It’s typically the case that youngsters of immigrants, particularly Latino ones, be taught to stability two cultures from an early age. Continuously, they navigate twin worlds, with one foot firmly planted within the place the place they’ve grown up, the opposite fixed of their dad and mom’ homeland — leading to what can really feel like being break up in half, caught between double the quantity of traditions and customs and pop-culture references.
However these days, a youthful era has been recasting complicated bicultural identities because the fortunate inheritance of “200-percenters,” youngsters who’re proudly 100% Latino and 100% American. The outline was on Becky G’s thoughts when she started recording her newest album, Esquinas, a stunning exploration of what it means to be Mexican American — and the way it’s formed who she is as a pop star and as an individual. The title, which implies “corners,” captures the intersection of two cultures. It’s additionally an endearing nod to her upbringing in Inglewood, California, the place she remembers outlets and eating places being “simply at la esquinita” — “proper on the nook.”
However the album additionally represents a protracted creative journey. Becky G, who obtained her begin making pop in English, absolutely embraces the richness of Mexican genres, teaming up with producer Edgar Barrera for a profound examination of this music’s significance to her and those that got here earlier than. It’s a full-circle second: She’s change into an elder stateswoman for a rising motion of children who’ve been taking Mexican sounds to new world heights. In 2023, artists like Grupo Frontera, Peso Pluma, and Eslabon Armado shot to Quantity One Spotify’s International charts; Becky even introduced Pluma and JOP from Fuerza Regida onstage throughout her ode to Mexican heritage at Coachella.
On Esquinas, no music comes throughout spinoff or pastiche, and it doesn’t really feel like a industrial bid to seize what’s fashionable proper now. (Becky has additionally stated she began engaged on the album two years in the past, earlier than the complete explosion of música Mexicana.) The music is somewhat sudden: The opener, “2ndo Probability,” is a ballad dipped in nostalgic synths that morphs right into a brooding acoustic burner with Gen-Z heartthrob Ivan Cornejo. In truth, the entire album is a parade of recent, first-gen expertise: Cornejo — who grew up in Riverside, California, and taught himself to play guitar through YouTube tutorials — is available in on the very finish of the monitor with the wealthy, melancholy sound that’s made him the prince of unhappy sierreño and one of many younger standouts on the música Mexicana scene proper now.
Instantly after that, Becky hyperlinks up with DannyLux for “Cries in Spanish.” They’re a number of years aside: When Becky G was simply an elementary faculty child, residing out the recollections which are throughout Esquinas, DannyLux was a new child child, born within the Coachella Valley to folks from Mexicali, Mexico. His father drove rubbish vehicles; on one in all his each day routes across the space, he occurred to discover a guitar that he introduced house and gave to Danny when he was about seven years outdated. That was Danny’s first guitar, the one on which he first started unlocking the honeyed sound that’s change into his signature — and that matches so properly on the candy duet he performs with Becky. Later, on “Patras,” Becky pulls off a surprising present of vocal acrobatics with Yahritza Y Su Esencia, a band of three siblings who grew up in Washington’s Yakima Valley. Their dad and mom, initially from Mexico’s Michoacán state, picked fruit and handed down their love of music to their youngsters. Every of those collaborations suits in completely with what Becky is doing, exhibiting how at the moment’s era is continually pulling from deep-seated roots that proceed to search out unexpectedly lovely methods to bloom.
As Becky laces her voice by Yahritza’s highly effective vibrato, she’s placing a proud highlight on the younger ladies making themselves heard in a traditionally male-dominated style. It’s refreshing to see all the feminine collaborations on Esquinas: There’s a sassy second with Chiquis, the daughter of late Mexican legend Jenni Rivera, on the puckish “Cuidadito”; ranchera royalty Angela Aguilar makes an look on “Por el Contrario,” which additionally options her brother Leonardo Aguilar. The selection to incorporate the newer faces in música Mexicana’s most well-known households is yet one more reminder of the place the style is at the moment, saluting the previous however embracing the current day.
What’s most placing on the album is Becky’s sense of maturity, each lyrically and vocally. Esquinas is anchored in her precise experiences, one thing that’s going to present voice to so many diaspora youngsters wanting to additionally embrace the 200 p.c. However essentially the most lovely high quality is how Becky pays respects to the elders in her household, celebrating the noble, hard-fought journeys so many first-generation youngsters carry deep inside their bones. That comes by finest on “Querido Abuelo,” a shattering, heart-pulverizing tribute to her late grandfather. Placing collectively bits and items of who her grandfather was — a dignified sombrero, the scent of the countryside, a quiet ranch that’s been lonely since he handed — Becky works as much as the road that lays out the guts of this venture: “I would like you to realize it’s an honor to signify your bloodline.”
