Paul T. BradleyMexican rockers Maná made their mark in concrete as the foursome were inducted the Hollywood Guitar Center's Rock Walk yesterday. Like Bon Jovi, The Boss and Guns N' Roses all rolled into one (but from Guadalajara, Jalisco), Maná has garnered dozens of accolades — including winning eleven Grammys, selling nearly 30 million albums and pioneering Spanish language stadium rock. At 11 times, they even hold the record for selling out the Staples Center.
See also: Our review of Maná at Staples Center
Clearly deserving of Guitar Center's highest honor and Sunset Strip's only notable award, their handprints joined those of Van Halen, Johnny Cash, The Doobie Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Les Paul, John Lee Hooker and their idol Carlos Santana, among others in front of the instrument chain's flagship store.
Guitar Center's Rock Walk
Introduced by legendary L.A. DJ Jim Ladd and Mico Olmos, son of Edward James Olmos, the induction ceremony, hand planting and Q & A was conducted almost entirely in Spanish (and why would we have expected anything different?). We can only provide a gabacho-matic version of all that went down — since our Spanish language skills are, um, not great.
Families, journalists and a handful of fans crammed into Guitar Center's showroom to watch singer Fher Olvera, drummer Alex González, guitarist Sergio Vallín, and bassist Juan Calleros all press their palms into gooey black concrete and mug for the cameras.
The outspoken González, when asked for one comment in Ingles, said, “We've recorded a lot of our albums here in L.A., so for us to be here, putting our hands in cement alongside some of the most amazing musicians that have walked the face of the earth, it's such a humbling honor. If we can inspire future Latin musicians to achieve what Maná has done and they can have their hands in cement in the walk of fame, that would be a tremendous accomplishment for us.”
González also noted in Spanglish that he'd first come to that same Sunset Strip store with just $7 for spare drumsticks and now he's becoming a permanent part of it.
After a few more qestions, the band departed with a hearty “Viva Mexico Cabrones!” (ok, we actually do know what that means).
Maná is at the tail end of a giant, thirteen-leg global tour backing their 2011 album Drama y Luz that has them playing in Ontario and Tuscon to finish out their US dates. Given the mutual love the band has with the City of L.A., they'll surely be back to check on those handprints … and we'll have beefed up our Spanish.
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