Mexican music in Chile

Mexican music enjoys widespread popularity in some social and geographic sectors of Chile. In particular, Mexican music is especially popular among Chilean rural lower classes. Geographically, Mexican music is most popular in south-central Chile, but there are also significant listeners elsewhere, such as in the northern city of La Serena. Mexican corridos are commonly performed in Chilean national day celebrations such as Fiestas Patrias.

Mexican music in Chile includes norteño music, a series of styles that originated in the rural northern half of Mexico, as well as the corrido and ranchera genres; all of them are collectively referred as "Mexican music" in Chile. Though other regional styles of Mexican music are represented in Chile, similarly to the Regional Mexican radio format and genre in the United States.

Among the annual Mexican music festivals in Chile are the Festival del Cantar Mexicano Guadalupe del Carmen in Chanco, Festival Internacional de la Voz de la Música Mexicana de Puyehue in Puyehue, and Festival del Cantar Popular Mexicano in La Serena.

It is thought that Mexican music gained popularity, even in remote areas of Chile, through radio stations and Mexican movies. The first Chilean interpreters of Mexican music appeared in the 1940s, and by the time of Jorge Negrete's visit to Chile in 1946, Los Queretaros and many other ensembles specializing in Mexican music were thriving. Musicologist Laura Jordán González comments that "music listening practices in Chile have extensively shown a preference for foreign music, which has been explained by some authors as a result of successive non-protectionist policies".

Radio stations specializing in Mexican music are common in Chile. They may play music from as early as six o'clock in the morning, when farmers begin their workday. Typically, broadcasts of Mexican music on these radio stations continue well into midnight. In the 1950s and 1960s, non-specialized radio stations such as Radio Yungay and Radio Agricultura created programs dedicated to Mexican music. According to lifelong Mexican music collector Fernando Méndez, the popularity of Mexican music was helped by similarities in Chilean and Mexican culture, such as the equivalence of the charro with the huaso.

[In the 1940s, Chile and Mexico] were nations with similar agricultures, in [both] countries people worked from sunrise to sunset, and there was a liking for horses.

Spanish original: [En la década de 1940, Chile y México] eran naciones con agriculturas similares, en los países se trabajaba de sol a sol, y había un gusto por los caballos

— Fernando Méndez