“Cielito Lindo” or “Son de la Negra”?

Abstract During the Trump presidency (2016–2020), immigration enforcement and policies focused on immigrants coming through the US–Mexico border. President Donald Trump focused his rhetoric on Mexican immigrants, and many US citizens followed suit, describing all immigrants as Mexican. While anti-Trump protestors took to the streets to stand up to his new anti-immigrant policies, the Latinx community sang “Cielito Lindo” and “Son de la Negra” to reclaim mariachi as cultural identity in the face of anti-immigrant sentiment. Utilizing singing as an expression of collective Latin American identity confirmation and solidarity, “Cielito Lindo” and “Son de la Negra” became aural signifiers of latinidad. This chapter outlines how mariachi became a cultural symbol of mexicanidad and subsequently latinidad, discusses the homogenization of immigrant culture under “latinidad” as a result of Trump administration rhetoric, and situates “Cielito Lindo” and “Son de la Negra” as songs in which a collective community expresses latinidad solidarity through singing in the face of anti-immigration policies.