One thing I have learned from conducting hundreds of interviews is how much Hispanic and Latino culture has impacted country music.
Hispanic culture helped shape the foundations of country music through the traditions of Mexican vaqueros (cowboys), border radio broadcasts, and shared storytelling ballads like corridos.
Traditional Mexican folk styles such as rancheras, Mariachi, and Norteña share common themes of heartbreak, hard work, and faith like country music does. Texas country music, which is its own thing, is also strongly influenced by these styles and themes.
Artists like Johnny Rodriguez, Freddy Fender, and Linda Ronstadt, whose 1987 album Canciones de Mi Padre celebrated her Mexican heritage, have highlighted the deep vocal traditions tied to country and folk.
El Salvador-born, Georgia-raised singer-songwriter Angie K is one of Nashville’s most recognized independent country artists, blending traditional country with her Latin heritage.
Angie K got a career boost on season 10 of NBC’s The Voice. Then in 2017, she teamed up with Jordan Fisher to create the title track for Disney’s Happily Ever After. This song has garnered millions of streams.
Of her Latin heritage, Angie stated, “I know a lot of different types of Latin genres. Being from El Salvador, in our neck of the woods, so to speak, we were more into Cumbias and even Bachata, which is very different from country music. But I grew up listening to Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Because my mom is from New Mexico, so she loved country music. I think one of the biggest opportunities [for artists] is more regional Mexican and Norteña music, which has a lot of ballads.”
Songs like Angie K’s “Contigo” from her Whiskey & Hemingway album appeal to a wide audience with its country-pop vibe and a little Spanglish mixed in when the English words don’t fully express the feelings.
One thing that Angie K quickly realized when moving to Nashville is that no website existed where Latin artists could exchange information. Last year she co-founded the Country Latin Association alongside Music Spotlight artist Andrea Vasquez.
Angie K explained, “It’s important because everybody’s trying to wing it on their own. Now we’ve got a central location for that.” She continued, “Mexico probably has six big country festivals now. Argentina has one called the San Pedro Country Music Festival, with 40,000 people attending. There are road sessions happening in Chile. There’s a lot going on, so let's put all the information in one place.”
Andrea Vasquez, who is a Mexican American from LA, comes from a very musical family. She fell in love with country music at a young age. When several of her peers moved to Nashville because of the songwriting, she knew there would be better opportunities for her there.
When I interviewed Vasquez in 2024, one of the songs she was promoting was “Solo,” where you can clearly hear the Latin influence. However, if you listen to her most recent singles, “Can’t Afford a Broken Heart,” and “Everything I Wish I Did,” you would never guess this artist was Hispanic except for her last name.
She explained, “Even country artists who have no Hispanic heritage will still add Latin influences to their music. Kacey Musgraves’s Middle of Nowhere has a lot of Mexican influence due to her Texas Roots.”
Vasquez has also started a podcast called Latina in Nashville. She stated, “I was really focused on Latin artists in Nashville and hearing their stories and their backgrounds because also just because we are all Latinos, we all have very, very, very different cultural differences between us too, which is cool. And it's great to sit down with them and figure out how they came to Nashville and learn a lot more of their story.”
One of my all-time favorite Hispanic artists who is 100% Cuban is Ana Cristina Cash. Although she married John Carter Cash several years after Johnny Cash’s passing, the Latino influence on Cash’s songs was evident, especially in his popular “Ring of Fire,” which begins with a Mariachi trumpet.
Ana Cristina Cash has been in the music industry since childhood, often performing on Spanish-language Univision and Telemundo. Although her family spoke Spanish at home, she attended English/American schools in Miami and effortlessly speaks both languages.
Cash began singing the songs from Disney movies as a tot, and she got a record deal at age 16 on a Spanish label. However, as a teen, she remembers listening to 999 Kids Country, where she fell in love with the voices of Martina McBride, Faith Hill, and Sara Evans. Her father loved Patsy Cline and Linda Ronstadt.
Being an accomplished singer/songwriter before she married John Carter Cash and moved to Nashville, it was a seamless transition for the multi-genre singer. Cash admits that the influence of John’s family, the Carters, in southwest Virginia also influenced her singing and songwriting, and she considers herself as much a composer as a vocalist.
Cash stated, “We spent a lot of time in Hilton, Virginia, and in Appalachia, and I'm very inspired by that. But at the same time, I had influences on the Latin side that were Gloria Estefan, Celia Cruz, and Selena Quintanilla. I never felt like I needed to be put in a box or be just a Latin artist, pop artist, or a country artist.”
Her latest album, Sunshine State, is bilingual and gives a glimpse of her upbringing in South Florida. She wrote seven of the nine songs.
Since Ana Cristina, John Carter, and sister-in-law Carleen Carter are favorites at the Opry, Cash has learned to play the autoharp just like her famous mother-in-law, June Carter Cash, and grandmother-in-law, Maybelle Carter. Her next album will lean way more country than anything she has done in the past.
Moriah Peters Smallbone, who now goes by the stage name MŌRIAH, is reshaping country music by widening the circle around it - an American storyteller whose roots trace from the deserts of El Paso and deep into her family’s Mexican heritage, to Southern California and now Nashville. A second-generation American, she grew up between mariachi bands and country radio, quinceañeras and Texas roadhouses, never realizing that her blended world would one day define her sound.
After trying out of for American Idol in 2010, when she was 16, a random stranger introduced her to producer Wendi Foy, who helped her cut a three-song demo. She was then signed to Reunion Records in 2011, where she released a Christian record, I Choose Jesus, in 2012. In 2013, MŌRIAH married For King and Country’s Joel Smallbone and has since been in multiple movies and television shows as she continues to release new music.
MŌRIAH comes from a musical family. She shared, “I grew up listening to a combination of Mariachi music and country music. The two were very synchronous in my upbringing, which is very common for a lot of Mexican Americans because country music and Mariachi music, content-wise, even though they're in different languages, they're really talking about the same thing: family, heartbreak, you know, family parties, and the culture, being in the outdoors. It's a very short bridge to cross. I'm grateful that I got equal exposure to both growing up.”
Since moving to Nashville, MŌRIAH has been embraced by the country music community. She has now lived here as long as she lived in California. In 2025, she was invited to be one of CMT’s Next Women of Country, and in September, she made her Opry debut, becoming the second Latina to debut on that stage (after Linda Ronstadt). She also sang the National Anthem at CMA Fest this year, accompanied by her own Mariachi band.
She said of Nashville, “I have felt so loved and quite settled here. In the nine years I've been doing this, Latino Hispanic culture has been embraced by country music. People like Leslie Fram have mentored me. The country community has become like family to me.”
Whether it be Christian, pop, country, English or Spanish, or a combination of it all, it's the songwriting that motivates MŌRIAH most. You know her songs will be purposeful. She agreed. “At the end of the day, as long as it's authentic and you're singing from a place that is honest, that's all anybody could ask for.”
In the fall of 2025, MŌRIAH released the English-language version of her EP Nice Life on October 24, 2025, and a Spanish-language version, Buena Vida, on October 31. Look for a full album in early 2027.
As a journalist, my first point of contact often is a PR firm. When Jackie Martinez Marushka came across my feed, I knew she was something extra. This author and industry professional has been in the entertainment industry for more than 30 years. She has worked across music, film, literary publishing, and with nonprofit organizations, from artist development and publicity to executive leadership, artist management, and brand strategy. She spent 13 years with Sony Music Entertainment, eventually becoming one of the company’s youngest Vice Presidents. Later, she launched and led Shore Fire Media’s Nashville office before founding Marushka Media in 2016.
Marushka is from the small farming town of Velarde, New Mexico, so moving to Nashville in 1995 was a pretty big leap for her. When she got here, she quickly learned that Hispanic and Latine creatives worked throughout the entertainment industry, but there wasn’t a central connection point. The community existed, but it was difficult to find one another.
In 2019, Marushka founded the Hispanic Entertainment Alliance (HEA) because she wanted to create the community she wished she'd had when she arrived in Nashville. HEA was the first organization in Tennessee created specifically to connect and provide access for Hispanic and Latíne creatives and entrepreneurs to the entertainment community
She told me, “Right before I left New Mexico for Nashville, my mother looked at me and said, 'No te olvides tu cultura' — ‘Don’t forget your culture.’” The goal of HEA is to open doors and provide the network and support so needed when you’re trying to establish yourself in the Nashville entertainment community.
Marushka stated, “The idea has always been simple: Connect. Create. Celebrate. Connect people to one another, create opportunities and celebrate our culture and the contributions Hispanic and Latíne creatives are making to entertainment.”
In 2026, that work expanded with the launch of the Hispanic Entertainment Alliance Charitable Fund, a 501(c)(3) through the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. This fund lets people take the mission beyond networking and community-building and provide tangible opportunities through education, internships, showcases, and mentorship.
“It’s not enough to tell people they’re welcome in the room. We must help make sure they can get into the room, understand how the industry works once they’re there, and have the relationships and resources to build sustainable careers,” Marushka added.
Conversations about Hispanic influence in country music would never have happened a few years ago. But from 2006 to 2016, Hispanic listenership grew considerably more than white listenership (a 25% increase compared to a 7% increase) for country music. Today’s newest generation of emerging country music stars reflects that change.
Also of interest is that the majority (71%) of the artists featured in Spotify’s Country Latino playlist, created in August 2020, are independent artists.
And while Hispanic and Latino artists, songwriters, musicians, and industry professionals in country music have far greater visibility today than they did twenty years ago, the goal is not simply to have more Latine artists in country music. The goal is to have a country music community where Hispanic and Latino creatives are recognized as an integral part of the story — because they are. Tremendous talent, history, and cultural influence are still waiting to be seen, heard, and celebrated.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Instagram, and TikTok
