Jorge Hernández was just 14 when he and his younger brothers left their hometown of Rosa Morada in Sinaloa, Mexico, to pursue a music career in the United States. They hoped to settle in California, earn money to help support the family — Hernández’s father had been injured in an accident — and launch what would eventually become a music empire.
But first, the Hernández brothers would need a name for their aspiring musical act. They found it in an unexpected place.
“When we came to the United States for the first time, we didn’t have a name for the band — and the border agent who let us pass said we needed a name,” Hernández says, remembering that day in 1968. “He told us, ‘We call kids here ‘little tigers,’ but since you are going to grow up, and you are going north, you should be called the Tigers of the North.’ That is when we became known as Los Tigres del Norte.”
Today, it’s a name familiar to legions of fans on both sides of the border and around the world. Los Tigres del Norte has sold more than 40 million albums, won seven Grammy awards and a dozen Latin Grammys and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The band routinely sells out stadiums and is considered one of the most popular regional Mexican music groups of all time.
Allessandro Hernandez, 5, helps his grandfather Los Tigres del Norte bassist Hernán Hernández button his suit before their performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
“It’s great to have an iconic talent, Los Tigres del Norte, call San Jose home,” says James Hamnett, senior director of booking and events at San Jose’s SAP Center, a venue the band has played multiple times. “Over the course of their illustrious career, Los Tigres del Norte has continued to deliver memorable performances that have entertained the greater Hispanic audience while serving as a tremendous community advocate throughout the Latin culture.”
Some might wonder why the band originally set up shop in San Jose, as opposed to a city like Los Angeles, with its deeper connections to the music industry. As Hernández explains, it had a lot to do with necessity.
“After a traveling caravan we were part of left us here in San Jose,” he says, “we had to make connections with folks in the local Latino community who took us in. From there, we began to work and go to school and plant roots in San Jose.”
Los Tigres del Norte bassist Hernán Hernández performs on stage at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
Finding success
With its deep roots in Mexican culture, the city turned out to be the right place for the young Hernández brothers to hone their craft — and get noticed by Arturo Walker, who signed Los Tigres to his San Jose-based record label, Discos Fama.
It didn’t take long for the young norteño band to achieve some success on a local level. But widespread fame arrived when Los Tigres del Norte recorded “Contrabando y traición” in 1974.
“As we started to record and work with Arturo Walker — Arturo Caminante, as we would call him — he and I thought that we needed to try something new and record a story that would get people’s interest,” Hernández says. “Once we recorded ‘Contrabando y traicion,’ we knew we had something special.”
Los Tigres del Norte Jorge Hernández, from left, Eduardo Hernández, and Luis Hernández stand in the dressing room as assistant Willie Alvarez makes final adjustments before they take the stage at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
“Contrabando y traición” — which translates to “Contraband and Betrayal” — is a corrido, a Mexican narrative ballad form that often deals with such topics as oppression, drug trafficking, crime and social concerns.
“For us, corridos are a part of our culture. They are the way our history has been passed down from generation to generation,” Hernández says. “We like to think of them as stories of our people and significant events that shape our society — all in a span of three and a half minutes. They tell our truths in a lyrical way that connects listeners with the songs and with one another.”
This particular corrido, written by Ángel González a few years prior to the Los Tigres recording, is a tragic love story set against a backdrop of international drug trafficking.
Los Tigres’ version, used as the title track on the band’s 1974 album, proved so incredibly popular, it not only helped chart the course going forward for the band, but it revived interest in the corridos art form. It also greatly helped popularize the narcocorrido (drug ballad) subgenre, which has millions of fans in both Mexico and the U.S., by delivering such fan favorites as “Muerte Anunciada,” about the infamous Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar.
“I like to say that (‘Contrabando y traición’) is the song that put us on the map, not only here but in Mexico as well,” Hernández says. “It gave us the confidence to keep going. It is now the foundation of what we have become. (It’s) a corrido that has remained relevant and allowed us to continue to grow as a group.”
Voice of the immigrant community
Heralded as a voice of the immigrant community, Los Tigres found much success through the ‘70s and ‘80s, winning its first Grammy in 1988 in the best Mexican/Mexican-American album category for “Gracias!…América…Sin Fronteras.”
“We see the immigrant community as our community,” Hernández says. “We are immigrants, and it means everything to us. We use our voice to continue to tell their story in a way that it can be heard across borders. Music and song are a universal language, and we hope that the stories we tell will be heard more and more.”
They put their money on the line for that community, too. Los Tigres’ nonprofit foundation has given UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center $500,000 to preserve Mexican and Mexican-American culture and digitize 32,000 Spanish-language recordings, and the band donated proceeds from last spring’s SAP Center show to help Bay Area farmworkers.
Los Tigres del Norte perform on stage at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
But it’s the music that has the most profound effects. The band members – which currently include Jorge Hernández on lead vocals and accordion, Hernán Hernández on electric bass and vocals, Eduardo Hernández on accordion, saxophone, bass and vocals, Luis Hernández on bass and vocals and Oscar Lara on drums — often hear fans talk about how much the group’s music has impacted their lives.
“We have so many memories and encounters with our fans almost daily,” Hernandez says. “We are so honored and humbled when they tell us that we have been with them, supporting them through the most difficult and happiest moments of their lives. Knowing that they heard their stories in our songs is what drives us to continue to being there for them.”
Los Tigres’ success isn’t just reflected by the number of awards in its trophy case but by the strength and loyalty of its fan base.
“I believe we are most proud of our fans,” Hernandez says. “We have had the opportunity to be their voice for generations, and it is a great thing to see our music grow with our young audience, as their parents and grandparents show them how our songs relate to them and their stories.”
Los Tigres’ mighty influence
Last year, Latin music eclipsed country music in popularity among U.S. listeners for the first time, according to Billboard, and the audience goes far beyond Latinos. Latin music has grown into a multicultural, global juggernaut, appealing to both Spanish and non-Spanish-speaking audiences, thanks in large part to Los Tigres’ role in helping shape and popularize the music form.
Los Tigres del Norte bassist Hernán Hernández performs during rehearsal before their performance at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, April 1, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
It’s not hard to draw a direct line between the music of Los Tigres and, for example, that of red-hot newcomer Peso Pluma, who was one of two Latin music artists (and Bad Bunny the other) to make Spotify’s list of the top five most-streamed artists of 2023.
Hernández says the band feels very honored when members hear these newer artists say they’ve been influenced by Los Tigres del Norte.
“It is very high praise for us and humbling when younger artists tell us that we inspired them to create music and tell their story in a similar way to ours,” he says. “We have a lot of respect for the younger generation of artists. They have created a new wave for our genre, and we wish them all continued success.”