On September 13, two days before Salvadoran independence day, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings releases ¡Soy Salvadoreño!, an album of chanchona music by the El Salvadoran expatriate family-band Los Hermanos Lovo. The collection, comprised of Salvadoran standards, borrowed songs from other genres, and two original compositions, stands as a true representation of the musical style that has become synonymous with the group's homeland.

¡Soy Salvadoreño! is the 32nd release in the Smithsonian Folkways Tradiciones/Traditions series since 2002. The series, a co-production with the Smithsonian Latino Center, showcases the diverse musical heritage of the 50 million Latinos living in the USA.

Los Hermanos Lovo violinist and bandleader Trinidad Lovo and many of his family members left El Salvador for Northern Virginia during the civil war that tore their homeland apart in the late 1980s, but they brought traditional chanchona music with them. Six of the seven members are from the extended Lovo family -- Trinidad, drummer Yonatan Fuentes, vihuelist Édgar, violinist Cristino Membreño, guitarist Eliseo Membreño and bassist Hozmín -- and brother-in-law Alfredo Fuentes rounds out the group.

Los Hermanos Lovo feature dual violin melodies and dance-inducing cumbia rhythms -- like those on "El carnaval de mi tierra" ("The Carnival of My Land") -- and the corrido-style folk phrasings of "Así somos nosotros" ("That's How We Are"). Listeners will also hear the signature lobo ("wolf") howls found throughout "La salvadoreña", and dance to the fast-paced merengue rhythms of "El carnaval de San Miguel" (The San Miguel Carnival").

The first festival performance by Los Hermanos Lovo—then known as Los Hermanos Villalobos—was in 1969. Throughout the 1970s, chanchona -- translating to "big pig," the local name for the string bass - moved from its rural mountain home to city festivals, especially in the eastern urban hub of San Miguel. The annual San Miguel festival and its sponsor and broadcaster, Radio Chaparrastique, were the main forces that put the nation's finest chanchona musicians on the map nationally and internationally. Los Hermanos Lovo play an integral role in perpetuating the tradition for both Salvadoran and non-Salvadoran audiences in the United States.