When Mexican American singer Yahritza Martinez recently performed her song, “Fragile,” in front of thousands in Mexico City, she could barely finish before the crowd started booing her.
Martinez, 16, had gone from being an apple-picker in rural Washington, to a TikTok sensation whose song, “Fragil” or “Fragile,” topped the music charts in both the US and Mexico.
But an unfortunate interview that went viral on TikTok led to a huge backlash against the rising star and her two brothers, Armando Martinez and Jairo Martinez, who are part of the musical trio, Yahritza Y Su Esencia.
Back in August, during their group’s first major media interview in Mexico City, Yahritza Martinez told the host that she liked the Mexican capital — but not the noisy traffic. She said the trio had grown up in rural Washington state, and she wasn’t used to police sirens. Her brothers chimed in that they preferred the taste of American food.
After that interview, they lost hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok. Ruthless comments filled their social media feeds. Racist memes made fun of their looks and Spanish accents. Yahritza Martinez said they even received death threats. She later apologized and stated that she is very proud of her Mexican heritage.
Luis Escala, a researcher and professor at the College of the North, in Tijuana, said the problem is that the Martinez family defies an outdated view of Mexican identity. Comments comparing Mexican to American food especially enraged their fans.
“The Mexican food you eat over there is better than ours, then you’re being arrogant then,” Escala said, describing the way Mexican fans interpreted the comments. “You think you’re an American, you don’t think you’re Mexican. You think you’re better than us.”
The Martinez family comes from a small town in Michoacan, an area rich with traditional music, but lacking in economic opportunities.
Their parents and older brother, Armando Martinez, migrated from Michoacan to a rural farming community in Yakima, Washington, where Yahritza Martinez and her brother Jairo Martinez were both born.
Their song, “Fragile” is part of a new genre that many call urban sierreño that combines traditional Mexican regional music with urban style. Yahritza Martinez is one of a few female singers in a largely male-dominated scene.
At the recent performance in Mexico City’s Zócalo (Square), Yahritza Martinez confidently rocked her signature baseball cap, silver chains and baggy clothes, flanked by her two guitar-plucking brothers.
But some concert-goers, like Cynthia Aboites, were not ready to accept her.
“I don’t have words to describe what Yahritza thinks about our country,” she said. “The song is nice, it’s nice but it’s discredited that she speaks poorly about our country.”
Aboites said she would have preferred a Mexican group to play. Yet, she herself had come to hear Grupo Frontera, a group from Texas that plays norteño, a traditional regional genre.
While many were not pleased to see Yahritza Martinez, the invitation to perform at the nation’s most important Independence Day event came straight from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
“She should come, she already apologized, it wasn’t out of bad faith,” the president said a few weeks ago at a press conference. He even urged Mexicans to take the siblings out for some some good Mexican food — tamales, pozole, horchata.
One woman in the crowd applauded the president’s invitation.
“We have forgiven her! She sings so beautifully and she supports Mexico,” she said before disappearing into the crowd without giving her name.
But Dafne and Edly, two concert-goers who didn’t share their last names, said that while they like Yahritza Martinez’s music, she still “lacks humility,” adding that she should recognize her roots and be thankful.
Escala believes these views stem from a lack of understanding about people in Central Mexico who migrate north.
“These people were day laborers. I mean, they come from a very humble, very poor background,” Escala said. “They were picking apples in Yakima Valley, helping their parents, just a few months ago.”
He added that critics don’t take into account that Yahritza Martinez and Jairo Martinez are still teenagers and that their identity is Mexican American — not Mexican.
The backlash had a negative effect on Yahritza Martinez, who later said she feared going out in public.
But the trio remains undeterred by the criticism. They plan to continue their sold-out tour and promote their new album, “Obsessed 2,” across the United States.
And they’re singing to their key audience — Mexican migrants and their children.