Pop Music Reviews : L.A.’s Chicano Bands Expand Los Lobos’ Legacy

What Los Lobos has joined together, Sancho has solidified. As the host of “Airwaves of Aztlan” on the Pasadena City College radio station KPCC-FM, he has celebrated the wealth of Southern California’s Latino musical traditions for five years. And if none of the 11 acts Sancho assembled for a benefit concert on Saturday at the school’s Sexson Auditorium demonstrated the musical range of Los Lobos, the show as a whole spanned an even wider breadth.

Two groups, Los Rock Angeles and the Alienz, each offered norteno spirit with a rock consciousness. The Alienz even added the non-Lobos element of salsa-rock to its brew. And the Delgado Brothers, perhaps the most accomplished act on the bill, played a bracing, Latinized version of rockin’ blues--sort of Robert Cray meets Santana.

All the other elements that come together in Los Lobos were also present Saturday, notably spirited street mariachi as played by Los Halcones de Cerritos College, and the highly influential, historical story-songs of longtime star Lalo Guerrero.

The sharpest insights into the contemporary Chicano mind-set, however, came not from a musical act, but from the Latinos Anonymous comedy group, which delved into such Latino traumas as “Latin denial . . . sex with Anglos . . . and pinata-phobia.” The Los Lobos of laughs?