Rubén Isaac Albarrán Ortega Vocalist and guitar player. Previously, until 2001, he played in an alternative band called
Villa Jardín. In 2006 he announced his solo debut,
Bienvenido al sueño (
Welcome to the Dream), it consists of electronic instruments with
Buddhist influences and
Prehispanic Mexican which he describes as
"música protónica por no limitarlo o estereotiparlo" (
protonic music so as not to limit or stereotype it). He is also known as "Juan", "Cosme", "Masiosare", "Anónimo" (
Anonymous), "Nrü" (pronunciation given as "Dshiu" in Spanish; perhaps intended to be ), "Amparo Tonto Medardo In Lak’ech" or "At Medardo ILK", "G3", "Gallo Gasss" (
Gasss Rooster), "Élfego Buendía", "Rita Cantalagua", "Sizu Yantra", "Ixaya Mazatzin Tleyótl", "Ixxi Xoo" and now "Cone Cahuitl". He lived the first four years of his life in
Monterrey. Studied at UAM (
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana) where he received a bachelor's degree in Design and Graphic Communication. Rubén, or however he is now known, has always pushed gender norms through provocative lyrics, and the occasional skirt worn on stage at concerts. In the shows prior to the release of their first album, people would yell "Juan!" (the name of one of the band's first underground hits) to Rubén, so he kept the name for the release of the first album. Two years later he got bored and changed it to "Cosme" for the release of "Re". Since then, he has changed his name for every album and world tour. In 2010, while on break from Café Tacvba, Rubén Albarrán formed a side project called
HopPo! In the
Dakota language, "Hoppo" means "Lets Go!" Albarrán briefly toured during the fall of 2010 in South and North America with HopPo! Hoppo's self-titled debut album consists of
Latin American folk cover songs, and no original material. This particular type of folk music, also known as
Nueva Canción, was originally written in the 1960s and 1970s during a
social movement of protest and
anti-establishment sentiment by
South American singer-songwriters and
social activists. The album contains three songs written by
Violeta Parra, including "
Gracias a la vida".
Emmanuel Del Real Emmanuel "Meme" del Real has been in the band from the moment they took the name Café Tacvba. Since the beginning he has been in charge of the keyboards, acoustic guitar, piano,
music programming, vocals,
melodeon, and
melodica. For a long time he only sang backup, but since the release of
Re in 1992, he began singing lead on songs like
El Borrego (
The Lamb) or
Pez (
Fish), he also began playing the guitar more than before. On the covers album
Avalancha de Éxitos he plays guitar on
No Controles (''Don't Control''). Since then he's also been known to play the
jarana. Del Real has written some of the band's biggest hits such as
La Ingrata (
The Ingrate),
Las Flores (
The Flowers),
Aviéntame (
Throw Me) and
Eres (
You Are). He is known in the Mexican electronica scene as "DJ Angustias"; is part of the
Noiselab collective; and released a solo album in late 2005. Del Real has also produced songs for many Mexican artists like
Julieta Venegas,
Natalia Lafourcade,
Ely Guerra, and
Liquits, among others.
José Alfredo Rangel Arroyo José "Joselo" Alfredo Rangel, spent the first 9 years of his life in
Minatitlán, Veracruz, until his family moved to
Mexico DF where he studied industrial design in the
UAM. During his youth he had various hobbies like comic books and design even though he decided music was his major passion. While in college he met a person with a peculiar voice and extravagant ideas: Albarrán. They became best friends and with his brother, Enrique "Quique" Rangel and they formed a band called
Alicia Ya No Vive Aquí. Later on he started working on a new project called "Cafe Tacuba" with Ruben Albarran on the vocals, Enrique "Quique" Rangel on the bass (contrabajo) and Roberto Silva on the keyboards. Emmanuel del Real took the place of Roberto when he left before the band became famous. After 13 years with the band Rangel decided to launch a solo side project. He has released two albums: the first, 2001's "Oso" (
Bear), named after Joselo's childhood nickname; the second, titled "Lejos" (
Far) in 2005. He wrote four books,
CRockónicas Marcianas (a compilation of chronicles, 2011), the collection od stories O
ne hit wonder (2015), the novel
Los desesperados (2018) and
Cuba Stone (2016), a review of
The Rolling Stones' concert in Cuba, in collaboration with
Javier Sinay and Jeremías Gamboa.
Enrique Rangel Arroyo Enrique "Quique" Rangel Arroyo was a designer whose interest in music was influenced by his brother Joselo. He was introduced to Albarrán by Joselo and together, along with Beto Silva, formed "Cafe Tacuba". He abandoned his career as a designer when he brought the band De Real in the late 80s and they changed their name to Café Tacvba. He designs album art for other bands and, like De Real, composes melodies for other groups. He is also a member of a side project called
Los Odio.
Luis Ledezma Also known as "El Children", Ledezma is the band's live drummer but is not considered an official band member.
Ramiro Del Real Díaz A support musician that has been with the band since 2015 playing guitars, jarana and percussions. He is not considered an official band member. == Genre ==