Be at the Logan Center for the Arts Courtyard on Friday, October 12, at 12:00 p.m. to hear a special free performance by Los Cenzontles for a not-to-be-missed performance with singer-songwriter David Hidalgo, best known for his work with the band Los Lobos.

Los Cenzontles is more than just a band. It's also a non profit institution with a mission to preserve and expand Latino heritage among Bay Area youth. Begun in 1989 by Eugene Rodriguez as part of a California Arts Council artist residency, the goal of the Los Cenzontles Project was to create a place for area youth to learn traditional Mexican music and dance.

Los Cenzontles, literally meaning The Mockingbirds, is a U.S. Tejano band, heavily influenced by Mexican regional folk music such as traditional mariachi and banda, Son Jarocho and son abajeno de Jalisco, michoacan, pirekuas, rancheras, norteno, corridos, cumbia, boleros, and also country music and rock and roll. The band's core members were trained at Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo, California, where they also work training young people and promoting tradition and cultural pride.

Los Cenzontles’ 20th album, titled Regeneration, will be released October 9 on the Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center label. The band blends vintage rock with intricate traditional Mexican beats. Regeneration is the band’s third album working with Los Lobos’ singer/songwriter/musician David Hidalgo, who fuses swamp rock guitars, Mexican folk styles and pulses, and resolute lyrics in both Spanish and English. On Regeneration, Los Cenzontles called in friends Jackson Browne, Linda Rondstadt and David Hidalgo to create a unique brand of Mexican roots with psychedelic guitar riffs and lyrics in both English and Spanish.

“We’re talking about our right to be whoever we want to be,” says Eugene Rodriguez, musician, educator, and one of the driving forces behind the cultural center and genre-defying band Los Cenzontles. “If we want to mix this with that, we will, no matter what you say. We are proud of who we are. We are embracing our many cultures.”

“The cliche is that Mexican Americans are neither truly Mexicans or true Americans. But we are both and much more. Like our song ‘Valor Latino’ proclaims, we are the future of our country.”