[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 144 (Tuesday, September 17, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6094-S6095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    RECOGNIZING LOS TIGRES DEL NORTE

 Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, this week, as they are honored 
with the 2024 Medallion of Excellence Award, the highest accolade 
awarded by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, I rise to 
celebrate the over five-decade career of California-based norteno band, 
Los Tigres del Norte.
  While they would eventually go on to become one of the most 
successful Latin music groups of all time, few people would have 
guessed it when they booked their first trip north to the United States 
to perform at a State prison in northern California--without even 
having a band name.
  Raised in the town of Rosa Morada, Mocorito, in the Mexican state of 
Sinaloa, 3 of the 11 Hernandez children grew up playing music together 
in

[[Page S6095]]

local parades. In 1965, when their father, a rancher, injured his legs 
and couldn't work, Jorge, Raul, and Hernan recruited their cousin Oscar 
and began traveling the region as a band, earning money at local clubs 
to support their family.
  In 1968, just teenagers at the time, they traveled north of the 
border to perform alongside mariachis, dancers, and even mimes for the 
inmates of a State prison south of San Jose, CA. It was then that an 
immigration official first labeled them the ``Little Tigers.'' What 
came after was five decades of norteno-style music that resonated with 
people across the continent, tens of millions of albums sold, multiple 
Grammy and Latin Grammy awards, and the Latin Recording Academy's 
Lifetime Achievement Award.
  Los Tigres del Norte, who would later add Eduardo and Luis Hernandez, 
have helped popularize norteno music in the United States, a genre that 
combined the music of Mexican laborers with the accordion-laced polka 
music of Czech and German immigrants.
  True to their genre, Los Tigres embraced storytelling, sharing 
stories of hardship back in Mexico; of immigrants' long, difficult 
journeys; and of life in America. At first, they gave a voice to 
Mexican day laborers living in America. But soon enough, they began 
growing alongside a blossoming Latino population throughout the United 
States to become titans of the music industry.
  They have filled theaters and stadiums, even released their own 
Netflix documentary as a 50th anniversary tribute to Johnny Cash's 
historic concert at Folsom Prison in California. From ``America'' to 
``La Jaula de Oro,'' Los Tigres' music continues to tell the story of 
the Latino experience in America today.
  On a personal note, as the proud son of Mexican immigrants and as a 
child who grew up in the working-class community of Pacoima, CA, I 
remember their music filling our home and blasting out of speakers at 
neighborhood parties growing up. And in the mid-1990s, when immigrants 
and the children of immigrants in California rose up against the 
hateful, anti-immigrant proposition 187, Los Tigres' music was 
integrated into the soundtrack of our struggle.
  Today, as a lifelong fan, I am proud to say their music now echoes in 
the Halls of Congress.

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