Delilah Cabrera is the classic Music Sin Fronteras singer, and if you don’t know her yet, let me introduce you. Her story is fascinating — very Music Sin Fronteras.
Cabrera, widely known as the “Princess of Corridos Tumbados,” is a Mexican American singer-songwriter who went from local obscurity in the U.S. to international recognition. Born and raised in Wenatchee, Washington, to a father from Pénjamo, Guanajuato, and a mother who grew up in Washington, she learned early to navigate a bilingual, bicultural world. She immersed herself in music from a young age, learning violin, piano, guitar, and vihuela, and singing in her school choir and middle school mariachi program. Wow!
Her grandmother died when Delilah was about 5, and singing became her way to stay close to her. She wrote her first songs for her grandmother in English, the only language she knew well at the time, even though her grandmother spoke Spanish. As she grew older, she learned Spanish, her father’s native language, to sing closer to her roots and to her grandmother’s memory. When mariachi became an option in middle school, she jumped at the chance to sing in Spanish.
Later, performing with her high school mariachi...