On Feb. 28, the Regional Mexican band Fuerza Regida took the next step in their skyrocketing careers. On July 15, they announced a new stadium tour date in Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium (formerly known as the Banc of California Stadium). They also revealed they’d be giving a $20,000 donation to Inclusive Action for the City to help encourage the legalization of street vending. The City Council of the City of Los Angeles also officially declared Feb. 28 as Fuerza Regida Day on behalf of their achievements.
“We feel really happy. We’ve worked really hard for this,” the group’s vocalist Jesús Ortiz Paz tells Remezcla about announcing a stadium date for over 20,000 fans. “But to be honest, it’s just normal. We feel normal. And hopefully, we keep on feeling normal, and we keep on selling out more stadiums.” Though they haven’t sold out the BMO Stadium just yet, the band is confident and already manifesting that they will.
“The truth is we don’t have a ritual; we just come to party with our fans, something organic, something as clear as water,” he says about the way they’re preparing for the upcoming gig.
Fuerza Regida still feel like normal kids from the Inland Empire, which helps them connect with their fans. “There are several things. I say that, first of all, the way we dress. The new generation is identifying themselves more by the way we dress and also that we are ourselves on stage,” the group’s guitarist, Khrystian Ramos, says. “We go out, we party with the fans, we have fun with them, and I think that’s a way for us to connect with them.”
Another highlight was that the group and record label’s CEO, Jimmy Humilde of Rancho Humilde, used this stadium announcement press conference to bring awareness of the importance of supporting street vendors. After announcing the joint donation from Rancho Humilde and the group, Ortiz Paz expressed he knows what it’s like to have the need to sell anything to make ends meet. Cohesively, the label’s CEO shares the same sentiment—he was a taco vendor in Inglewood, CA, for 14 years until 2015.
“It’s not about the donation. It’s about supporting the vendors. The donation is the least of it,” Ortiz Paz tells Remezcla. “We want to see our people support the street vendors. I know most of them are Mexican, most of them are Latin, but if they’re Black, white, whatever, support street vendors because since we’ve been little, we’ve been buying from street vendors. It’s a normal thing. And we don’t like that they’re just harassing these people.”
As for the declaration of Fuerza Regida Day on Feb. 28, Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price described the band as one of “West Coast’s revolutionary Urban Mexican bands” and praised them for staying “grounded in their love for the community and uplifting historically marginalized people.”
Moreover, the band’s latest viral song, “Bebe Dame” with Grupo Frontera, gave them their first-ever entry on the Billboard Hot 100. “This song we brought to the table. People think since it’s a cumbia that Frontera brought it, but no, we brought it,” Ortiz Paz clarified. “Actually, one of my writers wrote the song. People think another writer wrote it. But nah, Miguel Armenta wrote the track. We all hopped on it a little bit, and it’s the next big thing. No. 1 song right in front of Bad Bunny.”
Clearly, the band is in awe of their accomplishments thus far and excited about what’s to come. “Some young kids from the hood, having their own day–their own holiday in L.A. We’re happy,” Ortiz Paz concluded. “[And] don’t miss out July 15. We’re going to sell out this stadium!”
