L.A. FIESTA BROADWAY : L. A. Fiesta Showcases a Variety of Talent

The L.A. Fiesta Broadway is so important to Central American balladeer Alvaro Torres that he postponed the start of a South American tour in order to perform here.

This will be the second year Torres will be playing at L. A. Fiesta Broadway. The crooner, who was born in El Salvador and raised in Guatemala, divides his time between homes in Guatemala and Valencia, Calif.

“The festival is very attractive for any artist,” said Torres, who is at work on his 12th record. “It’s a very important arena to demonstrate your artistry. As a Latin American, I love playing for fellow Latin Americans. That’s one of the most powerful reasons to be at Fiesta Broadway . . . With our Latin American brothers all gathering there, we have the opportunity to be with our people. It’s our fiesta.”

This year’s fiesta on Sunday, April 26, features a cast of more than 60 Latino entertainers representing a wide range of musical styles.

Among the “hot” performers of the moment in the Latino music world are Torres, who has been in the top 10 of Billboard’s Latin charts for his album “Nada se compara” (“Nothing Compares”), the Mexican pop group Magneto, whose album of the same name has soared on the pop charts, and Luis Angel, whose album “Del corazon del hombre” (“From a Man’s Heart”) has been consistently among the top 10.

Cuban-born salsa composer and singer Willy Chirino will also be a main attraction. His album “Oxigeno,” (“Oxygen”) has been on the top tropical/salsa charts for 40 weeks. Another top draw will be singer Lucha Villa, a Mexican ranchera favorite for more than 25 years.

Some of the other headline acts to be featured on the seven L. A. Fiesta stages include the Honduran tropical group Banda Blanca, rock group Los Reos, pop group Menudo, jazzman Poncho Sanchez, the Los Angeles-based Mariachi Sol de Mexico, and two stars known more for their Las Vegas-style dancing than for their music: Olga Breeskin and Iris Chacon.

Some other styles of music to be heard at the event include regional Mexican, Brazilian, Afro-Samba, Tex-Mex, cumbia, Latin jazz, punta/tropical, rock en espanol a nd rap. Performers from all over Latin America and the southwest United States will be featured.

Mariachi Sol de Mexico, which has recorded albums with Juan Gabriel, Linda Ronstadt and Vikki Carr, has been a mainstay of the yearly festival. The first year the 14-person group backed fiesta queen Lola Beltran. Last year, they provided musical accompaniment for the pop group Pandora and performed at a mariachi finale for the event.

Jose Hernandez, leader of Mariachi Sol de Mexico, said the event is particularly dear to his heart because he grew up in Pico Rivera and used to watch his father and brothers, who are also mariachi musicians, perform at the Million Dollar Theatre, a landmark on Broadway, when he was a boy. Now--at 33--he will be playing the trumpet with his own group and performing just a few blocks from the venerable theatre to an audience of hundreds of thousands.

Also, Hernandez said, he is happy to show Latino youths in the Fiesta audience what mariachi music is all about, to instill a sense of pride about their heritage, as well as to inspire them to take up the musical style.

“Things like Fiesta Broadway are great because it motivates the young kids to pursue the music themselves,” Hernandez said. “It’s nice for the youth to see mariachi the way it’s being treated now--with dignity, in a classy way.”

“This is definitely a good time for mariachi musicians,” Hernandez said.

It is a good time for Latino musicians in general, said Rogelio Fojo, the Uruguayan songwriter and guitarist for the rock band Los Reos.

“I think 10 years ago my group would have been impossible here,” Fojo said. “This is the correct moment . . . . There’s lots of Latino talent out there.”

Los Reos, a hard rock band from Uruguay, is now based in Los Angeles. It is a four-person rock en espanol band with an American lead singer. Its songs are all written by two band members, Fojo and Robert Williams Colucci, who plays bass.

The group, which has been compared to Rush and Pink Floyd, describe its lyrics as being influenced by the magical realism school of South American literature, in the vein of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

This is the first time they will play Fiesta Broadway, Fojo said, and they are looking forward to the event.