DOWNEY, Calif. — With every chord he plays, Roberto Carlos delivers a bit of romance and for those of us who grew up listening to bolero music, also a bit of nostalgia.

“Boleros reminds me of my parents, reminds me of my upbringing, the times that I’ve been sad or in love,” Carlos said.

The bolero is a love song that originated in Cuba but became popular among Mexican composers in the 1940s. For Carlos, Boleros have always been a part of his life. He learned to play music as a child and his father wanted to find a hobby for Carlos and his brother, so he had a friend teach them to play. Once they learned, they started performing on Olvera Street.

“It was every weekend,” Carlos explained. “My dad said, ‘Hey, you guys know music,’ we had 20-songs in our repertoire. He said ‘you guys know a few songs, you guys go out and play, don’t stay inside because you’ll never learn anything in the house, it’s better if you go out and play, you’ll meet people, perform, you’ll learn so much.’”

Soon after the brothers started performing at parties, Carlos’ mother and father would wait for their children outside in their van. “That was kind of our weekend hustle,” he said.

Through those years, as he learned to love music, he also lived under the looming threat of deportation.

“It’s a lot of fear and emotions. I think that’s one side of it. The other side of being undocumented is that it makes you strong, it makes you strong, it makes you appreciate things in life,” Carlos said.

Carlos said music, specifically boleros, helped him through some of the most difficult moments in his life. It’s the reason he created Boleros De Noche, a concert series that was first held at an art gallery in 2015.

“At one point I said, I want to gather people, I want to gather people that love bolero music and I know there’s people out there that could get in one room and appreciate this music and talk about the songs and talk about the history,” Carlos said.

Now, the concert series is in its sixth year and will be held at the Ford Theatre on Aug. 6. It’s grown from a capacity of 70 people to more than a thousand, and he hopes it will continue to grow.

“Music has been an outlet for my pain, my passion for my love, for my story,” Carlos said.

Not just an outlet, but also a tool to help share his story.

For tickets to Boleros de Noche log onto theford.com