Los Tigres del Norte, a band made up of four brothers and a cousin who came to the United States from Mexico as youths, will receive the 2,527th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today — a first for a norteno band.
Jorge, Hernan, Eduardo and Luis Hernandez and their cousin, Oscar Lara, will speak at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony in front of Live Nation building on Hollywood Boulevard.
The band has sold more than 37 million albums worldwide, with 22 No. 1 albums and more than 50 No. 1 singles. Los Tigres del Norte has won six Grammys and six Latin Grammys and received the Latin Recording Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
The ceremony — to be streamed live on walkoffame.com — comes nine days before the band’s concert at Anaheim’s Honda Center.
The Hernandez brothers — led by then-14-year-old Jorge — left their hometown of Mocorito in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in 1968 and headed to California in the hopes of providing help to support their family.
They were dubbed “Little Tigers” by an immigration official while crossing the California border, which combined with them heading north, served as the inspiration for the band’s name.
The band was performing live on the radio in San Jose in the early 1970s when heard by Art Walker, who owned Fama Records, destined to become the leading Spanish-language record label on the West Coast. They were the first artists Walker signed for the label.
Walker advised the band to drop its traditional acoustic sound in favor of more of an electric sound with a full set of instruments — drum set, electric guitar and bass — before recording its first album. The band members would go on to modernize their music, exploring elements of boleros, cumbias, rock and waltzes.
The band has established itself as a leading voice on the struggles of immigration. It also has a tradition of social consciousness, never allowing its members to be photographed with weapons or use offensive language or glorify drug themes in its music.
