"On Instagram and TikTok, the children of Mexican immigrants shared photos of their parents with the same trending audio: "Hasta la raíz," a song released by the Mexican artist Natalia Lafourcade in 2015, not long before Donald Trump descended his golden escalator. "It's personal because if my grandparents didn't risk their lives migrating 'Pal Norte,' I wouldn't be the first one in my family to graduate college," Grecia Lopez, a radio and TV host, wrote in an Instagram post."
"If Lafourcade's lyrics sound sentimental, that just makes them well-suited for the way American-born Mexicans feel about Mexico. Last year, I was catching up with a journalist friend who grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, when she told me about visiting her relatives in Mexico City for the first time. I asked her, cheekily, if she played "Hasta la raíz," as she landed at the airport. "Shut up," she told me."
Natalia Lafourcade's 2015 song "Hasta la raíz" has become a cultural anthem for Mexican immigrants and their children in the United States. The song circulated widely on Instagram and TikTok as people posted photos of relatives with its chorus playing. During Los Angeles clashes with ICE, the Mexican flag was a visible protest symbol, while Lafourcade's music acted as an online symbol of resistance to immigration raids. The song's sentimental lyrics and imagery of roots and longing resonate with American-born Mexicans' connection to Mexico. The track shifted from a putative breakup song to a shared expression of identity and memory.
Read at The New Yorker
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