This band was responsible for a movement in musical influence from North to South rather
than the other way around, as is the norm in Latin music. The brothers Ayala formed the band
with accordion and keyboard player Rudy Flores in California in 1972. The membership spread
between the towns of Modesto and Turlock. Jose Luis Ayala, Johnny Ayala, and Alfonso Ayala
put all the possible bonded energies of brotherhood into their band, and in collaboration
with Flores, a fine musician, they went on to score a series of hits between 1972 and 1988,
when the original version of the band broke up. "Ambition" (or "Ambicion") was the prophetic
title of the band's first hit on the Tejano scene, a record that also marked the first
international smash for the Discos Fanas label as well. The band put out dozens of records
on labels such as Phonovisa, RCA, and Thump. In the meantime, what was perceived as the
band's original style influenced musicians in the Nueva Leon area of Mexico, where it was
adopted as the "Monterey style."
In the late '80s, the brothers and their partner parted ways. Unable to let go of their
original name, the musicians gave birth to a cumbersome yet popular and exploitable pair of
spin-offs: Los Humildes de los Hermanos Ayala explores the Humildes perspective from the
point of view of the siblings, while los Humildes de Rudy Flores presents the
disenfranchised accordion player's view on the subject. Shocking as it might be, some of the
record labels that released recordings by either group ran out of typesetting material after
completing the los Humildes portion of the name, leading to confusion. The first series of
albums by the original band were all released on compact discs in the '90s, upping the
possibility that a random purchase would actually result in the music of the Flores/Ayala
brothers' collaboration.
