Category Archives: Mexico

Los Locos del Ritmo, 1966

Los Locos del Ritmo, 1966: Mario Sanabria, Rafa Acosta, Lalo Toral, Manuel López (el Che) and Chucho González, with Javier Garza in front. Courtesy of Green Pig Studio, John A. Kurtz, Walt Walston.
Los Locos del Ritmo, 1966. From left to right: Mario Sanabria, Rafa Acosta, Lalo Toral, Manuel López (el Che) and Chucho González. In the front, Javier Garza.
Photo courtesy of Green Pig Studio, John A. Kurtz, Walt Walston, San Diego, CA

I didn’t know the identity of this photo until Francisco Candia of Phoenix recognized the band as Los Locos del Ritmo, Mexico’s premier rock ‘n roll group who have been recording since 1957 and who still perform today. Enrique Ochoa Calderón confirmed this and provided the identities of each member in his comment, below.

The photo was taken by Green Pig Studio, a name for John A. Kurtz and Walt Walston, photographers in the Navy, stationed at at Miramar Naval Air in San Diego. I’ll post more photos John sent to me in the near future.

Los Matematicos

The Matematicos came from Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande from Laredo, TX in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. This is their third album. Their first looks to be more 50’s based rock n’ roll and their second is surf music.

The only name I can find for this group is Juan Garza, the lead singer and, in a sense, lyricist. He takes three songs by the Kinks, for example, keeps the music and writes completely new lyrics (and titles) in Spanish.

That wouldn’t amount to much, except he and the band really rave it up on these tracks and others like “La Pelea”, my favorite track on the record. All the first side is good, and two tracks from the second. The remaining three are really less worthwhile.

The band broke up when Garza went solo. Their name has more of a ring to it in Spanish, in English it would translate as the Mathematicians, not very hip!