In late January of 2025, the students on the Cuba trip said their goodbyes to the island and embarked on the bus to the José Martí International Airport in Havana. On the ride there, our tour guide Sergei gave each student a personalized postcard as a parting gift. The front of the postcards were paintings by Cuban painters from the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, while the back had the title of a Cuban song, chosen specifically for each person. My song, “Una Palabra” by Carlos Varela, played through my headphones the entire flight back.
As an avid collector of vinyl records, I’m often trying to expand my taste through the $1 bins that line the Princeton Record Exchange, but the discovery of “Una Palabra” opened my eyes to a whole new realm of music. Ever since that day, I have been exploring more music in foreign languages as a way to dive deeper into the world of sound, better understand unfamiliar cultures, and practice a second language. Later that school year, after returning from Cuba, I started exchanging songs and albums with my friend, who recommended Mexican artists like the indie rock band Enjambre, the pop and ballad singer José José, a folk band called Los Tres Diamantes, and the metal band Red Ulalume.
Through my own exploration of Latin music, the first artist I found whose style really spoke to me was Rico Del Oro, an alternative indie singer from Durango, Mexico. His style blends country, crooning, and bolero, bringing his ancestral roots and his Texan upbringing to the Nashville scene. Rico Del Oro presents as a moonstruck cowboy, often telling stories about love, loss, faith, and the Western landscape. His debut album “Tauro” mixes Spanish and English in each track, with the only two written fully in Spanish being “Vida” and the titular track. His second full-length album, “Durango,” was released in 2024 and serves as a sequel to the former, including tracks like “Flora De Saguaro” and “Alacran.”
My interest intensified with Jeanette, a Spanish singer who rose to fame as a teenager in the late 1960s. Her soft and sweet sound captures romantic angst while maintaining the natural rebellion of youth, often featuring orchestral arrangements as well as an electric guitar, which Jeannette herself plays. Some of her most popular songs, such as “¿Porque Te Vas?” and “Soy Rebelde” appear in the movie “Cría Cuervos” (1976), for which she recorded the soundtrack. Facundo Cabral, a self-taught folk and protest singer from Argentina, was named a “worldwide messenger of peace” by UNESCO in 1966. Cabral was a self-proclaimed anarchist and “violently pacifist” according to an interview in 1972, and often wrote about individual and spiritual resistance against military dictatorships in Latin America. His ballads “Pobrecito Mi Patrón” and “Yo No Vendo, Yo No Compro” are two of many in his discography that demonstrate his non-materialistic philosophy and social consciousness.
As I discover Latin artists outside of mainstream American media, I continue to reap the benefits. My knowledge of Latin culture extends beyond linguistic subtleties, but through music delves into the many aspects that make up a complex culture.