Mexican band brings multicultural sounds to southern Alberta

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 27, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Fort MacLeod’s South Country Fair attendees had the opportunity last weekend to listen to the multiculturally influenced music from a Mexican band that has been touring Canada this summer.
The band BuenRostro came from the south end of Mexico City, in the borough of Milpa Alta, bringing to southern Alberta a mixture of traditional and modern music influenced by multiple genres.
BuenRostro vocalist Guadalupe Mota, called Lupita by band members, spoke to the Herald before the fair about the band’s early stages, their music and roots.
Mota said the band’s name came from a character created by the band’s director named Eluterio BuenRostro, who became his alter ego. The character, like the band members, is from Milpa Alta, where he was influenced by the elder Nahuatl speakers and their deeply rooted traditions and customs, while also being exposed to the modern culture of a cosmopolitan city.
“The alter-ego Eluterio BuenRostro is also influenced by contemporary roots and loves rock, funk and underground, while also playing and dancing Salsa and Cumbia,” Mota said. “He represents our duality; as in Mexico we have a huge diversity of cultures and people with different musical taste.”
She said their music is all in Spanish, and is created, written and performed by them. It is also influenced by multiple genres from different Latin-American backgrounds, Mexican music and a little bit of Rock.  
Mota said the band was founded in 2010 with only a couple of members and herself, and since then has grown to what it is today. The original three members remained in the band with a few members coming and going, but the BuenRostro of today has had the same members for the last seven years.
 “At the beginning we had a band of traditional Mexican music. We toured different areas across the republic, getting to know the different types of music, rhythm and dances. This led us to create something that was ours, influenced by those rhythms, but something that was ours.”
Mota said BuenRostro in the early stages sang about their everyday afflictions, using their music to express what they felt in the moment. Later on their music became inspired by the power of nature in their album, Volcano.
Their strong “infusion” has taken them to the most important stages in Mexico, including Teatro Esperanza Iris in Mexico City and Zocalo, the most important public plaza in Mexico City’s downtown, as well as Festival Cumbre Tajín in Papantla, Veracruz. They’ve also toured abroad, visiting Colombia in 2015 and France in 2022.
“During our tour across different festivals in Mexico, we were invited to one in Tabasco, where the honoured guests were from Canada, and that led to our tour across Canada, which ultimately brought us to Fort Macleod’s South Country Fair.”
The band has also played in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Yellowknife, and they are heading to the Calgary Folk Fest then ending their tour in Guelph, Ontario at the end of the month.

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