Regional Goes Global, Part 1: Finding Peso Pluma's music revolution in Nashville
PESO PLUMA: La revolución Mexicana en la música, viejo, tiene nombre y se llama Peso Pluma. Viejo, quiero cantarles un corrido del álbum de Génesis. Esto se llama "Rubicón."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ANAMARIA SAYRE, HOST:
He just said that the Mexican music revolution has a name, and that name is Peso Pluma. And people really ate that up.
PLUMA: (Singing) También que soy culero…
SAYRE: I love this song.
PLUMA: (Singing) No les pongo atención y muy poco les creo...
FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:
From NPR Music, this is ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras.
SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Sayre. Let the chisme begin.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PLUMA: De tour en los Estados Unidos, en mi primer tour.
SAYRE: Peso Pluma doesn't look like a revolutionary. He's 24 years old, scrawny, kind of unassuming.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PLUMA: La primera vez en Nashville, Tenn., viejo.
(CHEERING)
PLUMA: Siempre se dice que la primera vez es mágica, viejo.
SAYRE: But here he is, standing in front of a roaring crowd of thousands of Latinos braving a torrential rainstorm in the capital of country music - Nashville, Tenn.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PLUMA: Estoy seguro de que esta noche nunca se les va a olvidar, viejo. Nunca.
(CHEERING)
PLUMA: Porque es la primera vez que van a presenciar el concierto de la puta doble pe, viejo.
(CHEERING)
SAYRE: Standing there in that crowd in Nashville, the idea that he was the image of a revolution, it felt very real...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON")
JIMMY FALLON: Here with his U.S. TV debut, performing the No. 1 Latin song in the country...
SAYRE: As real as it did when Peso Pluma popped up on my TV screen this past June...
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON")
FALLON: ...Give it up for Peso Pluma.
(CHEERING)
SAYRE: ...Performing his hit "Ella Baila Sola" on "The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon."
(SOUNDBITE OF PESO PLUMA SONG, "ELLA BAILA SOLA")
SAYRE: This song was instantly all over social media. On TikTok...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I want to say, watching Latinos do those things like perform on "Tonight Show," "Late Show," makes me so proud.
SAYRE: ...Fans everywhere paid homage, doing their own covers of the song in all different styles. And I never thought I'd say this, but there was even a Kidz Bop cover of "Ella Baila Sola."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ELLA BAILA SOLA")
KIDZ BOP KIDS: (Singing) Cómo baila…
SAYRE: I heard Peso Pluma say it on that stormy night in Nashville - música Mexicana, or regional Mexican music, isn't just a movement. It is a revolution. We've been talking about the rise of Mexican regional music for a while now.
CONTRERAS: And not just Peso Pluma.
SAYRE: We've talked about it. We've discussed it. We've checked out the chisme around it.
CONTRERAS: So we're going to spend the next three episodes of ALT.LATINO trying to answer the question we've been asking ourselves.
SAYRE: Why this music, and why now? Why is it dominating the music charts, and why are people everywhere - from Nashville to Puerto Rico - listening to this updated form of Mexican folk music? We're trying to understand how a new generation of Mexican and Mexican American kids are coming of age through the music of past generations, embracing music of the 19th century in the 21st century.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONTRERAS: OK, Ana, I want to take you a few decades back to my earliest memories of this music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SERGIO CARDENAS RODRIQUEZ AND RAFAEL ESPARZA-RUIZ'S "FIESTA EN EL RANCHO")
CONTRERAS: I used to hear it on the radio every morning on Spanish-language radio stations in Sacramento, Calif., where I grew up. This Mexican music, or what we called Mexican music - lots of mariachis and tons of conjuntos with accordions - this is around 1968, 1969, when I was about 10 years old. We'd be listening to Mexican music while my mom cooked breakfast for my dad, and then my brothers and I would get up and get ready for school.
(SOUNDBITE OF SERGIO CARDENAS RODRIQUEZ AND RAFAEL ESPARZA-RUIZ'S "FIESTA EN EL RANCHO")
CONTRERAS: Regional Mexican music, or música Mexicana or música regional - you might hear it referred to by all of these names - has been around since the late 1800s.
(SOUNDBITE OF PEDRO INFANTE SONG, "CIEN AÑOS"
CONTRERAS: And for decades it was just that - regional. Then came la época de oro, the golden era of Mexican cinema and music in the 1940s and '50s. And we're talking the greats, los mero mero - singers like Pedro Infante...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CIEN AÑOS")
PEDRO INFANTE: (Singing) Pasaste a mí lado.
CONTRERAS: ...And Jorge Negrete.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YO SOY MEXICANO")
JORGE NEGRETE: (Singing) Yo soy Mexicano y orgullo lo tengo.
CONTRERAS: They were international stars. They introduced mariachi and ranchera songs, those deeply emotional lyrics backed by the traditional mariachi folk ensemble, to a worldwide audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "YO SOY MEXICANO")
NEGRETE: (Singing) Sostengo.
CONTRERAS: In the late 1950s on this side of the border, Ritchie Valens, a young Chicano from Pacoima, Calif., reinvented a Mexican son jarocho classic called "La Bamba."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA BAMBA")
EL JAROCHO: (Singing) Para bailar La Bamba se necesita una poca de gracia y otra cosita. Ay, arriba, arriba y arriba, ay. Yo no soy marinero, por ti seré.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA BAMBA")
RITCHIE VALENS: (Singing) Bamba, bamba, bamba, bamba, bamba, bamba.
CONTRERAS: And three decades later, another young chicana, Selena Quintanilla, electrified Mexican cumbia, again placing regional music in front of a much larger audience.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COMO LA FLOR")
SELENA: (Singing) Ay, cómo me duele. Ay, cómo me duele.
SAYRE: Before we keep going, I think we should clarify that the term regional Mexican music is a giant umbrella term, and it's made up of many different styles.
CONTRERAS: It's also important to note that while música Mexicana has been in the global spotlight many times in the past, it's still a genre that has been looked down upon because it's rural Mexican music, folk music, música del pueblo, music of the people.
SAYRE: Artists like Selena and Ritchie went big by reinterpreting different styles of regional Mexican music. But today's artists are sticking with traditional regional music and making that exciting, drawing young listeners in on both sides of the border.
(SOUNDBITE OF YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA SONG, "SOY EL UNICO")
CONTRERAS: So it's really amazing to see younger artists, like Yahritza Y Su Esencia, a Mexican-American sibling trio from Yakima, Wash., performing sierreños with their emotional ballads.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOY EL UNICO")
YAHRITZA Y SU ESENCIA: (Singing) Qué triste es amar a otra persona que no te sepa valorar.
CONTRERAS: There's also Natanael Cano, who's dubbed as the originator of corridos tumbados.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AMOR TUMBADO")
NATANAEL CANO: (Singing) Para ser directo, no me arrepiento, cosas de la vida o de la mía.
CONTRERAS: And DannyLux, who is doing a popular sireño thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRISTEZA Y TRAICION")
DANNYLUX: (Singing) Recuerdo cuando yo entregaba todo mi corazón.
CONTRERAS: They all reclaim the music and make it proudly.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TRISTEZA Y TRAICION")
DANNYLUX: (Singing) Lo único que yo recibía fue tristeza y traición.
CONTRERAS: Now, there's always more names to include, but I also want to mention Grupo Frontera and Fuerza Regida, who are all doing their own thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BEBE DAME")
GRUPO FRONTERA AND FUERZA REGIDA: (Singing) Tengo tiempo pensando en los dos. Si podemos arreglar la situación.
SAYRE: And, of course, there's Peso Pluma...
(SOUNDBITE OF PESO PLUMA SONG, "77")
SAYRE: ...Who we've, obviously, already mentioned. He's kind of the face of this movement. I don't want to be cliche about it, Felix, but he's so defiant.
CONTRERAS: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "77")
PLUMA: (Singing) Con los plebones en TJ, yo aquí ando…
SAYRE: Like, he's defiant in what he produces, in what he puts out, in his messaging, in his sound.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "77")
PLUMA: (Singing) Los cholos son aliados, 77...
SAYRE: So, Felix, you and I are both megafans (laughter).
CONTRERAS: OK, megafans - that's a stretch, but go ahead. Keep going.
(LAUGHTER)
SAYRE: And we wanted to find our people. We decided we needed to go catch Peso Pluma on his first U.S. tour.
CONTRERAS: So we headed to Nashville.
(SOUNDBITE OF HORN BLOWING)
SAYRE: But why that city?
CONTRERAS: Well, Nashville became the capital of country music almost 100 years ago, when a radio program called the Grand Ole Opry started broadcasting from Nashville throughout the region.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yes, it's the Grand Ole Opry, starting on a network of stations that reaches all the way from the Mexican border to the mountains of Virginia.
SAYRE: Felix, I know Nashville matters for country music, but regional? I mean, how many Mexicans are in Nashville listening to regional Mexican music? And Peso Pluma wasn't just hitting Nashville - more than Nashville, Felix - Indiana, Georgia, Arkansas.
CONTRERAS: Peso Pluma's tour dates were like a road map of where Latino immigrants are becoming part of the social fabric of the U.S. Midwest and South.
SAYRE: We wanted to meet the community that is welcoming Peso Pluma to Nashville - people connecting with Mexico through the music. Would meeting Peso Pluma's Nashville superfans help explain the magnitude of this explosion? Were they the reason our music is topping the charts?
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL RINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Paletas de piña, de coco...
SAYRE: When we got to Nashville, everyone told us we had to go check out a place called Plaza Mariachi.
CONTRERAS: And how could you go wrong with a place called Plaza Mariachi if we're looking for Mexican music, right?
SAYRE: You have a stage with a man solo trumpet performing to all kinds of backing instrumentals of the classics. It's a market. There's a grocery store. There's all these vendedores selling, like, quince dresses and jewelry and all these things. But it's really more community center than anything.
DIANE JANBAKSH: When you walk in the doors, you hopefully feel like you've been transported into, like, a little Mexican pueblo. My name is Diane Janbaksh, and I'm owner of Plaza Mariachi and also executive director for the Hispanic Family Foundation.
SAYRE: We met Diane at the plaza on a Friday afternoon, when the place wasn't quite bustling yet. But there were quite a few tables set up, so it looked like they were prepping for a very busy evening. And when she told me that this giant building used to be a grocery store, it made so much more sense to me.
JANBAKSH: This was my neighborhood Kroger, and we're sitting where the back freezers and the holding refrigerators were. And this property was actually sitting vacant for quite a while. So when it became available, you know, we jumped on it.
CONTRERAS: The rebirth of a grocery store as a cultural center is appropriate when you consider that the waves of immigrants from Latin America are remaking many parts of the Midwest and South of the U.S.
SAYRE: Diane told me that their fiesta patria event for Mexico's independence in September usually gets anywhere from 17- to 20,000 people inside the center as well as outside in the parking lot.
CONTRERAS: Are you sure it's 17,000?
SAYRE: Yeah. Yeah, it's 17,000 people in your local Safeway, Felix.
CONTRERAS: I'm trying to imagine that in my local grocery store. There's no way. Wow.
SAYRE: But she told me that this celebration of Latinidad and Mexican-ness (ph) wasn't always like this.
JANBAKSH: I ended up here because my mother, who is Mexican, and my father, who is Irish American - they ended up moving to Nashville in 1985. When we moved here, we were probably one of maybe 50 Hispanic or mixed Hispanic families in Nashville. That was it. Anytime we ran into someone that spoke Spanish, we lost our minds. We were like, oh, my gosh. Where are you from? You know, we would speak in Spanish. Like, it was crazy.
SAYRE: Diane said she felt like she stood out in school because she was Mexican. She was extremely aware of it, and even if she wasn't, the other kids were.
JANBAKSH: Some people get bullied, and, you know, they can take things negatively. But what I did is just taking pride in who I was, and I was always going to make a point to be proud of my heritage and expose people to it as much as I could. And if they weren't cool with it, well, they weren't.
SAYRE: One day when she was in seventh grade...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOS LAURELES")
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: 'Ora, linda, cántale bonito como sabes.
JANBAKSH: I sang a mariachi song at the talent show with a family friend who played guitar. I sang a song called "Los Laureles."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOS LAURELES")
LINDA RONSTADT: (Singing) Ay, qué laureles tan verdes. Qué rosas tan encendidas.
SAYRE: OK, this is Linda Ronstadt's version, but we're assuming teenage Diane sounded just like this.
JANBAKSH: And it went really well. I was happy with it (laughter). But the kids were like, what is she doing? Like, what is this? They'd never heard it before. So yeah. And then, of course, you know, once we built this place, I wanted to make sure that we included the music, the food, the art, the culture, you know, everything that we could possibly throw into an experience for people that would make them maybe not be so hesitant or afraid to either travel or experience a Latin American country or interact with people that maybe didn't look like them or speak like them.
SAYRE: As an adult, Diane is trying to make her community more welcoming for immigrants who continue to arrive in cities like Nashville. Fact - according to stats from both the U.S. census and the Nashville Chamber of Commerce from 2022, the overall Latino population of Nashville is just above 10%, but the population of school-aged children is roughly 29%. The census also predicts that by 2040, Latinos will be the largest minority group in central Tennessee, making it a community that has the potential to shape the way Nashville continues to change.
JANBAKSH: So that means a lot of Hispanic music. And we've seen that with the concerts that we've hosted here.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
VICTOR LEONEL ESPARZA: I feel so excited. Yeah. Maybe I'm too emotional, but I fall in love with this music.
SAYRE: Victor Leonel Esparza is a bandleader in Nashville. He started out playing guitar in restaurants and singing boleros by himself, but he soon fell under the spell of regional Mexican music.
ESPARZA: Everything changed. Everything changed because the people react more excited with the music. Not only the Mexican community, but El Salvador, Honduras, Colombia and other communities - they enjoy this kind of music. And that didn't happen with my guitar.
SAYRE: So he formed Arrasadora Banda Tenaz, one of the many local bands that play in Plaza Mariachi, finding musicians among his fellow Mexican immigrants.
ESPARZA: I knew someone, and he told me he play timbales. That's very particular instrument for a brass band, the Sinaloa-style brass band. And then I asked him, you know anyone that play wind instruments trumpet, trombones, clarinets and stuff? And he said, yeah, I know the whole band. Wow, really? I'm a singer, so let's do something, yeah.
SAYRE: Leonel told me their mission is to bring a little bit of Mexico to Nashville. And I just kept thinking that it was so cool to be in a place in the South of the United States that could easily be a small town in Mexico.
CONTRERAS: I think it's important for a place like Plaza Mariachi to exist, not just in Nashville but anywhere in the United States where the Mexican population is increasing. It reflects the positive impact that the community is having, and it's right there in the music.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing, inaudible).
SAYRE: But, Felix, we flew all the way to Nashville and we still hadn't met them yet.
CONTRERAS: Who, Peso Pluma?
SAYRE: No, the superfans, the people taking this music to the top of the charts. I wanted to see some real Peso Pluma love. That's coming up after the break.
CONTRERAS: And we're back.
DIANA MEDINA: Listen, I feel like this is the vibe for tonight, wearing my jeans, my (inaudible) jeans.
SAYRE: The next day, Saturday, was Peso Pluma day.
MEDINA: And then I'll probably wear a hat, too.
SAYRE: Seriously? Oh, my God. Wait, can I see it?
MEDINA: If I can find it. Let me see. I'm going to go unload this (ph).
SAYRE: That's Diana Medina (ph).
MEDINA: Like everybody in Tennessee, you have to have a guitar in your closet.
SAYRE: Like everybody in Tennessee.
MEDINA: No, it's not here. OK. Oh, I don't know where it is.
SAYRE: She's 22 years old and Nashville-born, though she spent some of her childhood in Mexico before coming to the Southern U.S. at 12 years old.
MEDINA: Found it.
SAYRE: Felix and I met up with Diana and her family in their home just outside of Nashville a couple of hours before the show.
MEDINA: I have to straighten my hair and curl it a little bit.
SAYRE: While Felix is hanging with her dad and uncle downstairs, Diana and I are seated on her childhood bed, trying to wrangle her red-streaked hair into cooperating for the Peso Pluma show tonight. She told me the music helped pave her way into a life as an American teenager.
MEDINA: I was trying to learn English, so I was trying to listen to music in English. It was, like, 5 Seconds Of Summer, One Direction, like, Coldplay...
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: ...All those bands - to listen to the lyrics and, like, also see them. So, like, I was always on YouTube reading lyrics.
SAYRE: How did you feel about being Mexican when you got here?
MEDINA: I didn't really feel that Mexican because when I was in Mexico, like, everybody in school knew that I was born in the United States. So they, like - they would call me gringa or whatever. And I'm like, well, I don't look like a gringa but whatever. And when I came here, it's like, nobody's going to call me gringa because look at me. I don't look like a gringa. So I think it's, like, something that I've always felt in my life, like, out of place. So honestly it was no different when I moved here.
SAYRE: So you can carry on. I feel like I'm distracting you from your - the important work. I'm like, the most important thing we're doing right now is making you look good for Peso Pluma. The rest of this is just whatever.
As she was getting ready, she finally dishes out a big confession. Even though she's going to the show tonight, she's not the resident Peso Pluma fan in the house.
MEDINA: I thought his voice was very peculiar, like the raspiness (ph) of it. I was like, OK, I like this. It's something different.
SAYRE: And then?
MEDINA: And then I just started listening to it a lot.
SAYRE: Why?
MEDINA: My dad plays it all the time. Like, if y'all weren't here, my dad would be playing music right now.
SAYRE: Seriously?
MEDINA: Yeah.
SAYRE: Wow.
MEDINA: He comes - like, he put this new - like, a big stereo in his car, and he just, like - I can hear him when he comes through the neighborhood. Like, ugh, my dad.
SAYRE: How do you feel when you hear that? Are you like...
MEDINA: I love it. I love when...
SAYRE: You love it?
MEDINA: Yeah. I love seeing my dad happy. Music definitely makes him happy - or in connecting with his brother in, like, a simple way, just like music. 'Cause my uncle is a superfan over there. He was the one that wanted to go to the concert in the first place. I told my dad about it and he was like, we should go. 'Cause my dad is always like, I'm too old for this. I'm like, you don't look too old for this.
PABLO: Si en realidad tuvieras oportunidad de ir al concierto, vas a verte como los jóvenes menores de veinte. Yo me siento viejo al ir, pero yo fui porque a mi hermano le gusta mucho Peso Pluma.
CONTRERAS: It's confirmed. Diana's Uncle Luis (ph) is the superfan. And Pablo (ph), Diana's dad, comes in at No. 2. And he told me he's excited to go to the show with his brother, but that he does feel a little old going to the show with a bunch of 20-somethings. So we're sitting on the porch. The guys had paint on their clothes, having just finished a construction job. We crack a beer and we talked.
PABLO: ¿Escucharon eso?
CONTRERAS: They were catching up on some Mexican music gossip, like the beef between Fuerza Regida and Peso Pluma over who has more views.
LUIS ENRIQUE: Para ver quién tiene más vistas.
PABLO: ¿Con quién? ¿Con (inaudible)?
ENRIQUE: No, con (inaudible), con Fuerza Regida.
CONTRERAS: Tío Luis was definitely the one in the know.
ENRIQUE: Tiene mejor carisma, su música tiene más sentido, pues.
MEDINA: So funny - they're so funny together, you know?
SAYRE: For Diana, it seems like those little moments like the one you witnessed, Felix - where her dad is having fun with his brother and excited to go to the show - are what really make Peso Pluma's music matter to her. Diana is super sensitive to the hardships that her dad has experienced as an immigrant in Nashville. Maybe that's why the music is so important to her.
So did your dad move here before you moved here?
MEDINA: Oh, yeah. He's been living here a little bit before - since I was - I think he moved here the first time in, like, '96 and started working, sent money to Mexico.
SAYRE: Does he ever talk about - it was like when he originally came here?
MEDINA: Oh, yeah. I mean, they're sad stories.
SAYRE: Yeah. Like what?
MEDINA: Like the types of jobs he had to do and, like, everything that he went through. He lived in Washington for a little bit, too.
SAYRE: What kinds of things would he talk about going through - what kinds of jobs?
MEDINA: Like, abusive jobs. Like, there was this one place - I think it was here or in Washington - where he fell. Oh, my God. Wait a minute.
SAYRE: It's OK.
MEDINA: He fell, and he broke his arm. I don't think they gave him any money for it.
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: Yeah. It was, like, outside in the parking lot of his job. He fell. He has, like, this big scar right here.
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: Yeah.
SAYRE: Why is that - thinking about that making you so emotional right now?
MEDINA: 'Cause he's worked so hard.
SAYRE: And you've always seen him working hard your whole life.
MEDINA: Yeah. Yeah. That's - maybe that's why I work all the time, too.
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: Yeah.
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: He works too much.
SAYRE: Yeah.
MEDINA: But it's OK. One day he won't have to.
SAYRE: Do your makeup. I'm sorry. I'm distracting you. I'm, like, making you cry.
MEDINA: Oh, it's OK.
SAYRE: It's good you haven't done your eyeshadow yet.
CONTRERAS: Way to go, Ana. Way to make people like me cry, man.
SAYRE: I'm making everyone cry apparently.
CONTRERAS: It really seems like Diana recognizes and understands the sacrifices that her dad had to make.
SAYRE: She said that when she had the chance to move to Nashville, she was just so happy to get to see him every day. She told me her dad has his own tile company now, and things do feel more stable. Last year, his brother Luis Enrique (ph) moved to Nashville, and he was able to give him a job.
MEDINA: When me and my sister talk about him moving to another state, it's, like, impossible. My dad loves being here. He's always been here. He's lived in other states, but mostly here. I don't know what it is. Maybe - I don't know if it's like the construction job is good here or something about Tennessee. A lot of his friends live here too, from our hometown. So that's also, like, a big influence of, like, not wanting to move anywhere else.
SAYRE: As we kept talking, Diana was nice enough to let me hang around and have the amazing honor of helping her put her outfit together for the show.
Ooh, Diana.
MEDINA: I was thinking of wearing these boots, and I have this Mexican hat.
SAYRE: OK, this is awesome.
MEDINA: Ese lo agarré de México.
SAYRE: You're like - I was - when you said a hat, I was thinking, like, cowboy hat.
MEDINA: Oh, no.
SAYRE: But you're, like, repping Mexico tonight.
MEDINA: Yeah.
SAYRE: You got the eagle, the flag.
CONTRERAS: Everybody has a different reason for being attracted to the music, but it all comes down to identity. The fans are proud of their identity, and this is one way that expresses that identity. Plus, you get the fashion - right? - the boots, the hat, the jeans, all that stuff, right?
SAYRE: Well, you know, Felix, I have dabbled. If you'll remember, I purchased my very own cowboy boots in Nashville. I got them the day after the show. I was feeling very inspired.
CONTRERAS: Yes, you did.
SAYRE: Before we ended the interview, Diana mentioned one last thing about the Peso Pluma concert.
MEDINA: I have a cousin that's going, and she's like - she just turned 15. And she is Mexican American but also Salvadorian. So I feel like her growing up and listening to this music and seeing everybody accept it is definitely going to make a difference to - like, she's the same age that I was when I was into all these English bands, and she is into regional Mexicano. So it's crazy for me to see. Like, she listens to it and, like, her style, too - like, the music does not just impact about, like, what she listens to on the daily but also, like, how she dresses or, like, how she talks or, like, her identity of being Mexican. Like, yeah, I love it because I don't think she's ever been to Mexico. And she's very proud of being, you know, Mexican.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SAYRE: I feel as though this music represents being Mexican American, wanting to love your Mexican self and struggling to show that.
CONTRERAS: Whether it's being played by Peso Pluma, whether it's being played by the band in Nashville, all over - that's one of the things that we discovered in doing this series, is that the music has this profound effect on the fans. And I think that we lose that when we're talking about the artists and the popularity of the artists. It's really always, always about the music. It's really always about the fans.
SAYRE: There's just so many connective points for everyone. Everyone finds something to love within this music, and I think it's because, I don't know, we've never been so visible in this country like we are right now.
CONTRERAS: And you know, Ana, I bet you there were a ton of people going to the concert that night who felt the same way.
SAYRE: Oh, man, Felix. The vibes that night were insane. People were just energized.
(CROSSTALK)
SAYRE: There was a baby behind me at the show - couldn't have been over a year, full, white earmuffs on her little forehead, bumping along to corrido rhythms between Mom and Dad. What would it feel like to be raised in a world where corridos are celebrated in full view, at full volume, with a person like Peso Pluma championing your culture, imploring the world to pay attention? It's exhilarating to think of the impact. It was like they knew they were witnessing something historic. And like we heard at the very start of this episode...
(CHEERING)
SAYRE: ...They were.
PLUMA: La revolución Mexicana en la música, viejo, tiene nombre y se llama Peso Pluma.
SAYRE: He just said that the Mexican music revolution has a name, and that name is Peso Pluma. And people really ate that up. I love this song.
The Latino crowd was buzzing with energy. Pangs of Spanish and country-tinged English floated in the humid air. Everyone just seemed excited, maybe almost even grateful to be there. I had to look around and wonder how many of them had been in a crowd of this many Latinos in their life. They're focused on one man, but this moment wasn't made by him. It was made by people like Diane, who built Plaza Mariachi, spending a lifetime trying to create spaces like this. The effort of so many intentional hands, all building to this moment - a new era of America was born out of brass and 12 strings.
PLUMA: (Inaudible).
SAYRE: On this night and this night alone stands the Ascend Amphitheater in shining contrast, an act of resistance so brilliant, so undeniable that lightning struck and thunder roared. In Nashville and in other places like it across the country, they and the people who just got here, like Diana and her dad, and their tireless efforts every day to be seen to work a little harder or sing a little louder in this country - they made it possible for Peso Pluma to shine that night, crossing the border and growing our community in masses, made it possible for regional Mexican artists to sell out an auditorium in the heart of the Southern United States, steps from Broadway and the land of honky-tonk.
PLUMA: Arriba, México.
SAYRE: He just raised the Mexican flag, and everyone went...
PLUMA: Muchísimas gracias.
(CHEERING)
PLUMA: Nos corren, no nos vamos, viejo. Nos lo llevamos en el corazón, Nashville, Tenn., viejo.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CONTRERAS: But what about the people leading this revolution, paving a way for millions of Mexican American immigrant kids to love who they are? OK, sure. There's Peso Pluma and so many other artists from Mexico. What about the artists born here who understand the in-betweenness (ph) - being ni de aquí o ni de allá - and employ their grandparents' music to boldly proclaim who they are in the most visible way, no matter the cost or consequences?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Chanting, inaudible).
CONTRERAS: One thing we know for sure is that people are listening to and making this music in communities all around the U.S. In the next episode of this series about regional Mexican music, we'll travel to, of all places, a small agricultural city in Washington state.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #5: That's Mount Rainier. And then there's another one that's over there, and that's Mount Saint Helens, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #6: I don't even know my mountains.
CONTRERAS: What about the living, breathing banda music tradition in Mexico? It doesn't live in a box or a vacuum. It doesn't stand still or silent when people cross the border with it. It continues to move and grow and evolve. So how do the protectors of this tradition feel about this new wave? In the third part of the series, we'll cross the border to find out.
VICTOR RUBIO: La música tradicional es tan fuerte en ganarse los corazones de la gente. Cuando se dice tradicional, es que está bien arraigado.
SAYRE: You have been listening to ALT.LATINO from NPR Music. Our audio producers for this episode are Janice Llamoca and Joaquin Cotler, with production support from Suraya Mohamed, Natalia Fidelholtz and Lauren Migaki.
CONTRERAS: Our field producer was Shelby Hawkins, and the editor for this series is Jacob Ganz.
SAYRE: The woman who keeps us on track is Grace Chung.
CONTRERAS: Hey, hey, Grace. Our jefe and chief, Keith Jenkins, is VP of music and visuals. I'm Felix Contreras.
SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Artemisa Sayre. Thank you for listening.
PLUMA: (Inaudible).
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