UCSB Arts & Lectures Presents La Santa Cecilia

“I love Los Angeles. It’s a big reason why we started the band, in that it’s a love letter to the city,” said La Santa Cecilia percussionist Miguel “Oso” Ramírez in an interview with the Santa Barbara Independent. The City of Angels may be where (most of) the members of the band ​— ​which also include Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernández, José “Pepe” Carlos, and Alex Bendaña — were born, raised, and live, but their roots reach deep into Mexico’s soil. Long before they became a Grammy Award–winning group, the four musicians were immersed in the melodies of Mexico and Latin culture. “We all busked on the street, on Olvera Street especially, playing traditional bolero, ranchera,” explained Ramírez. “We grew up with this music.”

In a nod to its heritage, La Santa Cecilia’s latest offering, a video recording called Amar y Vivir, is a visual and aural triumph that sees the band performing traditional numbers in various Mexico City locations. “The concept was through our producer, Sebastian Krys,” said Ramirez. “He’s been with the band for a long time, almost since the beginning. Before [La Santa Cecilia], we all worked as working musicians doing traditional music … So our producer was like, ‘Why don’t we go back to the essence of the work you guys were doing and record it live on the street, maybe in Mexico City?’ We got pretty excited about the idea, and that’s what we did.”

Santa Barbarans get the opportunity to hear and see La Santa Cecilia play live when they come to town as part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Día de los Muertos Tour Friday, November 3, which also includes performances by Mexrrissey and Mariachi Flor de Toloache. On a recent Friday, I spoke over the phone to Ramirez while he was in Washington, D.C., with the band, which was playing at the Library of Congress that night. We chatted about making Amar y Vivir, politics, and what Día de los Muertos means to him.