Lalo Guerrero Legacy Festival: La Doña and Mark Guerrero

Saturday, November 7 | The Freight

The Freight's second annual Legacy Festival honors the Father of Chicano Music, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero. Co-curated by The Freight's Director of Programming PC Muñoz and Lalo's son, recording artist Mark Guerrero, this celebration gathers modern musical icons shaped by Lalo's legacy with two nights of concerts and other activities.

Lalo Guerrero (1916–2005) was a Mexican-American artist whose restless versatility spanned salsa, norteña, banda, rancheras, boleros, corridos, cumbias, mambos, cha cha chás, swing, rock & roll, and blues. A recipient of the NEA National Heritage Fellowship and the National Medal of Arts, he left a body of work that still echoes across genres and generations.

Emcee: Chuy Varela

La Dońa

La Doña is a solo artist, music educator, activist, and cultural worker from San Francisco. Born Cecilia Cassandra Peña-Govea, she began her career at age seven playing trumpet, strings and percussion in her family’s conjunto. She is a student, teacher and preservationist of Latinx traditional arts like corrido, bolero, cumbia, and mariachi. In her compositions, she combines these ancestral traditions with contemporary diasporic musics like reggaeton, hip-hop and jazz. La Doña’s live performances are grounded in ceremony and social mobilization; she and her audiences sing, dance, cry and chant together, for collective healing and political action.

La Doña’s roles as a teaching artist within San Francisco and Oakland Unified School Districts via SFJazz and Community Music Center inspire and inform her work as a composer, arranger, and band-leader. As a young, queer Latina, La Doña is concerned with representing stories not often told in the mainstream music industry, and providing amplification and audience to other young artists of color.

La Doña was chosen as one of YouTube’s Foundry Artists (2019) and she has performed at Lollapalooza and Outside Lands music festivals. Her song, “Quién Me La Paga” was the first of the New York Times Magazine’s “19 Songs that Matter Now,” for 2020, and her EPs, Algo Nuevo and Can’t Eat Clout have been selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as two of the best albums of 2020 and 2023, respectively. La Doña was awarded the San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artists Grant in 2021 and was the recipient of the YBCA’s Guaranteed Income Program in 2022. La Doña is a 2023-2024 apprentice in zapateado with the California Alliance for Traditional Arts, and recipient of the East Bay Fund for Artists Grant ‘23. She is a fellow for California Creative Corps 2024. She has toured internationally with artists including Cuco, Helado Negro, Durand Jones & the Indications, and Kaina. La Doña is set to release her debut album, Los Altos de la Soledad in 2024.

Mark Guerrero

Recording artist, Chicano music historian, and Lalo Guerrero Legacy Festival co-curator Mark Guerrero grew up in East Los Angeles and began playing in rock & roll bands at age 13 when he led the popular band Mark & the Escorts, who recorded two singles for GNP Crescendo Records in 1965. Mark went on to record as a solo artist for Ode Records (produced by the legendary Lou Adler), Capitol Records, and for A&M Records with his group Tango. Mark's 1972 landmark Chicano pride song on Capitol Records “I’m Brown” was featured in the Grammy Museum, and his songs have been recorded by artists such as Herb Alpert, Trini Lopez, Chan Romero, and Lalo Guerrero himself. Mark is featured in the documentary "Chicano Rock: The Sounds of East Los Angeles" and has performed with music legends Eric Burdon, Los Lobos, El Chicano, Tierra, and Ry Cooder.

In the late ‘90s, Mark assembled a band to back up his father Lalo Guerrero. The resulting ensemble, Lalo Guerrero with Mark Guerrero & the Second Generation Band, played countless venues, including the Cite de Musique in Paris, France, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and in Lalo's hometown of Tucson, Arizona.

Mark hosts a popular Chicano website, markguerrero.com, which is dedicated to promoting and chronicling his own music, as well as all Chicano music in general. He regularly lectures and consults on the subject of East L.A. & Chicano rock history at universities and museums, and hosted a popular podcast called "Chicano Music Chronicles." He currently hosts a YouTube interview show, "East L.A. Music Stories," which currently has 69 episodes. He continues to lecture and perform as a solo artist and with his band, Mark Guerrero & Friends.

Jerry Salas

Jerry Salas started playing guitar when he was about ten, and singing even younger. He was taught and inspired by his father Bill and brother Curly. Through his father and brother Jerry was exposed to a wide range of music: country Western, Hawaiian, and Mariachi from his dad who played in all these types of groups professionally, and rock n' roll, R&B, and jazz from his brother Curls. Throw in a little Nat King Cole and Tony Bennett from uncle Ray who had a beautiful voice and there you have it. By the mid-sixties Jerry and Curly were playing up and down the Sunset Strip in their own band The Sticks with drummer Snoopy Pfisterer and bass player Ken Forssi who would leave to form the group Love with Arthur Lee. During this period Snoopy brought in a TV producer to see the band and he loved Jerry’s look and voice and offered him a weekly spot on his show Shindig which was hugely successful at the time. He only wanted Jerry and not the band, so Jerry passed (oops). The Strip was an amazing place at the time, he would see bands like The Doors, Byrds, Seeds, and Buffalo Springfield among others, playing the same clubs and hanging out at Canters till four in the morning. During the late sixties the band was also recording original music every weekend. In early 71 Jerry was drafted into the army and sent to Vietnam where he drove an armored personnel carrier for five months until he was heard singing at a hootch party at which time he was put in special services entertaining the troops all over Vietnam. Jerry was blessed with an early out of Vietnam and the army.

Upon returning to the States, Jerry started playing L.A. clubs for almost a year, then was asked to sing for El Chicano. His first album resulted in the hit single “Tell Her She’s Lovely,” but prior to its release El Chicano was touring constantly and at one of the concerts in Seattle Jerry met Burton Cummings of the Guess Who. Burton and Jerry hit it off and jammed for almost six hours after the show. The next night Burton showed up and asked Jerry to join Guess Who and work on his upcoming solo project. Jerry had to decline due to contracts and his upcoming release that had “Tell Her” on it.

Almost all of the seventies were spent writing, recording and touring with some of the best acts around, like Marvin Gaye, ZZ Top, The Temptations, Blue Oyster Cult, War, Ted Nugent, The Jacksons, to name a few. After El Chicano Jerry worked in the Jingle studio session field. During this period Jerry sang on other friends’ albums, like Roland Bautista, guitar player for Earth, Wind and Fire, with whom Jerry also toured. Roland and Larry Dunn, keyboardist for The Fire, also produced several tunes on one of Jerry’s solo projects.

In 2003 Jerry’s wife Debbie lost her 7 year battle with breast cancer and the family moved back home to L.A., where Sara, Amanda and dad are currently recording the first CD with production help from long time friend John Avila, who played bass for Oingo Boingo and co-produced with Danny Elfman. Upon returning to LA, Jerry got the call from El Chicano, asking if he would be interested in doing some concerts, which Jerry was happy to do. So with Sara and Amanda occationally singing backgrounds the music has become a family affair once again!

Jesse 'Chuy' Varela

Currently Jesse ‘Chuy’ Varela serves as Program and Music Director at KCSM JAZZ 91, the Bay Area’s Jazz radio station. 2025 marks Chuy’s 42nd anniversary in radio. He has worked at KBBF – Santa Rosa, KPFA – Pacifica Radio in Berkeley, KJAZ Radio in Alameda, KBRG – Spanish Language Radio - San Jose, and KCSM JAZZ 91, as well as a news reporter/stringer for National Public Radio, Latino USA, Radio Bilingüe, and other radio entities.

Varela is also a freelance journalist who has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Eastbay Express, Latin Beat Magazine, Jazz Times Magazine, El Tecolote Newspaper, and numerous other publications as well as writing liner notes for Verve Records, Concord Records, Arhoolie Records, High Tone Records, and other numerous indie labels.

Varela has lectured and taught at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, Stanford University, City College of San Francisco, The International Association of Jazz Educators Conference, The University of the Sagrado Corazon in Puerto Rico, Habana Jazz Festival, The Kiwanis Club of Oakland, and numerous other schools and organizations. He also serves on the board of directors of The Oaktown Jazz Workshop, a jazz education program for young people in Oakland, as well as a mentor for The Berkeley High School Jazz Band Honors Project.