In 2015, local producer and DJ Erick Jaimez launched Sonidero Saturdays at Deep Ellum’s Café Salsera. It quickly became a hit.
Jaimez, who is known in Dallas for his crunk cumbia, or cumbia mixed with hip hop and trap, has a theory as to why it was so successful. “There weren’t many places that played cumbia at the time, and if they were, they were really far for anybody to want to make the trip,” he said.
Cumbia, with its percussion-heavy sound and different varieties across Latin America, is considered both party music and a symbol of Latinidad, or Latin identity. It plays through speakers at quinceañeras, weddings and backyard gatherings as people dance in pairs or in circles.
In Dallas, Latin clubs and restaurants used to play some cumbia music, but now it can be heard throughout Deep Ellum and Oak Cliff thanks to the underground artists who not only keep it alive, but also make it their own.
This new wave of cumbia both breaks and pays homage to traditions that can make anyone move — even those outside Latin communities. Cover bands honor cumbia legends, local DJs mix cumbia rhythms with other tracks and cumbia bands contribute to the genre’s growth.
It has become popular for many reasons. For one, it’s catchy and danceable. Also, social media sites have brought greater exposure to new bands and new sounds. Because of the cumbia wave, young Latinos are becoming more in touch with their identity.
“It’s a genre that I feel any Latin kid, mainly kids from Mexico, can identify themselves with,” Jaimez said. “In any part of Mexico, they’re playing Los Ángeles Azules, they’re playing Celso Piña and all these classic songs that they know, and when they come [to a show] they can recognize it and feel somewhat at home.”
Cumbia originated as a courtship dance by enslaved Africans on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Traditional cumbia used drums and flutes, such as the guache and gaita, but over the years cumbia has added horns, accordions and guitars. Modern cumbia bands can have as many as 10 members.
Sabor Puro, a Dallas-based cumbia cover band, regularly plays for Latin crowds at La Pesca Market in Oak Cliff and Traders Village in Grand Prairie. Vocalist Sylvia Ortiz, who goes by her stage name Paola, said performing at Revelers Hall in Bishop Arts last year was one of the first times they played for a broader audience.
At Revelers Hall in December, fire marshals showed up mid-performance, but the crowd kept dancing, ignoring requests to stop from the band’s musical director, Christian Ortiz, who is married to Paola. The marshals didn’t find a reason to shut it down, and the music, from Caifanes to Los Ángeles Azules, played on.
Looking back on that show, Paola said she felt like “all of Dallas was there.”
“My purpose as a performer is to bring people together, especially through times of oppression and concern in the area,” she said. “Music is like a universal connector and the fact we get to do it with cumbia is kind of like a blessing. I’m not only sharing my culture, but I’m sharing it with other cultures.”
Paola previously was the vocalist of a La Sonora Dinamita cover band, a gig she got after a busboy heard her sing “Las Mañanitas,” a traditional Mexican birthday song, while working as a server at a Mi Cocina. She formed Sabor Puro in 2017, she said, with the goal of making every performance feel like a family gathering.
Reminiscent of Tejano queen Selena Quintanilla, Paola twirls on stage and dances with audience members while singing cumbia classics. Sometimes, she even sings from the tops of patio tables.
“I wanted to be an opera singer, but cumbia stole my heart,” said Paola, who graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and the University of North Texas and now works as a music teacher.
Cumbia bands in Dallas are playing modern styles of cumbia, combining elements of traditional cumbia with their own twists to create something representative of themselves. Los Gran Reyes, formed in 2006 by brothers Agustin and Christian Granados, use urban and electric sounds, and Cayuga All-Stars, formed in 2021 by punk rock and metal musicians, draw influence from their Mexican barrio roots and psychedelic music.
“We feel different about the sound and what cumbia can be,” Agustin Granados said. “We experiment and express ourselves in our music.”
In 2021, DJs Eternos and Alaska took that same idea and transformed Desafio, a weekly vaquero goth DJ night at Cheapsteaks.
“I think a lot more Latinos in Dallas are starting to be more accepting of the culture,” said DJ Alaska, whose real name is Alaska Quiñones. “People are tapping into more of the identity and being proud, and that Latino pride just makes you happy and want to dance.”
They mix cumbia rhythms with their favorite emo and new wave tracks, from bands like My Chemical Romance and New Order. Mixing two very different sounds is their way of blending their two worlds: one where they grew up listening to cumbia and the other they discovered in their teens.
“I’m doing Latin, but it’s filtered through all my life experiences and all the weird music that I’m into,” said DJ Eternos, whose real name is Jose Hernandez. “[Cumbia] has been here, it’s just been introduced to a different crowd.”