brother

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Cherie DeVaux made history Saturday as the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby when Golden Tempo rallied from far back to capture the race over Renegade at Churchill Downs.

“I don’t even have any words right now,” DeVaux said on NBC. “So, so, so happy for Golden Tempo. [Jockey] Jose [Ortiz] did a wonderful job, masterful job. He has had so much faith in this horse.

“I’m glad I could be representative of all women everywhere, that we can do anything we set our minds to.”

It was the first Derby win for Ortiz, whose brother, Irad Ortiz Jr., rode Renegade.

“I’m glad I get my lifetime dream achieved,” said Jose Ortiz, who also won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday with Always a Runner.

Sent off at 23-1, the winner paid $48.24 for a $2 bet after running 1 1/4 miles in 2 minutes, 2.27 seconds.

Ocelli was third, Chief Wallabee fourth and Danon Bourbon, who had the lead at midstretch, fifth. So Happy, the Santa Anita Derby winner, finished ninth.

Great White, another long shot, was scratched just before post time after he bucked and fell over at the starting gate.

PRINCESS Andre looked just like model mum Katie Price as she glammed up for an event with brother Junior. 

The 18-year-old proved she was a chip off the old block while posing up a storm at a Superdrug bash in London on Thursday evening. 

Princess, who was also filming scenes for her ITV reality show The Princess Diaries, could’ve been mistaken for Katie, 47, in her heyday as she expertly worked the cameras. 

The rising star cut a stylish figure in a sand-coloured sleeveless top and matching skirt and wore her blonde hair down in loose curls. 

Meanwhile Junior, 20, was joined by girlfriend Jasmine Orr at the event. 

He dressed down in a white sweater and black jeans while Jasmine, 25, opted for a lace-trimmed camisole and figure-hugging black trousers. 

TV CREW

Princess Andre & Ella Rae Wise lead the glam at star-studded ITV Showcase

roar-mazing

Princess Andre poses in fitted dress after Paris Fury tried to play matchmaker

While mum Katie is in Dubai with husband Lee Andrews, Princess and Junior this week enjoyed a day at the seaside with older brother Harvey, 23.

Pop star Junior shared some sweet snaps of the trio on social media and wrote: “Lovely day out with my siblings.”

Katie shares Junior and Princess with ex-husband Peter Andre, who recently opened up to The Sun about being horrified at the messages his daughter receives from sick pervs on Instagram. 

He said: “You know what people are like. You know what the world is like. But it still hits differently when it’s your daughter. 

“I just don’t understand at what point men think it’s ok to send photos of their genitalia; the guy doing it, what’s he thinking?

“I guess if you’re flirting and a guy sends you a picture of him topless in the gym, you might go, ‘oh, ok’. 

“But if a woman sent a picture of her, you know… most guys are going to go, ‘what the hell?!’”

Pete, 53, is now calling both for a ban on social media for under 16s, and asking schools to step up and offer greater support to parents.

At Dos Pueblos High in Goleta, baseball coach George Hedricks needed no excuses to start freshman Mattias Di Maggio, considering last name of DiMaggio is one of the best baseball names in the history of the sport. Think of the legendary Joe DiMaggio.

Well, it turns out Mattias is pretty good and also a distant relative to Joe DiMaggio. He’s his great grandfather’s cousin.

As a player this season, Mattias has 34 hits, is batting .515 and has hit nine home runs. He’s also a left-handed pitcher with four saves so beware of him on the mound in the coming years. He’s 6 feet 3 and 191 pounds.

“The most impressive thing hitting is he has over 20 walks and one strikeout,” Hedricks said. “He’s a pretty physical kid who can hit to all fields.”

He also leads the team in stolen bases. His brother was a standout at Dos Pueblos and plays junior college baseball.

One college coach said, “He’s good good.”

Hedricks can’t wait to see Mattias develop over the next three years.

“He can beat you 100 different ways,” Hedricks said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

CRUZ Beckham has sent another olive branch to his estranged brother Brooklyn despite his older sibling blocking him.

The aspiring singer, 21, took to his Instagram stories to share a picture of himself as a baby with both his brothers, Brooklyn, 27, and Romeo, 23.

In the snap, the trio are seen sitting in front of one another and wearing matching white shirts.

The adorable photo of them as children saw them beaming from ear to ear as they posed for the happy moment.

This is just one of several olive branches that Cruz has extended to his brother over the last few months.

Back in December, he shared a picture of himself with his brothers and their dad David as he gushed: “Love you guys.”

READ MORE ON THE BECKHAMS

HAND BAGGED

Posh loses trademark court battle with luxury handbag brand in blow to star

COUPLE’S GETAWAY

Cruz Beckham puts on loved-up display with girlfriend Jackie Apostel

In February this year, he posted another shot of the three brothers together as children.

The trio flashed their cheeky grins for the camera as Brooklyn sat in the middle and cuddled them both.

Last month, he commemorated Brooklyn’s 27th birthday by sharing a picture of a young Brooklyn holding Cruz as a baby.

He wrote: “I love you,” alongside a party popper emoji.

Brooklyn has not publicly responded to any of Cruz’s attempt to move on from the family drama.

The aspiring chef blocked his parents and siblings on Instagram in December and stayed firm in keeping them unfollowed on his social media platform.

Cruz previously spoke out about Brooklyn’s social media snub.

It was initially thought that the Beckham family had “unfollowed” Brooklyn’s account, as The Sun on Sunday reported.

Cruz soon put things straight. Pulling no punches, he shared a post which read: “Not true.

“My mum and dad would never unfollow their son. Let’s get the facts right. “They woke up blocked  . . .  as did I.”

Brooklyn released a bombshell statement in January and suggested public image and Brand Beckham was the biggest priority to his mum and dad.

Earlier this month, matriarch Victoria was asked directly about her eldest son during a new interview with the Wall Street Journal.

The Spice Girls star said: “I think that we’ve always—we love our children so much.

“We’ve always tried to be the best parents that we can be. And you know, we’ve been in the public eye for more than 30 years right now, and all we’ve ever tried to do is protect our children and love our children.

“And you know, that’s all I really want to say about it.”

Victoria did not refer to Brooklyn by name when asked about the rift but discussed how she had only ever tried to “protect and love our children”.

Victoria and David are understood to have been left devastated over the fall out and have even recently offered to meet with Brooklyn and his wife Nicola Peltz in the presence of lawyers and therapists in an attempt to rebuild the rift.

But with Brooklyn seemingly standing strong on his statement, the family are still yet to make any movements towards a reconciliation.

Former Fox News host and ex-Trump advocate Tucker Carlson is feeling remorse for the role he and others played in publicly promoting Donald Trump as a candidate and as the president.

“In very small ways, but in real ways, you and me and millions of people like us are the reason this is happening right now,” Carlson said Monday on his podcast, “The Tucker Carlson Show.” He was chatting with Buckley Carlson, his brother and a former Trump speechwriter, about the erosion of conservative values within the Republican Party under Trump.

“I do think it’s a moment to wrestle with our own consciences,” Carlson said. “You know, we’ll be tormented by it for a long time. I will be, and I want to say I’m sorry for misleading people. It was not intentional, and that’s all I’ll say.”

After nearly 10 years of yammering nightly about the greatness of Trump, Carlson picks now to cut the conversation short?

There’s a lot more to say, but this time, it’s about Carlson’s too-little, too-late mea culpa. His claim that he did not intentionally mislead the public is in itself misleading. While Carlson promoted Trump and the Big Lie ad nauseam on his prime-time Fox News show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” he was privately disparaging the president and discrediting Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

His off-camera thoughts were revealed when internal communications between Fox staffers went public in 2023 due to Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News for knowingly broadcasting false claims that its machines rigged the 2020 election. Texts and emails from Carlson and other high-profile hosts suggested they knew Trump’s election fraud claims were unfounded, yet they still pushed the “rigged” narrative on air.

In one such example, Carlson texted that Trump needed to concede, and agreed that “there wasn’t enough fraud to change the outcome” of the election, according to the filing. Yet three nights later, he was on air claiming that there were “legitimate concerns” about election integrity. There were several more communications from Carlson where he expressed doubt about Trump’s claims. But in the public eye, he continued to assail the election results and the legitimacy of Biden’s win.

The Fox News host also privately scorned the first Trump presidency as a “disaster,” then turned around and stumped for Trump in 2024, praising him as a “national leader” at the Republican National Convention and campaigning with him in Arizona just days before the election.

If that’s not intentionally misleading the public, then what is?

Perhaps Carlson should have heeded his initial instincts about Trump. Before gaining notoriety with his Fox show, he posted on the website Slate about Trump in 1999, referring to him as “the single most repulsive person on the planet.”

Today the podcaster is among a growing number of right-wing influencers who have turned on their former leader. Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones want to push Trump out of office by invoking the 25th Amendment. Carrie Prejean Boller, who was a Trump-appointed member of the Religious Liberty Commission up until February, simply called him an “evil psychopath”.

Carlson has criticized the Trump administration’s decision to go to war in Iran, calling it “absolutely disgusting and evil” in March, and later said it was the “single biggest mistake” of Trump’s presidency. And when Trump demanded on Truth Social that Iran “open the F—– Strait, you crazy bastards,” Carlson said the post was “vile on every level” and “the most revealing thing the president has ever done. … Who do you think you are? You’re tweeting out the F word on Easter morning?” Carlson said in his podcast.

The president has responded to criticism from Carlson by telling the New York Post that his detractor is a “a low-IQ person” who has “absolutely no idea what’s going on.”

But Carlson is hardly the only American with buyer’s remorse. A recent NBC poll found that Trump is facing the lowest job approval rating of his second term, largely due to strong disapproval of how the president has handled inflation and the cost of living. Carlson, unlike the rest of the country, rode the MAGA wave to prosperity. His show kicked off in 2016, within weeks of the election, and he rose to prominence on the fervor of Trumpism. Supporting Trump was a family business. From his brother, a Republican operative who previously wrote speeches for Trump, to his son, who worked until recently in Vice President JD Vance’s press office.

Now Carlson is making his way back into the conversation by opposing the man he once claimed to revere.

He is asking for forgiveness for backing a faulty product, while also claiming to be a victim of its beguiling charms. “You and I and everyone else who supported him … you wrote speeches for him, I campaigned for him. We’re implicated in this for sure,” Carlson told his brother on the podcast. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Well, I changed my mind,’ or ‘Oh, this is bad. I’m out.’”

True, that’s not enough. Carlson should apologize for misleading the public, intentionally.

THE oldest member of a much-loved 70s pop group has passed away, his family has announced.

Alan Osmond, the founding brother and guitarist of The Osmonds, died on Monday aged 76.

The family said in a statement that his wife Suzanne and their eight sons were beside Osmond at his bedside when he passed away, but did not reveal an official cause of death.

Alan Osmond had battled multiple sclerosis for 40 years after being first diagnosed in 1987.

He was the third-born child of parents George Virl Osmond Sr. and Olive Osmond, and in 1958 performed alongside his younger brothers Wayne, Merrill and Jay on a TV show at the age of 12.

The group first found fame as a barbershop quartet on The Andy Williams Show.

This early success set the stage for their siblings to join the lineup; once younger brother Donny arrived, the group transitioned into pop music as “The Osmonds,” quickly achieving superstar status as teen heart-throbs.

They had hits such as One Bad Apple, Yo-Yo, Down by the Lazy River and Love Me for a Reason.

Alan left the group in 2007, and his brothers went on with solo careers.

Alan and his brother Merrill founded the Stadium of Fire in Provo, Utah, a massive Fourth of July celebration, and he also co-founded and ran the OneHeart Foundation.

He then published his memoir, “One Way Ticket,” in 2024.

Osmond is survived by his wife, their eight sons, 30 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Anyone who has jumped out of a plane with a parachute deserves respect, but to do it 36 times, that’s worthy of a salute.

Saul Pacheco, who turns 88 in November, is sitting in a lawn chair at the Arcadia Invitational with his friends, the starters dressed in red suits who fire pistols to begin races.

That’s when he mentions how he was in the 82nd Airborne Division and jumping out of planes in the 1960s after graduating from Wilmington Banning High and UCLA.

“I was a jump master who became in charge of the parachute troopers,” he said.

Then he talks about becoming a teacher and wanting to return to his alma mater, Banning, which had no openings, so he ends up at rival Carson and coaching the offensive line for Hall of Fame coach Gene Vollnogle for more than two decades. Vollnogle was football coach from 1963 to 1990, winning eight City titles.

Pacheco also became a track starter in 1977. He was already well trained to fire a pistol. It was learning all the rules required in track and field that needed to be mastered.

He apparently did just that, because he’s been at it for 49 years and plans to retire as a track starter this spring. For 25 years, he was a starter for the Arcadia Invitational. Then he became the meet referee to settle any disputes. The respect he has earned can be seen in the way other starters appreciate him for helping them learn the ropes.

He’ll be inducted into the Carson Hall of Fame this fall for his contributions as a coach and athletic director.

His story is pretty amazing. He was one of 13 children. His parents apparently wanted enough siblings to form a football team. His father was a carpenter helping build minesweepers at Terminal Island for the Navy. His mother stayed home and took care of everyone. The first seven kids born were boys. He was No. 5. Imagine the competition for food at dinner time.

“Everbody came in to eat at different times,” Pacheco said. “My mother did a great job having stuff ready.”

But what about 13 children together for Thanksgiving?

“We had a lot of laughs. We all got along.”

Five of the brothers are still alive, including a 90-year-old. All three sisters are alive. One of his brothers, Henry, was football coach at San Pedro for 12 years. Henry was drafted and ended up in the Vietnam War, where environmental issues might have led to the illness, lymphocytic leukemia, that took his life in 1991.

Two of his brothers worked for the LAPD. Two other brothers became firefighters. He has a grandson who’s a deputy sheriff in Riverside.

Pacheco has worked five state track championships and numerous City Section championships.

Like an umpire in football who calls a holding penalty, the only time anyone notices a starter in track is when there’s a false start.

“If there’s a false start, someone complains,” he said.

So why spend 49 years as a track starter?

“The fun part is watching all the athletes compete and being around all the other officials,” he said. “The officials are tremendous and dedicated trying to do a good job.”

All this came out by just happening to stop by and say hello to the starters who are always pleasant and enjoy talking. Unless you ask a question, you’ll never find out about someone’s background.

So why wasn’t Pacheco wearing a red suit like the rest of his friends at Arcadia?

“I brought it just in case,” he said. “I was an alternate.”

Pacheco is always prepared, whether jumping out of planes or teaching life lessons to football players.

If anyone deserves a salute, it’s Saul Pacheco.

TV producer Sid Krofft, the puppeteer and co-mastermind behind fantastical 1970s Saturday morning television shows like “H.R. Pufnstuf” and “Land of the Lost,” has died. He was 96.

Krofft died in his sleep on Friday at the home of his friend and business partner Kelly Killian, she announced on Instagram. His youngest brother and business partner, Marty Krofft, died in 2023.

“I loved Sid with my whole heart. The last six years of my life were devoted to him, and his to me,” Killian wrote. “In that time, he taught me more than I could ever put into words — about the art of Hollywood, the magic of the stage, and the depth and complexity of human nature. I wish so very much that I had more time with him.”

“Sid Krofft was an icon who did what he loved most until the very end — being out in public with his legions of fans,” his publicist Adam Fenton said in a statement. “Sid never slowed down, attending his final show where it all began just last November in his home state of Rhode Island. Sid was a beacon of light and will be greatly missed.”

Sid co-created 1960s and ’70s children’s TV shows that featured colorful and quirky characters like Weenie the Genie, Horatio J. HooDoo and Cha-Ka the ape-boy. Together, he and Marty produced through their production company, Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, popular series, including their television debut and cult hit, “H.R. Pufnstuf.”

“H.R. Pufnstuf,” a combination of live-action and puppetry that Sid once referred to as “our first baby,” follows the adventures of a young boy, a talking flute and a 6-foot-tall dragon. That was the start of a television enterprise. The brothers went on to create more (mostly short-lived) shows, including “Lidsville,” about a teenage boy who falls into the top hat of a magician. He finds himself in the titular Lidsville, a land of living hats.

Other shows included “The Bugaloos,” about four teenage musicians with wings and antennae, “Electra Woman and Dyna Girl,” which follows the adventures of a superhero and her sidekick, and “Pryor’s Place,” a live-action children’s show starring comedian Richard Pryor.

The Krofft puppets frequently made cameos on other well-known shows during the 1970s and ’80s.

Most recently, the beloved character H.R. Pufnstuf appeared in the brothers’ 2016 Nick Jr. show, “Mutt & Stuff,” about an animatronic dog at a canine school.

The brothers also produced other beloved shows such as “Sigmund and the Sea Monsters,” “Land of the Lost,” “D.C. Follies” and the prime-time variety shows “Donny and Marie” and “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.”

Sid, left, and brother Marty Krofft pose with some of the life-size puppets created for their syndicated series “D.C. Follies” in Los Angeles in 1987.

(Reed Saxon / Associated Press)

Because the shows often featured eccentric and larger-than-life characters, Sid once told The Times that people were convinced the ideas came from using psychedelics. But he insisted the concepts were born during his daily runs along the Los Angeles coastline.

“I’m a runner, and I thought of them during my runs on the beach at Santa Monica,” Sid said. “That’s where they came from.”

While the 1970s were the defining decade for the Krofft brothers, they got their start as puppeteers decades prior.

In a long-standing rumor, Sid and Marty were said to be fifth-generation puppeteers. In an interview with The Times, Sid confessed that the whole thing was a lie concocted by a publicist in the 1940s. Their father, Peter Krofft, was a clock salesman and joined Sid when he was on tour as a teenager.

Sid was born July 30, 1929, in Montreal. The brothers immigrated to New York City from Canada with their father. Sid started working as a professional puppeteer at age 10. By the time he was 15, he had joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as “the world’s youngest puppeteer.” By his late 20s, he was working as the opening act for big industry figures like the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland and Cyd Charisse. That’s around the time he hired his brother — who was seven years younger and a salesman — as his assistant.

“I desperately needed an assistant and saw this as a great opportunity to bring out my brother Marty,” Sid said of his youngest brother. “That single moment in my life is what started our long-running career together.”

They later created cabaret-inspired “Les Poupées de Paris,” which opened in 1961 at the Gilded Rafters in the San Fernando Valley, then played at Hollywood’s P.J.’s. It toured the country throughout the ’60s.

While Sid was the creative force behind their projects, Marty was the brains behind the business operation.

Sid Krofft sits for portraits at his home in Los Angeles in 2021.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Sid wrote a tribute to his brother for The Times after his death.

“Marty and I were oil and vinegar,” he wrote. “We worked in different ways, but if you shook us up, we were a great dressing.”

The brothers’ relationship was publicly known to be rocky at times. “It’s not easy for two brothers to work together,” Marty told The Times.

Their shows were low budget; shot on sets that were once thought to be outdated by the 1980s. But the brothers maintained the rights to their creative properties, and some of their most popular stories had revivals or remakes.

In 2009, Universal Pictures adapted “Land of the Lost” into a $100-million box-office flop about the tales of a family stranded in a dinosaur-ridden jungle.

In 2018, the brothers were honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Daytime Emmys, and in 2020, they received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2021, Kroff resurfaced in the public eye with an Instagram Live show called “Sundays With Sid.” Marty created his own YouTube series soon after called “Mondays With Marty.”

Dilapidated buildings and decaying signage may put off the casual observer. But for Redlands-based artists James McClung and Marcus Mercado, the gritty patina of the Inland Empire urban landscape conjures memories of life in the region.

Honoring these unassuming entities is the main focus of a new community exhibit, titled “Our Empire,” at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture.

A total of 29 acrylic, mixed media paintings and drawings by McClung and Mercado will be on display at the Altura Credit Union Community Gallery until Oct. 23.

“James and Marcus’ artistic excellence, deep local roots and passion to tell the stories of their neighborhoods aligns with the vision of the Altura Credit Union Community Gallery — a space dedicated to providing opportunities for SoCal artists to showcase their work and uplift the people and places of our region,” said Valerie Found, interim executive director of Riverside Art Museum.

“A lot of people that grew up in these communities see some of these locations and they’re very relatable to their upbringing,” says McClung. “Things have transformed this area as well.”

Take for instance the San Bernardino Santa Fe smokestack, a towering 189-foot-tall structure from the 1920s that fueled the nearby railway power plant until 1994.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

For McClung, who grew up drawing comic book strips with his brother, the historic tower conjures memories of being in transit — after all, it is not far from the San Bernardino Santa Fe Depot, which links the city to other Southern California locations by train.

“I would go out to L.A. in my early 20s, just go off on my own and have a little adventure day,” says McClung. “Santa Fe structure stands out like a monument in the city.”

McClung depicts the tower with rigid orange triangles and hints of dewy sun-kissed hues, alongside a pencil-drawn image of the old Mt. Vernon Avenue Bridge, an 86-year-old structure that connected communities on the west side to the downtown commercial district. The bridge reopened last August under a $244.8–million project.

An elderly man holding a cane is also shown in the upper left area of the painting.  ”Who knows, he probably walked that bridge most of his life,” says McClung, who says he began to appreciate where he grew up following the pandemic.

“When I was a kid, I just remember driving around, looking out the window and observing the area around me,” says McClung. “I think growing up here teaches you to accept the small things and appreciate them too, appreciating small businesses and local establishments.”

Mercado’s interpretation of the Santa Fe tower is subtle, with the smokestack laid out behind the long-stretching freight trains carrying J.B. Hunt and FedEx shipping containers that pass below the renovated Mt. Vernon Avenue Bridge — an industrial crossroad between old and new San Bernardino.

“It’s mostly a reflection of your starting point heading towards L.A.,” he said.

Mercado notes that he took an interest in painting familiar, neglected sites about four years ago. His subjects include the sun-faded hamburglar at the Historic Original McDonald’s Museum in San Bernardino, located at the site where brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald established what would become the largest fast-food chain in the world.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

The defunct Redlands Mall, which is set to be demolished this year, is also a central subject in his artwork.

“I remember specifically being there, memories of the nail salon chemicals. There was a record shop and a hot dog on a stick,” says Mercado of the mall, which opened in 1977. “You’d go during Redlands Market Night, people would be hanging out, so all your friends would kind of meet up for that one night a week.”

When Mercado acquired photos from inside the vacant Redlands Mall from a friend, he saw his beloved hot dog on a stick shop, which he frequented in his middle and high school years, now in a desolate state with empty soda boxes and graffiti that depicted workers as stick figures. He painted it as such.

“To me, it is just a reflection of how we treat our memories or how we remember things,” says Mercado. “Is it the same as what we remember? Is it something that we wanna leave behind, or is it just, like, a ruin?”

Two extinct malls are referenced in the “Our Empire” exhibit, though the second might be hard to decipher unless someone remembers a mystery flute man who used to frequent the Carousel Mall in San Bernardino, which was demolished in 2023 after closing in 2017. McClung painted the flutist after hearing him in an empty parking structure beside the shopping center.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“I was driving around places in the [Inland] Empire that I wanted to capture. I would go out and take reference photos,” says McClung. “I park in a big parking structure at Carousel mall and I hear this flute. Come to find out he would go there weekly because of the acoustics in the area.”

A quick online search will prompt a flurry of Reddit and Facebook discussion about where the flute man — dubbed the mystical flute man by many — is located now. Besides some streamer vlogs in the area, no formal article or website has ever recognized the elderly man as an idol. His memory, as it exists in McClung’s painting, is reserved for those who share a unique collective experience.

Perhaps others in the area have stumbled upon the mysterious flute man themselves, or can recall the smell of monomer from a nail salon at the Redlands Mall. Or perhaps Inland Empire residents can recognize home from the towering Santa Fe smokestack.

“I want people to come and feel like they are part of this as well,” McClung says. “We have our own memory of what that space was for us, but other people have their own story, too.”

Poverty can be and often is crushing. For Hermanos Espinoza — who are in the midst of promoting their debut studio album “Linaje,” released Friday — growing up in a family that struggled financially after a string of failed restaurants turned out to be the greatest motivator.

Since 2021, the quintet led by the sibling duo of Joel and Leonel Espinoza have steadily built an audience with their brand of new wave norteño, pairing the prominent sounds of the accordion and the bajo quinto with lyrics about making it big thanks to a combination of unrelenting working-class grit, familial love and faith.

Hermanos Espinoza were one of the most buzzed about bands at the 40th South by Southwest music festival, which took place earlier this month in Austin, Texas. At the De Los showcase — one of three appearances the band made during SXSW — the rooftop of the Mala Fama nightclub was at capacity well before the brothers set foot on stage, and a line to get in extended past the door.

“Y que c— su madre la pobreza,” lead vocalist and accordionist Joel Espinoza, 24, belted out from the stage, opening their set with their 2024 hit “Dios Por Delante.” The popular Mexicanism translates to “F— poverty.”

The crowd cheered and danced, letting loose on a late Sunday night.

“I saw my family go through so much because of money, because of poverty. They didn’t deserve it but I understand the world works in a certain way,” he would later tell De Los in a video call. “I just hated it.”

The dynamic singer delivered every lyric with his whole body as he frenetically tapped the buttons of his brightly colored accordion, doing his best to make the squeezebox sound like an electric guitar. The drum set and bajo quinto kept pace, making the set feel more like a rock show than a backyard kickback.

(Cat Cardenas / For De Los)

With “Linaje” — it translates to lineage, a term often associated with nobility and pedigree — the brothers are intent on sharing their hard-earned success with those they love most.

“Some people refer to ‘Linaje’ as royalty, or people who come from money, but for us, it’s the complete opposite,” said Joel. “Our family is hardworking and we wanted to give them credit too. To us, that’s royalty.”

The Espinoza brothers grew up in the South Texas city of McAllen, in the Rio Grande Valley, helping out at their family’s Mexican restaurants. They can still recall prepping food from the early morning hours to late at night. They say it was tedious work that made them disciplined, punctual and appreciative of the value of a hard-earned dollar.

“You see life through a different perspective,” said Leonel, who is 20 years-old.

(Cat Cardenas / For De Los)

The brothers say they brought that same work ethic in their pursuit of music; both were heavily involved in their school’s marching band as part of the drum line, which helped them master rhythmic timing, coordination and motor skills. In high school, Joel picked up the accordion — he describes playing the 49-key instrument as a “love-hate” situation — and Leonel the bajo quinto.

Their mother helped book their first gigs singing serenade covers. But by 2021, house party gigs had slowed down.

“I used to work with my dad back at his restaurant and one of those days I was just feeling really down, ready to give up on my dream of music, but he held me down,” said Joel.

It wouldn’t be long before all that hard work paid off. Hermanos Espinoza gained traction on YouTube and TikTok with their self-released tracks, “Prueba De Fuego” (2022) and the aforementioned “Dios Por Delante,” which describe leaving behind the treachery of poverty for a better life.

“People started tattooing ‘Dios Por Delante’ on their forearms and neck and that’s when we realized that this was more than music, it’s a movement,” Joel said of the impact of the latter song.

Resilience and faith remain at the core of “Linaje,” which was mixed and produced by Ernesto “Neto” Fernández, who has worked with the likes of Peso Pluma and Xavi.

The 15-track LP, a solid representative of the ever-evolving norteño sound coming from the Texas borderlands, begins with a blessing, “29:11.” The title refers to a Bible verse in the Book of Jeremiah: “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

“A big part of this album was just letting go of trying to control everything,” said Joel. “I put it into [God’s] hands and we just let things flow.”

Money is the focus in the tracks like “La Moneda,” with Joel’s voice echoing through the backdrop as he proclaims that cash might change some tacky, incompetent chumps, but not him. Almost halfway through the set list is a hazy track, “No Puedo Amarte,” where the singer sours over an unresolved love; the crooning track is reminiscent of a twinkling sad sierreño genre, with an accordion alternating volumes between a bold tremolando and a silky legato.

Still, at its core, “Linaje” fundamentally underscores their grit in tracks like “Modelo V,” the first single under Double P Management that celebrates the journey that led them to success, which honors the lessons taught by their father.

“No matter all the adversities we face, the thing about my dad is that he’s always stayed true to himself and who he is,” says Joel. “That’s how we were raised and how we live day to day.”

Reality star Loana Petrucciani, who shot to fame after having sex in the pool while appearing on the French edition of Big Brother, has been found dead at her home

A TV star who became known for having sex in the Big Brother pool has been found dead. Loana Petrucciani, who won the first series of Loft Story France 1, was just 48-years-old.

It’s reported that the reality star, simply known as Loana, was found dead at her home in Nice. Prosecutor Damien Martinelli stated that an investigation has since been opened to “find the causes of death”, before stating the TV star had been dead for “several days”.

Loana gained fame in 2001 when she entered the Loft Story house, living with strangers for ten weeks under constant surveillance from cameras, mirroring the Big Brother format. In the wake of her death, TV network M6 said: “An iconic figure of the first season of ‘Loft Story’, she will forever remain a personality who profoundly marked an entire generation of viewers,” before praising her for “her pontaneity, sensitivity and authenticity.”

Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.

Alexia Laroche-Joubert, CEO of Loft Story’s production company Banijay France, said: “It is with immense emotion that I learned of Loana’s passing. Our paths crossed 25 years ago, and I am honoured to have shared so many memories with her. I witnessed her successes and her struggles.

“My thoughts are, of course, with her mother, Violette, her daughter, her brother, and the other housemates who were part of this adventure. Let us never forget that behind her public image was a sensitive and extremely intelligent woman.” Benjamin Castaldi, presenter of Loft Story said: “There are some faces we never forget. And hers, Loana’s, is part of our collective history.

“Thought we would watch a show. In fact, we were witnessing a revolution. The first one. The truth. The one that changed television forever… and maybe also our view on humans. Loana was not a character. She was a woman. A real one. With its cracks, its sweetness, its fragility in the open sky. And that’s precisely why we loved it.

“But that’s also why we dropped her. We applauded his light… not protecting his shadow. His authenticity has been consumed… without measuring the price she would pay. We’ve watched her live, love, fall… without ever really wondering who would pick her up after. The truth is, we’re all a little responsible. Because we all watched. Cuz we all commented Because we’ve all, at one point, looked away when it got too hard.

“She embodied raw innocence in a world that didn’t forgive anything. And we couldn’t match what she gave us. Today, there’s only a television memory. There’s still an emotion. Embarrassment. A regret. The one of not being human enough to someone who deeply was. So yeah… We lived a revolution together. But maybe we forgot, along the way, the important thing: Behind the phenomenon… There was a woman.”

It was on Lost Story that Loana became known for sleeping with co-star Jean-Edouard Lipa, sparking outrage across the country. Despite the scandal, she walked out of the house as the champion and was welcomed as she paraded down the Champs-Élysées.

With her newfound fame came magazine deals, gracing the cover of Elle, photographed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino and her deeply personal memoir several months later.

In her memoir, the Cannes-born star opened up about the highs and lows of her career in the spotlight, as well as previous suicide attempts. Speaking about entering Loft Story, she said previously: “I went there feeling very insecure. I was worried. The casting director said to me, ‘Aren’t you ashamed to come dressed like that?’ I took it very badly, especially since he was asking everyone that question.”

She added: “He asked me to flirt with the camera: I don’t know how to do that, it’s impossible. I blushed, I stammered. Then they asked me to dance and sing. I left and thought to myself, ‘I didn’t show them anything.'” She said of her fame: “There are two women inside me. The public loved both. Before, we saw a lot of the extroverted Loana who danced on the catwalks, but we didn’t see the other side, because she was too shy to express herself. But, in Loft Story, we saw that there was another side to her.”

In the early 2010s, Loana attempted to take her own life, which left her in a coma. Her family and friends later discovered that she had made several attempts on her life prior to this.

If you’re struggling and need to talk, the Samaritans operate a free helpline open 24/7 on 116 123. Alternatively, you can email jo@samaritans.org or visit their site to find your local branch

If you have been affected by this story, Cruse Bereavement Support offers free help to make sense of how you are feeling. Click here for their website or call 0808 808 1677.

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .