\n\tEarlier this month, global pop superstar Bad Bunny\u2019s Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos<\/em> became<\/a> the first Spanish-language album to win album of the year the Grammys \u2014 and he followed that triumph with another culture-defining milestone the next weekend, with his Super Bowl Halftime show, which celebrated his Puerto Rican identity.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI was emotional watching that,\u201d says Latin country artist Andrea Vasquez of Bad Bunny\u2019s Grammy win. \u201cAnd watching him get emotional was just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs the double punch of triumphant moments has only further cemented Latin music\u2019s central role in the global music landscape, artists such as Car\u00edn Le\u00f3n and Grupo Frontera have regularly braided elements of country music into their own music. Meanwhile, many country artists with Latin roots \u2014 such as Vasquez, Angie K, Frank Ray, Sammy Arriaga, Alfonso Ter\u00e1n, Kat Luna, Louie TheSinger and M\u014cRIAH \u2014 have been steadily building country music careers in Nashville.<\/p>\n \n\tVasquez, who released her EP El Camino<\/em> last year and just dropped the new song \u201cThe Wind,\u201d and Angie K, whose new album Whiskey & Hemingway<\/em> is due on May 29, identified a need for a community hub to be a bridge between Nashville and the global Latin music community. The two artists had shared stages around Nashville for a couple of years, but in early 2024, they built upon a shared vision, launching the Country Latin Association<\/a> to champion country artists with Latin roots, in a genre that has long been dominated by white men.<\/p>\n \n\tNext month, the Country Latin Association will hold a show during the esteemed Nashville songwriters festival Tin Pan South on March 27 at Anzie Blue, which will feature Vasquez, Angie K, Ana Cristina Cash and Marta Albarracin. It\u2019s the latest in a string of concerts, panels and other events the CLA has hosted to support Latin artists in the past couple of years. Vasquez also hosts the Latina in Nashville<\/em> podcast, highlighting Latino creators, business owners and entrepreneurs across Music City.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to benefit from programs like Equal Access, from [FEMco\u2019s] Leslie Fram, and from CMT\u2019s Next Women of Country,\u201d Angie K says. \u201cYou can\u2019t put a dollar value on being in the same room, seeing each other as human and cheering each other on. The scarcity mindset can be so easy. It\u2019s easy to not be happy for someone who gets a label spot, because you think they\u2019re not going to sign another Latin artist.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat mindset is exactly what the Country Latin Association wanted to disrupt.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI started looking at the data and realized, \u2018This isn\u2019t charity work,\u2019\u201d Angie K says. \u201cThis is, \u2018Pay attention or you\u2019re going to miss the trend.\u2019 This is something everyone should be watching.\u2019 And not just artists that are Latin in the U.S., but way outside our quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to the 2025 Luminate Year-End report<\/a>, Latin music was one of the fastest-growing genres in the U.S., with streams of Latin music released within the last 18 months rising 5.2 percent.<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, data from the 2024 study \u201cUnderstanding The Latinx Country Music Audience,\u201d conducted by the CMA with Horowitz Research, surveyed over 4,000 respondents and found that among Latinx weekly music listeners, country music was the seventh most-listened to genre, with 36% of Latinx listeners responding that they listened to country music (up from 25% in the CMA\u2019s previous 2021 study). The 2024 study also categorized 25% of Latinx music listener respondents as \u201cavid\u201d country music listeners, based on listening frequency and stated affinity for the genre.<\/p>\n \n\tArtists themselves have increasingly made connections to Nashville. Grupo Frontera made their Grand Ole Opry debut last year, while Latin music star Le\u00f3n made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 2024, and has collaborated with Cody Johnson, Kacey Musgraves and Kane Brown. This year, Le\u00f3n will launch his La Cura Fest in Mexico featuring Grupo Frontera, and country artists Jelly Roll and Midland. Ana Castela, whose country-influenced sertanejo sound has earned her over 14 million monthly Spotify listeners, is known for songs including \u201cOlha Onde Eu T\u00f4,\u201d and her Z\u00e9 Felipe collaboration on a version of Shania Twain\u2019s \u201cYou\u2019re Still The One\u201d (the video has earned 78 million views on YouTube alone).<\/p>\n \n\tAngie K and Vasquez have worked to bring country music into the heart of Nashville\u2019s Latino community, even at a time when the Latino community has faced harsh strife in the United States.<\/p>\n \n\tLast summer, the Country Latin Association worked with the CMA\u2019s Sr. Director, Industry Relations & Inclusion Mia Jones to launch the Latino Trailblazers in Country panel at CMA Fest 2025, featuring Le\u00f3n, Luna, M\u014cRIAH and Hermanos Mendoza. That same week, the CLA also partnered with Origins Music Group\u2019s Corey Jones and Stephen Miller, to host the live music event Country Con Coraz\u00f3n in South Nashville\u2019s Plaza Mariachi, featuring artists including Generaci\u00f3n M, Frank Ray and Garz\u00f3n.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf we\u2019re really going to tap into the Latin community, we shouldn\u2019t feel entitled to think they\u2019re going to come to us,\u201d Vasquez says. \u201cWe need to support them first.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs they prepared for the event, the area saw an increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity, and the team debated whether to proceed.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was a big conversation \u2014 do we hold it there or not? People were afraid,\u201d Vasquez says. \u201cBut we felt the community needed something hopeful. And if we panic, other people will panic.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tUltimately, they moved forward, and were told Plaza Mariachi experienced one of its busiest nights in weeks thanks to the event. \u201cIt brought people out to support local businesses,\u201d Angie K says. \u201cThat meant everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOf course, Latin music and artists\u2019 influence in country music isn\u2019t new, but rather foundational, from the influence of Mexican vaqueros on cowboy culture, to fashion designer Manuel Cuevas\u2019 pivotal influence by designing stagewear worn by artists such as Johnny Cash. Johnny Rodriguez, Linda Ronstadt and Freddy Fender had breakthrough country hits in the \u201870s, while the genre-melding group The Mavericks have earned hits and accolades since the \u201990s, and a new crop of Latin country artists are building upon the work of their musical forebears.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s inspiring to see there is a new wave of us coming through,\u201d Vasquez says. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that in pop with Bad Bunny and Karol G, and people are starting to see that is a huge thing in Latin music. When Carin and Grupo Frontera bring their audiences to the Opry, and they are just the most passionate people ever, it\u2019s just showing that country music really is for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAngie K and Vasquez envision expanding resources even further, including securing sponsorships for artists and increasing CLA members\u2019 involvement with various awards voting.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe would love to be a voting block for the Grammys, for the CMAs,\u201d Vasquez says. \u201cI think us coming together, our hope is to grow the amount of CMA members we have here in Nashville.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAngie K notes that true change also unfolds at the individual level through deliberate and conscious actions.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cChanging the world doesn\u2019t have to be this massive effort. It\u2019s literally as easy as opening your Instagram and typing in Latin country artists, and that one search will change your algorithm,\u201d Angie K says. \u201cThe problem is right now, our inputs are our outputs. If I were to go to ChatGPT and enter, \u2018Make me a picture of a country music artist,\u2019 I would bet everything I have, it would be a pretty standard image of a white dude. So how do we change that narrative? Well, we give it inputs. I always say, \u2018If you open Instagram or TikTok, when you see an Andrea Vasquez video or a mariachi video, like it, comment on it. It will change your algorithm, and slowly but surely that will change our culture.\u2019 <\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt seems like a small thing to do,\u201d he continues. \u201cBut if many people do it today, it could be a foundation of a machine we can build on.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Billboard](\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/2HpFicp.png\")
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