About Bronco
Bronco is a Mexican grupero band originating from Apodaca, Nuevo León. Their modern take on regional Mexican music in the 1980s and 1990s helped earn them international recognition with original band members José Guadalupe "Lupe" Esparza, Ramiro Delgado, Javier Villareal, and José Luis "Choche" Villareal creating music that would go on to top record charts. The band is well known for their use of modern instruments, particularly the synthesizer and musical keyboards, as part of the incorporation of pop-style music. As with many grupera bands, members wore matching jumpsuits.
The band began by the name of Los Broncos de Apodaca , formed and fronted by José Guadalupe Esparza, whose origins lay within a band by the name of "Cheyenne," which he had started with his childhood friends in secondary school. “I have always favored the names of Indians and although we never played professionally with that group, it helped us learn to play with cardboard boxes”, Esparza once stated in an interview about his beginnings in music. This eventually proliferated into Los Broncos de Apodaca. Esparza was joined by childhood friend Erick Garza and brothers Javier and José Luis "Choche" Villareal. Esparza was the vocalist and frontman, Javier was the main guitarist, Jose Luis played drums, and Erick on keyboards. Esparza occasionally took to percussion. At that time, they played Chicano music, whose rhythm is very similar to norteño music found in Northern Mexico, including Nuevo Leon, only that the organ is used instead of the accordion; it was considered to be a fashionable musical trend at that time, they also played cumbias and boleros.
The members of what would become Bronco went by the name Los Broncos de Apodaca since it was customary to include the state or region from which they originated. The inspiration for the name came from Estadio Adolfo Lopez Mateos stadium, which hosted the Broncos de Reynosa team of Mexican League baseball, and was known colloquially as "Estadio de los Broncos". Their first professional gig was precisely in Agua Fría, Nuevo Leon, a town within the same municipality as Apodaca.
They recorded "Quiero Decirte" and "Grande de Caderas" on sides A and B respectively. The members of the group visited radio stations within the City of Monterrey, fronting themselves as a "Bronco" and requesting their music be played on the air. Their single was only aired on AM station XEOK.
Their first complete album was recorded for Fama, and included the song "Quiero Decirte". This is the only production in which Manuel Caballero acted as drummer, leaving the group shortly after. Esparza left the role of playing percussion to his brother, Aurelio. In 1985, the song "Sergio el Bailador" album Sergio el Bailador became a radio hit. Songs like “Pilar de Cantina” and “Maldito Corazón”, both from the same album, also experienced vast commercial success of their own in Mexico and the United States. Due to health problems and to dedicate more time to his family business, Erick Garza decided to leave Bronco. His place was taken by Ramiro Delgado, a member of another group, Los Cazadores, who was recommended by Bronco's producer from BMG-Ariola, Homero Hernández.
The first studio album recorded with Delgado was 1987's Bronco Super Bronco, which included tracks "Lo Tengo Decidido", "No Nos Vamos a Olvidar", and "La Rompidita".
In 1987, the group had garnered local fame within the State of Nuevo León and was invited to Salon la Fama in Monterrey. The event attracted a crowd exceeding capacity, with 9,000 people attending the hall with a maximum capacity of 4,000. "It was a tall, long room, it had no windows and it had no emergency exit," according to one of the members of the band at the time. Police officers fired rounds into the air, causing a stampede in which hundreds were injured and seven died. The track "Cumbia Triste" on the 1989 album Un Golpe Mas was dedicated to the victims of the event.
Map & Directions To Venue
