Las Cafeteras 7/1/15 Crowell Hall Middletown

Las Cafeteras is a seven person collective from East LA. Mexican,more specifically from Veracruz, their instrumentation was great. Guitarros for all in various shapes and sizes. Ukulele Bass from Hawaii and "box" drummer held up the low end. Two male and two female singers and rappers played a wide variety of percussion: wooden stomp board (like tap dancing on a pallet), donkey jawbone,shakers, a Barbie xylophone, all  amazing. Politically charged lyrics with the emphasis on idiotic US immigration system. They made a point of flexing their smarts, with one young member getting his PhD at UCLA. Songs included "This Land is Your Land (for Donald Trump)", Ring of Fire, closed with a traditional take on La Bamba. Las Cafeteras had some great guy/girl rap exchanges, one song had the refrains "I'm Trayvon Martin I didn't DO nothing wrong, I'm Michael Brown i didn't DO nothing wrong, I'm Eric Garner I didn't DO nothing wrong" got me sad to think that the lyrics could go on forever unless some humanity hits our society.