Latinos' Trump Derangement Syndrome Targets Popular Music Group Over The Dumbest Reason

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A few weeks ago, a band I follow on Instagram posted a statement saying they do not support any political party that is against Latinos or immigrants. The statement seemed to have come from out of nowhere, but it wasn’t until I looked at the comments on their recent posts that I realized I had missed a giant social media firestorm.

The statement was from Grupo Frontera, Border Group in English (This is important to remember.) For those who do not know, GF is one of the most popular Latino music groups in the world right now. They rose to fame after their cover of a Colombian song was widely used on TikTok. That resulted in more of their songs being used in social media videos and dancing trends, which is how I discovered them. All of their songs are in Spanish. While they are a band from the United States, they certainly have deep roots to Latin America.

Within a few years, they went from playing for backyard parties to selling out shows in the United States and all over Latin America. They have done collaborations with big names such as Bad Bunny, Shakira, and Peso Pluma.

As the name suggests, the members of Grupo Frontera/Border Group are originally from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, specifically the Edinburg/McAllen area. While GF has only been on the world stage for a few years, they maintained a large and loyal fanbase. That popularity was threatened after they were accused of being *gasp* supporters of President Donald Trump.

What was the evidence for such a “crime?”

Did they come out as a group or individuals to officially endorse Trump during or after the election? No.

Did they perform at one of the Inauguration Balls? Nope.

Did they share a post from Trump on social media? No (in Spanish.)

From what I could gather, the accusations and backlash from fans started after the lead singer’s grandmother and relatives danced to “Y.M.C.A.” in a video on TikTok. The video was deleted but it was too late. Even though it wasn’t the band members themselves, it was time for guilt by association.

Thousands of comments in English and Spanish in multiple posts on social media said they are traitors to Latinos and to never go back to Mexico to perform. There is a petition to get them removed from a Latin concert in Chicago in May. The heat was so intense the organizers for the concert issued a statement saying they are not Trump supporters. The statement did not mention GF or if the group was being removed from the lineup.

After staying silent for awhile, GF posted the aforementioned statement.

What annoys the hell out of me about this situation is how the people spewing venom at GF never stop to think about why they might have voted for Trump. They just assume it’s because of “internalized racism” or whatever woke terminology they want to assign to them.

As I said, GF is from a literal border town, but not just any border town. McAllen and the surrounding cities and towns were the very first to be impacted by the border crisis caused by the Biden-Harris administration. Even when the RGV was not the number one hotspot along the southern border as time went on, it was a consistent problem for four years until Trump got the border under control. I would know because I spent a lot of time in the RGV reporting on the crisis. I got to know McAllen, Rio Grande City, Roma, and Brownsville.

It would not be surprising in the slightest if one or more members of GF voted for Trump in large part because they saw firsthand how the border crisis affected their backyard before it became a bigger problem for the rest of the country. And they would not be alone.

The majority of voters in every single Texas county along the southern border, except for two, voted for Trump. And these are Latino-majority counties. Until 2024, they were reliable Democrat voters because that’s just how it was for decades. But surprise, they won’t want to be the first bump in the road for a years-long invasion. So all the hatred being aimed at GF for something they may or may not have done is also aimed at all the Latino voters in the region. A region that Democrats long took for granted.

Is the damage permanent? It’s hard to say. While GF has lost followers on social media, they still have over 2 million on Instagram. Spotify still records the group having 35 million monthly listeners.

If it was not obvious by now, I am a huge fan of GF. Many of their songs are simply great, in my opinion. While I think bowing down to the mob is a bad idea because they will never accept what you give, their statement did not condemn Trump. GF was definitely between a rock and a hard place. Like I previously wrote, Latinos taking a “no prisoners” mentality and acting irrational towards anyone is only going to backfire.