Los Mirlos

Birdsong guitars

Los Mirlos, the blackbirds, are a Peruvian cumbia band from Moyobamba in the San Martín region, founded by the singer and songwriter Jorge Rodríguez Grandez, also spelled Granda, who was a schoolteacher for 21 years according to a 2013 Sounds and Colours interview. Before moving to Lima they played as Los Saetas, building their own timbales and tumbas, and a policeman brother in Lima heard them and urged the move, which Wikipedia dates 1972 and other sources 1973. Wikipedia names the founding members as Rodríguez Grandez, Danny Johnston and Gilberto Reátegui on guitars, Wagner Grandez, Carlos Vásquez, Hugo Jáuregui and Manuel Linares. Rodríguez says the name refers to a bird that is intelligent and a singer, that the sound is two guitars imitating jungle birdsong, and that he refuses horns.

Infopesa signed them and released nine albums, starting with El Sonido Selvático (1973) and including El Poder Verde (1974), Los Charapas de Oro (1975), El Milagro Verde (1975) and Tirense con la escoba (1976). From 1980 they traveled to Argentina, where several albums sold platinum, and took part in the 1981 soundtrack of the film Las vacaciones del amor. The Roots of Chicha (2007) included "Muchachita del Oriente" and revived interest, and in 2018 Infopesa reissued Los Charapas de Oro on vinyl. A documentary, Mirlo's Dance, premiered at the Lima Film Festival on August 4, 2022 and had its theatrical release on February 29, 2024.

In 2025 they played Coachella, on April 11 and 18, reported as the first Peruvian band to do so. In January 2026 Peru's Ministry of Culture named them Personalidad Meritoria de la Cultura, and in 2026 they played Roskilde and recorded an NPR Tiny Desk concert on July 28 at Fiestas Patrias, the second Peruvian act there after Susana Baca. Sounds and Colours credits Enrique Delgado of Los Destellos as the first to bring electric guitar to this music; Rodríguez says the psychedelic sound was not intended, and told La República, we are not a fashion. Chicha Libre and Los Yegros are named as inspired by them.