A Departmental Tradition

Los Fletcheros ride again at Toad on Saturday, 5 July 2025.

The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University packs the room to support its “house band.”

Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

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Hump Nights

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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️ Hump Nights 〰️

Hump Nights

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Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix

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Hump Nights 〰️ Ace the Quiz, Win the Tix 〰️

Los Fletcheros

Los Fletcheros

Los Fletcheros (or is it plain Fletcheros?) played to a jam-packed Toad audience on Saturday night, proving that it’s still possible to draw a crowd during this particularly sleepy time in the show calendar.

Like Memorial Day and Labor Day, Fourth of July weekend is a time when a lot of people either get out of town or hang around the backyard grill. They don’t typically flock to clubs. But Los Fletcheros, the “house band” of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), came with their own built-in fan base: all their fellow classmates and supporters at the graduate department.

While the band performed perfectly serviceable covers of classics like the Beatles’ “Something” and the Rolling Stones’ “Beast of Burden,” the real reason that classmates turned up for the show was to witness the legacy of Los Fletcheros ride again. Legend has it that the band has been active, with rotating membership, at the Fletcher School for three decades, and that it started out as a mariachi band. Hence, the name “Los Fletcheros,” I guess.

Thirty years is a long time to maintain a tradition as absurd as a departmental cover band. It’s a beautiful thing.

Does that band name feel a little racist in 2025 though? I don’t know. Hard to read the room these days. Off the top of my head, I can think of Yo La Tengo and Los Campesinos! as other examples of bands with no Hispanics or Latinos that nevertheless chose a Spanish band name. Because they thought it was… funny.

If they got a do-over tomorrow, would they pick the same name?

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