By Ricardo Lezama 
The San Bernardino Chicano group has made history with the number one Regional Mexican album 11xpantia in streaming history. Fuerza Regida is diving deep into all of their potential musical promises sounding equal parts Mexican Baroque guitar in some songs, but cleverly country in others. The group is boasting numbers comparable to big corporate back acts, like Bad Bunny and Karol G, the latter with huge social media marketing campaigns backed by Universal Music Group.
At 28, Fuerza Regida’s main vocalist, Jesus Ortiz Paz, affectionally named “JOP” is becoming a household name. The son of two Mexico born parents, JOP and his band of Californians are an example of Mexicans born in the greater expanse of Mexican culture, enriching themselves from it and contributing back into the Mexican fray.
Regional Music History
Just 20 years ago, the scale at which the Mexican corrido has reached was unimaginable. Outside of Mexico and the greater expanse in the US Southwest, where generations of culturally Mexicans have legal US affiliations (sometimes not so much), the corrido or what is called ‘Mexican regional’ for others was mostly for consumption by the Mexican community. Los Tigres del Norte struck it big in the 1990’s too, but the numbers just didn’t quite scale at the same level as today. Nevertheless, the LTDN group has enjoyed the Mexican Regional ride into more streams.
I attribute this success to the lack of ageism in the regional music scene. Being an old man or an older woman, like Paquita la del Barrio, is a marker of respect, not of being disposable. No one is encouraged to cling on to youthful looks or acrobatics as is the case in the pop music segment.
Bilingual communities are now enjoying the fact that Mexican corrido groups enjoy the same marketing and distribution as say a hip hop or rock group. And, the numbers don’t lie. ‘Tu Sancho’ a cheeky tale about being someone’s sidepiece is way past the 100 million streams marker. Not bad for a group that isn’t necessarily in the good graces of a today’s politicians.
And, like Carin Leon in NPR, Fuerza Regida has cleverly found a way to ingratiate themselves with those platforms of non-Mexican communities that do gain value in our mutual cultural exchange. I am referencing their recent appearance in Jimmy Kimmel. They took it one step further by collaborating with Druski for their ‘Godfather’ song. As I write, I also realize how much of the culture is in English and still feels really Mexican – I love it.