Kinto Sol’s musical journey is no laughing matter. The Garcia brothers — Manuel, Javier and Eduardo — anchor the hip-hop grooves on fourth disc Los Hijos del Maiz with lyrics detailing the harsh realities of a Mexican immigrant’s life.

“We talk about the problems we all have — corruption, racism — in our countries of origin,” says founding member Manuel. “That’s why we immigrate to other countries. But when we get here . . . we find restrictions, discrimination again. It’s a game that never ends.”

That sense of seriousness (perhaps naturally) pervades the group’s visual aspect as well. The trio strikes somber, intimidating poses in photos on its Web site (www.kintosol.com) and in CD booklets.

Casual grins are not an option — for now.

“I’m not going to lie — I don’t think we’d look cool smiling,” Manuel says with a laugh. He also directs the group’s videos and does the photography.

“I guess that’s kind of a hip-hop thing. But I might go against the grain next time. It’s OK to smile. Our music tells people it’s OK to show how you feel.”

Kinto Sol has been expressing its own feelings through music for more than a decade. The siblings were born in Iramuca, Mexico, where they grew up listening to iconic singer-songwriters Cuco Sanchez and José Alfredo Jiménez.

The “family of immigrants” made its way to Chicago, eventually settling in Milwaukee.

“A lot of people say, ‘I never thought there was raza in Milwaukee,’ ” Manuel says. He still lives there but says the group may relocate to California or Texas.

“You go anywhere in the United States, and you’re going to find a little Latino, Mexican community.”

Manuel was 13 when he arrived in the U.S. and soon found himself drawn to the sounds of Public Enemy, Cypress Hill and Kid Frost.

Soon, the brother unit was DJing and producing projects for English-language artists. The group took its name from the Aztec legend that says the fifth sun (kinto sol) would be the last to set in this lifetime.

“It’s as if Kinto Sol is a house with two windows,” Manuel says. “We see life as a Mexican, an immigrant. But we also see it as a person who was born here. We have two cultures.”

Kinto Sol’s four studio discs have showcased a steadily maturing, socially conscious, streetwise urgency. Del Norte al Sur found the group experimenting with Spanish-language hip-hop for the first time; Hecho en Mexico focused on taking pride in heritage; and La Sangre Nunca Muere focused on family loyalty.

Those discs reverberated with youth on both sides of the border. Several labels tried to sign Kinto Sol, but the group held fast to its independent ways — until this year.

Los Hijos del Maiz was issued in February, the group’s first disc under the Univision Records banner. It’s earning spins in Chicago, Fresno, Los Angeles, Dallas, McAllen, Corpus Christi and San Francisco.

“It was time,” Manuel says. “This is our fourth disc, (but) we’ve mostly been considered underground. There were people who followed us, but the general public didn’t listen to our music.”

The title of the current disc translates to The Children of the Corn. No relation, however, to Stephen King’s short story and the ’80s horror film. Rather, Manuel says it’s a nod to “our descendants — Mayas, Aztecas, Incas.

“We feel the pain. We went through the same pain,” Manuel says.

“I could easily say my family is good now, I have a career in hip-hop. But at the same time . . . I really feel that we’re all here for a purpose. I want to be able to do something positive with our music.”

Los que Luchamos and Es Un Sueño touch on immigrant struggles, and the title track chronicles the suffering of ancestors amid turntable scratches and a tinkling beat.

But they aren’t just empty rallying cries. The group tempers its aggressive stances with thoughtful calls to action (“Each of us has to do away with egoism/Eliminating the ‘I’ and replacing it with ‘we’ “) and pleas for knowledge (“To know the future, we should analyze the past”).

It’s a blend that should resonate throughout Texas. The Census Bureau recently reported that more Hispanics than Anglos now live in Harris County. The minority population in the county is 2.5 million as of July 2006 (63 percent of the total 3.9 million residents).

Almost one in every 10 of the nation’s 3,141 counties had populations that were more than 50-percent minority by July 2006.

“This might sound corny, but music really does have a sense of magic,” Manuel says. “We try to always make songs that are real, that talk about what we go through, what other people go through.”

Rhythmic ballad Nací Para Quererte (I Was Born to Love You) is an anomaly — and the trio’s best shot at chart-topping success. It’s a tortured-love tale accented with flamenco guitars, smooth horns and wailing female vocals.

Just another surprising facet, it seems, of Kinto Sol’s journey of musical discovery.

“A lot of people think we talk about gangs and shooting. We put some of it in our rhymes, but we do it in a way that is positive,” Manuel says.

“There must be a balance. In life, there must be negative things in order to have positive things. It all depends on what side you want to be on. That’s the way we do hip-hop.”

Source:
Houston Chronicle