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From the 1950s through the 1980s, Mexico served as a vital industrial hub for Latin American music, welcoming Cuban rhythms like danzón, mambo, son, and cha-cha-cha while becoming home to Colombian artists such as Luis Carlos Meyer, Aniceto Molina, Carmencita Pernett, and La Sonora Dinamita. This fertile exchange gave rise to hybrid Mexican genres: the big band sonoras (Sonora Santanera, Sonora Dinamita), accordion ensembles (Luz Roja de San Marcos, Grupo Perla Colombiana), and tropical-rock innovators such as Rigo Tovar, Chico Che, and Xavier Passos.

In Colombia, the influence flowed the other way: Mexican cinema and rancheras reshaped local traditions, sparking música de despecho and música de carrilera, while Cuban music left its mark on vallenato, charanga, trova, and son palenquero. Across borders, musicians retooled these sounds into orchestral, folkloric, and popular forms that laid the groundwork for modern tropical experimentation.

By the 1990s and 2000s, a new wave of independent artists emerged. In Mexico, Mexican Institute of Sound led a post-Nortec explosion of electronic tropicalism, while in Bogotá the “tropicanibalismo” movement produced projects like Frente Cumbiero, Los Pirañas, Romperayo, and Álvarez’s own Meridian Brothers.