Cabildo ready to rock out at benefit for immigrant families

Growing up in Chile under the Pinochet dictatorship, Julio Villalobos experienced the fear of authoritarian practices even as he and his teenage folk music bandmates would travel to different towns to perform “under very precarious conditions.”

“We didn’t question much,” he recalled. “My friends in my neighborhood would walk to the corner and all of a sudden, the police would arrive and kick everybody’s butt right on the spot for no reason. The expectation was for kids to just run away … even though they were not doing anything. That permeated our society with fear.”

Several decades later, after immigrating to the United States and moving to Grand Rapids in the late 1990s, Villalobos — founder of the Latin rock band Cabildo — has seen that fear return in the eyes of friends and relatives.

The controversial tactics of ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in many cities — especially Minneapolis, where thousands of undocumented immigrants have been apprehended and many protesters arrested — have many immigrants looking over their shoulders, including those legally residing in the United States.

As Villalobos surmises: Anyone with an accent is susceptible to scrutiny.

“We see the most vulnerable members of our society, not only immigrants, but other segments being targeted. And the way that it’s being done, we feel like ultimately it's going to affect us all, right? 

“We all are going to be affected by it because we … are living through an institutional crisis of huge proportions that actually is going to affect everybody.”

That’s why Cabildo is joining fellow West Michigan Latin rock band EPCYA, vintage country band The Bootstrap Boys and Jeff Schroeder & Friends to perform at “Melt the ICE” on Feb. 15 at Grand Rapids’ Fountain Street Church, a benefit concert supporting immigrant families affected by ICE.

“This is our motivation … because we have friends, we have families, we have people in our community that are being affected. They live in fear.”

The 2-7 p.m. Sunday event will raise money for three organizations: Movimiento Cosecha GR, SECOM Resource Center and Kent County Indivisible. Tickets are a suggested donation of $25 each, though organizers stress that “no one will be turned away for lack of funds.” 

Street food will be available, along with artwork created by Comfort Love and information tables for several area organizations. 

Villalobos said Cabildo feels strongly that the band has “a role in a project of society that brings everybody together with different languages, with different senses of rhythm. … We appreciate everybody’s attitude to continue this project, to continue the music and to be able to share music with everybody.”

Formed in 2004 (initially under the name the Electric Latin Love Orchestra), the Spanish language band led by guitarist/accordionist Villalobos and Mexican-born guitarist Julio Viveros also features percussionist Josh Dunigan, trombonist Josh Usadel, pianist Nate Blitan Violan, drummer Dustin Miller, bassist Jon Sgromo and violinist Michael Prokopchuk. Viveros and Miller also are members of the rock band EPCYA.

Cabildo’s energetic fusion of Latin-American music, rock, ska and punk has earned the band a devoted following for its live shows. 

The group also released a full-length studio album, “Sin Fronteras,” in 2018 and an EP in 2024. 

“We do have a bunch of other music that we have not recorded, that we played live,” said Villalobos, who picked up a guitar at age 14 to play folk music and later began embracing rock influences. “We are continuing to produce music. Hopefully, it’s everybody’s expectation that we can hit the recording studio this year.”

— Find more Michigan music news and concert listings at LocalSpins.com. Email John Sinkevics at john@localspins.com.