such a good one with whom I would eventually work.
Willie Herrón, when he was a high school student, also used
to drop by Ernie’s house because he was going out with
Ernie’s cousin Pattsi Valdez, who went on to become
a renowned artist in her own right. Also in the small
world department, I had Jesus Velo in a Chicano studies class
at Cal State L.A. in 1977. We would talk before class,
not knowing we were both musicians. I didn’t know
until Jesus told me very recently that he and Louie Perez,
later a member of Los Lobos, had my 1973 album, Tango, and
were inspired by it. According to Velo, they appreciated
“the fact that Chicanos from East L.A. could do a album
that had rock and country rock, alongside bilingual songs."
They also saw my band, Mark Guerrero & the Mudd Brothers,
perform at Cal State L.A. in 1972 for the "Feria de La
Raza" concert, which also featured El Chicano, Tierra,
Carmen Moreno, and Elijah.
In the early 90s, Los Illegals
toured seven Mexican border towns, including Tijuana and Mexicali.
They played on the bill with popular Mexican rock bands, including
El Tri. Los Illegals
met with some hostility from the Mexican audiences, who didn’t
appreciate Mexican-Americans (pochos) invading their territory,
particularly with their brand of punk music, attitude, and
look. After a concert at a Mexicali bullring, an ice
box was intentionally dropped from a couple of stories up
and barely missed its intended target, Los Illegals.
In true punk tradition, I think Willie thrived on the emotions
his band generated, even if they were negative at times.
In 1997, Los Illegals
recorded an album with Concrete Blonde, “Concrete
Blonde y Los Illegals.”
It was released on the Ark 21 label, owned by Miles Copeland,
who’s best known as the manager of the legendary 70s
band, the Police. The participants on the album were
Willie Herrón, Jesus Velo, and Bill Reyes from Los Illegals,
and Johnette Napolitano, lead vocalist, and James Mankey,
the extraordinary guitarist from Concrete Blonde. It
was an ambitious recording fusing Chicano and Anglo cultural
elements. Some highlights of the album include, a rap
song about O.J. Simpson trial witness Rosa Lopez, called “Ode
to Rosa Lopez,” performed by author Ruben Martinez,
a version of Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee,”
and a song with the wicked title of “Xich vs. the Migra
Zombies.” The cover featured a photo of perhaps
Willie Herrón’s most powerful mural. It was painted
the same night his brother was stabbed in 1972. In 1999,
the mural was restored with funding from L.A. County and was
declared a "Landmark of Historical Interest" in
2000. It can still be seen on an alley wall in City
Terrace, a district in East L.A. The CD got some good
press and Los Illegals
won the 1997 California Music Award for Rock En Español Group
of the Year. To promote the album, Concrete Blonde and
Los Illegals
performed together at the House of Blues and at the John Anson
Ford Amphitheater, both venues in Hollywood.
In 1998,
Los Illegals’
song “El Lay” was included on a compilation CD
on the Zyanya/Rhino label, “Ay Califas! Raza
Rock of the 70s and 80s,” which also had songs by Tierra,
Malo, the Plugz, El Chicano, Ruben & the Jets, Yaqui,
and others. In 1999, Willie Herrón and Jesus Velo teamed up with James
Mankey of Concrete Blonde to record a version of the Jimi
Hendrix song “Little Wing” for an album and documentary
called “Searching for Jimi Hendrix.” The
CD was released on the Capitol/The Right Stuff label.
The documentary, which aired on the Bravo network, was made
by the legendary D.A. Pennebaker, who directed Bob Dylan’s
seminal 1965 tour documentary, “Don’t Look Back,”
as well as the film of David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall
of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." Willie
and Jesus appeared in the "Searching for Jimi Hendrix"
documentary as well. In October of 2002, the original five members of Los Illegals
reunited to play at an event called “The Eastside Revue,
a Musical Homage to Boyle Heights,” which was held at
the Japanese-American Museum in downtown Los Angeles.
The concert, which I attended, also featured Tierra, Cannibal
& the Headhunters, the Brat, Las Tres, Lysa Flores, the
East L.A. Revue All Stars, and my dad, Lalo Guerrero with
the Skip Heller Band. Los Illegals
played “El Lay” and “Wake Up John,” with a tenor and baritone
sax added for the latter song, and sounded as good or better
than ever.
In January of 2007, I interviewed Willie Herrón, Jesus "Xuiy"
Velo, and Bill Reyes for my radio show, "Chicano Music
Chronicles." You can hear it at the link at the bottom of
the page.
This article is based on an
audio taped interview by Mark Guerrero with Willie Herrón
on April 16, 2002 in Irvine, California, and an audio taped
telephone interview with Jesus “Xuiy” Velo later
in the same month.
(left
to right- Manuel Valdez, Jesus Velo, Willie Herrón,
Bill Reyes and Tony Valdez)
Los Illegals (c. 1983)
(Palo Alto,
California)
(left to right- Tony Valdez, Willie Herrón, Manuel
Valdez, Bill Reyes, and Jesus Velo)
(photo courtesy of Bavi Garcia)
Mark Guerrero with Los Illegals (2002)
(left to right-
Manuel Valdez, Tony Valdez, Mark Guerrero, Bill Reyes,
Jesus "Xuiy" Velo, and Willie Herrón)
Mark Guerrero & Willie Herrón (2002)
Hear
Mark's interview with Willie Herron and Jesus Velo of Los
Illegals
on his "Chicano Music Chronicles" podcast
by clicking the play button on the photo link below
Los Illegals Recordings Featured
1. El Lay 2.
Secret Society 3. We Don't Need a Tan 4. The
Mall 5. Wake Up John 6. Victory 7.
Another Hundred Years of Solitude 8. Maria Elena
(Letter From L.A.) 9. Ode To Rosa Lopez 10.
Xich vs. the Migra Zombies 11. Little WIng 12.
Banderas 13. El Lay (Spanish version)
