David Hidalgo and Members of Quetzal to Premiere MEMORY AND RETURN at USC’s Bovard Auditorium
New album and concert celebrate four generations of East L.A. artists through music, memory, and intergenerational dialogue.
By: A.A. Cristi Oct. 14, 2025
A landmark collaboration between generations of East Los Angeles musicians will take center stage when Memory and Return debuts on October 30 at 7 p.m. at Bovard Auditorium on the University of Southern California campus.
The project—both a concert and vinyl album release—brings together David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and members of the Grammy-winning band Quetzal for a deeply personal musical reflection on community, ancestry, and identity. Produced and curated by Quetzal Flores, Memory and Return was composed and recorded in East L.A. and features contributions from four generations of artists whose stories span from the 1930s to today.
Blending traditional and contemporary sounds, the album combines oral histories, neighborhood memories, and new compositions into what author and scholar George Lipsitz has called “beautifully conceived and masterfully executed.”
The live performance will feature David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Martha Gonzalez (Quetzal), Juan Perez (Quetzal), Rocio Marron, Sandino Gonzalez-Flores (Quetzal), Ofelia Esparza (NEA National Heritage Fellow), Rosanna Esparza Ahrens (Tonalli Studio), Rene Camacho, and Jose Perez, accompanied by projected visuals and short films exploring East L.A.’s cultural lineage.
Following the concert, Josh Kun, USC Vice Provost for the Arts, will moderate a post-performance conversation with artists, cultural theorists, and historians examining the creative and historical context behind the album. The discussion is supported in part by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, in partnership with Great Leap Inc.
A collaboration between members of Quetzal and David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, Memory and Return captures the spirit of East Los Angeles across time and generations. The album integrates storytelling, music, and visual art to illuminate how cultural memory shapes identity and belonging in a historically underrepresented community.
Memory and Return is now available to stream on Spotify.
About USC Visions and Voices
USC Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative launched in 2006 to showcase creativity, foster dialogue, and bridge academic and community engagement through free public programming. The initiative’s Arts in Action program supports projects that use the arts to inspire social change and cross-cultural understanding.
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