Cumbia in My Land: Monterrey, Mexico, Cumbia Sonidera

Cumbia originated in Colombia, but many claim that Mexico is what keeps it alive. In the mountains of Monterrey, there is a little Colombia, a regal Colombia. Monterrey is a city of migrants, where industry attracted a large rural workforce. Perhaps it is nostalgia for a past life that connected the migrant communities of Monterrey with the country songs of the Colombian coast. This is the land of the sonideros, DJs who collect cumbia and tropical music vinyl records that appeared in the 1960s and to this day take their equipment to clubs and house or street parties.

Cumbia: the queen, her majesty, the mother of all. This rhythm has become one of the most listened to genres in the Americas and is a symbol that has always defined Latin American identity. Cumbia is a rhythm and a dance born of cultural diversity: African, indigenous, and European, and its history is that of our own mestizaje.

Since its birth on the Colombian coast during the colonial era, it has traveled alongside Latin American migrants from the countryside to the city, to other countries and continents, infiltrating, adapting, and “whitening” itself to be accepted by the powerful.

Born out of the desire for freedom of subjugated bodies, cumbia has always lived in the popular sectors of a Latin America that is systematically racist and classist, even towards itself. Its rhythmic beat is subversive in the face of repressive realities in which bodies are repressed and indigenous cultures resist being erased from official discourse.

Cumbia resonates in and from the people, going hand in hand with exclusionary processes, waves of migration, and people who are invisible to the ruling classes. Through music and dance, cumbia has adapted to the diverse realities of the region with its binary simplicity. All cumbias are living cultural expressions, some with greater importance in terms of identity, others with greater commercial importance.

After its peasant origins, cumbia continues to reinvent itself in different places, by different musicians, and in different contexts. That is why it can be said that there are many cumbias, even though it often feels like just one.

🎥 Cumbia In My Land: Monterrey, Mexico, Cumbia Sonidera
• Author: Karla Gachet / Runa Photos
• Format: Documentary video
• Place of production: United States
• Year: 2025
• Type: Author publication
• Watch online: Vimeo

📽 Cumbia In My Land delves into Monterrey’s “sonidero” scene, where Colombian cumbia has flourished and taken root in a migrant city. Since the 1960s, DJs and vinyl collectors have brought cumbia to clubs and street parties, keeping the tradition alive. The work highlights how cumbia —born from cultural mestizaje and a longing for freedom— remains a powerful expression of popular identity, resistance, and reinvention across Latin America.