The phrase “ni de aquí, ni de allá” — Spanish for “not from here, nor from there” — has echoed in my mind for as long as I can remember. I'm a first-generation Mexican American whose family didn't always adhere to traditional Mexican customs because of acculturation and assimilation. I only ever spoke English with my dad — who learned the language before he even moved to the States. And instead of taking us to church on Sundays, my dad went to work and my mom took a typing class to advance her career.
I understood my parents' decision to immerse us in U.S. culture, but when I spoke to my cousins in Mexico who excitedly told me about going to bailes or seeing Banda MS in concert, I felt I was missing out. I yearned to share these experiences with them, but I couldn't relate. At the same time, I wasn't exactly connecting with my non-Latine classmates, either. Early on, I understood that, as the 1997 classic film Selena explained, being Mexican American meant I had to be "more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans.”
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But with the revival of regional Mexican music — especially the rise of corridors tumbados, which is heavily influenced by U.S. hip-hop — I’ve found a new way to tap into my Mexican roots. And it's not just because I’m listening to songs that remind me of spending time in México as a child or that played as my Abuelita Lupita deep-cleaned her home; it’s because the music gives way for me to make more meaningful connections with my Mexican family.
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"The music gives way for me to make more meaningful connections with my Mexican family."
Natalie Arroyo Camacho
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I spent the first two weeks of November 2023 in México — splitting time between my mom’s hometown of Jalisco and Colima, where my dad’s family lives. Whether we were listening to Peso Pluma, Fuerza Regida, Natanael Cano, Chiquis Rivera, or Becky G’s new album, bumping this music made me feel closer to my Mexican cousins.
My 18-year-old cousin on my paternal side, Kenia Cosio Camacho, agrees. Initially, she thought I wouldn’t like regional Mexican music because of my U.S. upbringing. And she was sort of right. In college, I listened to banda, and I couldn’t get into it, but corridos tumbados opened a new world for me. “When I realized that you did, I said, ‘You’re my people,’ because I also like that type of music,” she told me. “For you to like it, it was like we clicked.”
The basis of regional Mexican music has always been the same. “Whether it’s norteño music, Texas Mexican conjunto music, mariachi, banda, rancheras, or corridos, this is a world of knowledge and storytelling,” Estevan Azcona, PhD, an ethnomusicologist and professor at the University of Arizona’s Southwest Center, tells Refinery29 Somos.
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"Whether it’s norteño music, Texas Mexican conjunto music, mariachi, banda, rancheras, or corridos, this is a world of knowledge and storytelling."
Estevan Azcona
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Moreover, licensed bilingual psychologist, speaker, and writer Lisette Sanchez, PhD, says that music is often a way for people to find common ground. “When you're living in another country, you have such a different experience,” Dr. Sanchez tells Somos. “So when you go back to México and visit family, you can feel very disconnected. It can be hard to engage and it can feel like you’re only able to have very surface-level conversations.”
When we find a shared interest — like listening to regional Mexican music, in my case — it can help bring us closer and provide avenues for more open and serious conversations based on our shared experiences. Mexican music icons of the past resonated with older generations, but because I saw that as "my mom's music," they never spoke to me. However, the artists shaping the regional Mexican genre today draw from hip-hop, which is my favorite genre. They are also telling stories about being the eldest in the family and enjoying the bad times as much as the good ones, experiences my Mexican cousins and I can bond over.
For instance, my cousin Kenia and I recently listened to “Chanel” by Becky G and Peso Pluma — a song about heartbreak and keeping your distance from a love that’s no good for you. Soon after, we started talking about our own love lives. She shared stories about people she'd been dating and why they ended things. I told her about people who had made me feel similarly.
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"When we find a shared interest — like listening to regional Mexican music, in my case — it can help bring us closer and provide avenues for more open and serious conversations based on our shared experiences."
NATALIE ARROYO CAMACHO
”
Notably, Becky G represents me — a bilingual Mexican American who feels strong ties to both of those communities. And Peso Pluma represents my cousin — a monolingual Spanish speaker born and raised in Mexico who doesn’t have many ties to the United States. I'm thankful that such a song exists, as listening to it allowed my cousin and me to get to know each other better.
And this isn’t a one-time experience for me. Listening to the new wave of regional Mexican music also brought me closer to one of my maternal cousins, 28-year-old architect Cristopher “Brandon” Villalvazo Arroyo. When we were at lunch, I belted out, "Igualito a mi apá, hasta en los mismos gustos" (Just like my dad, even in the same tastes), the opening lyrics to a Fuerza Regida and Peso Pluma song.
My cousin snapped his neck to look at me, sucking his teeth as if to say, "no mames, güey."
“You know that song,” he asked.
I laughed before asking, “Yeah, why wouldn't I?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “You just seem more like the type to listen to Sam Smith.”
We both laughed.
A week later, I stayed with him and his brother in their hometown of Ciudad Guzmán. As we drove around, we listened exclusively to regional Mexican music. They introduced me to “Harley Quinn” by Fuerza Regida, a Mexican-American band whose members grew up about an hour northeast of my hometown of Los Angeles. We also listened to songs about romantic connections, like “Que Onda” by Calle 24, Chino Pacas, and Fuerza Regida.
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The lyrics of these songs come down to people’s stories, strifes, and struggles. So many of these rolas talk about having, losing, and conceptualizing love. That opened up a greater conversation between Brandon and me.
Instead of sticking to our usual, “¿Cómo has estado?” we talked about hard-hitting topics, like what we would do if we found out our ex had a new boo and how we would react if a friend we liked romantically started dating someone else. Because of regional Mexican music, we were no longer restricted to small talk. We were vulnerable with each other, expressing what we wanted out of life and love — just like in the songs.
I posed a question to Brandon via an Instagram DM: “Honestly, I feel like because I knew some regional Mexican songs, we had more real conversations. Did you also feel that?” He responded, in Spanish: “Yes, of course. Whenever you share a culture, it’s easier to start conversations — whether that be through food, customs, or music. Sharing certain tastes makes you closer to people and it makes bonding easier.”
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"The lyrics of these songs come down to people’s stories, strifes, and struggles."
NATALIE ARROYO CAMACHO
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I know my experiences aren’t just a fluke. Other Chicanas told me that they feel closer to their own Mexican family members because they listen to regional Mexican music.
Tiara Hernandez, a graduate student at California State University, Northridge, has also felt more connected to her brother as a result. He introduced her to regional Mexican music — which she started listening to as an adult.
“It’s interesting that my brother got me into this because he doesn't really speak or understand Spanish very well,” Hernandez tells Somos. “I feel that the artists making this music are uniting Mexico and U.S. Mexican Americans. They're adding us to and including us in their culture.”
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These connections aren’t only intragenerational — we aren’t just getting closer to relatives from the same generation, like cousins or siblings. Regional Mexican also cultivates intragenerational connections — it brings people closer to their children, their parents, and their grandparents.
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"I feel that the artists making this music are uniting Mexico and U.S. Mexican Americans. They're adding us to and including us in their culture."
Tiara Hernandez
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For Natalie García, a first-gen Chicana and founder of the series Chicana in the City, listening to regional Mexican makes her feel more connected to her parents, who emigrated from Michoacán and Jalisco in the 1970s. “It’s made me appreciate how they ensured that we kept our Mexican cultura alive — even though it was a struggle and assimilation was [necessary] back then,” she says.
Blasting Grupo Frontera has also strengthened her bond with her daughter. “I love to see the new generation take up space,” García says. “My 12-year-old daughter is really into regional Mexican. For me, it’s special to see the generations come together. My daughter is an evolved version of my parents and me — and regional music plays a big role in that.”
For Jacqueline Alcalá — a graduate student at California State University, Long Beach — traditional regional Mexican music gave her a new way to connect to her late grandmother. The two would play a game based on older regional songs.
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"It’s special to see the generations come together."
Natalie García
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One day, over a beer, Alcalá asked her grandma a question about “Laurita Garza” by Los Invasores de Nuevo León featuring Los Tucanes de Tijuana. The 1981 song follows Laurita, who murders her boyfriend because he leaves her for another woman. Alcalá asked her grandma what she thought Laurita did for a living. Being intimately familiar with that song, her grandma swiftly responded: “Era maestra.”
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“It was a really good bonding moment for us, and it’s also one of the last memories that I have of her because she recently passed,” Alcalá tells Somos. “It's something that I carry with me. Every time I listen to those specific songs that we used to play the game with, I remember her, and I remember our times together.”
Adriana Alejandre, LMFT, trauma therapist and founder of Latinx Therapy, is not at all surprised by Alcalá’s sweet memories. “We come from a collectivistic culture where we prioritize other people as well as coming together, traditions, and identity,” Alejandre said. “Music falls squarely into those categories.”
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"We come from a collectivistic culture where we prioritize other people as well as coming together, traditions, and identity. "Music falls squarely into those categories."
Adriana Alejandre, LMFT
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And you don’t even need to be fluent in Spanish for these songs to resonate with you.
“I think that there are very genetic dispositions [when it comes to] listening to music and feeling it even though you don't understand it,” Alejandre tells Somos. “Listening to music is one way that our ancestors speak through us. Our ancestors are helping us to embrace our culture.”
Despite the name, regional Mexican music is more about the music and less about the region. “What it really means is music of the Mexican people,” says Teresita Lozano, PhD, professor of musicology and ethnomusicology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. “Regional music, ironically, is not limited to [a] physical region.
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"When it comes to regional Mexican music, the border is immaterial."
ESTEVAN AZCONA
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“Mexico, when it comes to identity and culture, is really not limited by the geopolitical borders. Américo Paredes coined a concept called ‘Greater Mexico,’ which sees Mexico as a space in which any Mexican community is found.”
Now, I feel like I am from here y de allá. I can finally push the restrictive axiom to the side and replace it with one that Dr. Azcona so eloquently put together: “When it comes to regional Mexican music, the border is immaterial.”
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