# Grupo Frontera political controversy

The American regional Mexican band Grupo Frontera has been involved in a controversy due to an alleged endorsement to the politician and current US president Donald Trump since early 2025, after the viralization of the Village People's "Y.M.C.A" dance video by the vocalist's relatives. Despite the answers in an interview for El País, fans and Mexican users called it an endorsement to Trump from the group, and discovered a deleted video on TikTok of them dancing to the same song and interviews with some members. Considering them as clear evidences of the accusations, the users started to cancel and boycott the band on social media, calling them "traitors" and asking for a cancellation to a festival performance through Change.org.
The band responded twice to the controversy within February through Instagram denying any endorsement, responding to other accusations and confirming their support of the Mexican community, declarations that received mainly negative reactions from public, arguing that they were only an attempt to maintain the group's reputation among fans. The controversy also received attention from Pepe Aguilar's sons, Emiliano and Leonardo Aguilar, and online media.

## Background and backlash

A Grupo Frontera's interview by Raúl Novoa in Madrid about their career achievements and experiences was published through El País on January 5, 2025. For the question about the American politician Donald Trump's re-election as the US president, Juan Javier Cantú answered that "[they] rarely get involved in politics. It’s very controversial for [them] and [they] just want to make music"; Cantú and Alberto "Beto" Acosta highlighted their toys' donation at a community centre to children from immigrants that were deported by the border policies. Regarding the Mexico–United States wall, Acosta shared the band's disagreement and Julián Peña Jr. opined about its inconclusion.
The next days, a video went viral on social media, wherein the band's vocalist Adelaido "Payo" Solís' grandmother, alias "La Abuela Frontera", dances the Village People's "Y.M.C.A" with other relatives, a song used by Trump for his 2024 presidencial campaign. After considering it as an endorsement to him, Mexican users related it directly as a political support from the group. In addition, the "La Abuela Frontera" 's account disappeared on TikTok. During the viralization, an user on the same platform, Sarah Jasmine (@sarahjasmine_), affirmed that they deleted many videos wherein endorsed explicitly the politician and sympathized with his politics. As a result, they received massive followers losses, hate comments and accusations of being Latinos for Trump, calling the alleged endorsement a "betrayal of the Mexicans" due to his mass deportation of immigrants during his second presidency.
Therefore, fans called for a digital cancel to the band (boycott), rejecting their presence in Mexico and refraining from consuming any content related to them, including songs, videos and live performances. A video of a massive booing at one of their recent concerts and screencasts showing the Instagram's personal account of some members following the Trump's profile and liking his posts also went viral. Furthermore, some users noticed that they deleted a TikTok video dancing the same song as Solís' grandmother, as well as videos of interviews to some of the members, where they encourage to vote for the politician, considering them as an explicit evidence of a "not so sutble" endorsement. On February 11, a petition at the American website Change.org was published by alias "Espíritu" to cancel the Grupo Frontera's participation at the 2025 edition of the Chicago Latin music festival Sueños. The petition accumulated over 9,700 signatures the next day. Sueños co-founder Christopher Den Uijl affirmed on Instagram the festival's support to the Latino community and stated that none of the co-founders are supporters of the president, without mentioning anything related to the group.

## Band's response

After a long time without any communication on the subject and publishing a video of a US crowd singing "Bebé Dame", described by media press as an indirect response, on February 7, the band published a statement through Instagram stories, arguing that "[they do not have] affiliation nor alliance with any political party that [is] against inmigrants and the Latino community". In addition, they clarified that they and their families are immigrants and come from the frontier, as well as their support to Mexicans and that "opinions of [their] friends and family [do not] represent [the band]". Furthermore, in an interview by Jesse Cervantes for EXA FM, the group remembered their commitment to the immigrant community and their pride in Mexican culture, "sin distinción de ideologías o fronteras". At the 37th Lo Nuestro Awards' red carpet, the Cuban-American television presenter Raúl de Molina asked them about the controversy, question which made the band feel uncomfortable. The Peña's response to it, "We dedicate ourselves to music. We love everyone and want peace and love. Take care of yourselves", was called "poor" and linked to the rumors by fans. On February 22, they published a video post on the same network confirming the statement declarations. In the same video, Acosta said that their silence was for the huge amount of "fake news" spread on Internet, therefore they did not know how to answer. In addition, they clarified that the dance video was only a backstage routine during their past concert tour, Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada Tour, wherein they danced songs from their primary school period.

## Reactions, analysis and aftermath

In a positive view, other fans reacted against the massive cancellation and supported the band's freedom of speech, arguing that "la cultura de la cancelación no debería extenderse a aquellos con opiniones políticas diferentes", according to Infobae Mexico's Víctor Cisneros. Juan Garza of Periódico ABC  [es] praised the way that the group managed the controversy and spoke against the backlash, condemning the information spread on the networks as "errónea". On the other hand, both public and some online newspapers labeled the concert booing as fake and audio-altered. Around the TikTok dance video, "Espíritu" denied any explicit reference of an endorsement there, but he said it was strategically implicit, while Chicago Sun-Times's staff opined that "[Donald Trump] and [Grupo Frontera] [...] [could] simply have similar tastes in music". The February 7 statement polarized fans' opinions, some applauding it and others arguing that it is not authentic and was only an attempt to maintain their reputation among fans. A representative of the group confirmed its autenticity. Something similar, the February 22 video received negative reactions, accusing it of the same as the statement and complaining that they never rejected directly Trump, also noticed by Rolling Stone's Tomás Mier. Leonelys Gomez of the Latin Times named the controversy as one of the band's biggest ones during their three-year career. Marca's staff linked it with Banda MS and Fuerza Regida's situation, emphasizing the personal opinions of some members of the respective bands. Many fans compared it with the Yahritza y su Esencia's 2023 backlash, when they visited Mexico and the vocalist Yahritza Martinez confessed controversial preferences, despising the country and Mexican cuisine, therefore they stopped performing there.

### Aguilar family conflict

After releasing "Ilegal", a protest song against the Trump's mass deportation, which received public acclaim and supports deported immigrants calling them hardworking, the Pepe Aguilar's son, Emiliano Aguilar, reacted through a series of Instagram stories in favor of the cancellation to the band, saying, "Fuck [Grupo Frontera]. A México se le respeta". His stepbrother, Leonardo, expressed his support to the band after they published the video, writing in the post comments, "[No se preocupen]. Los fans [seguiremos apoyándolos]. Los demás son gente sin qué hacer. [Nosotros] sabemos quiénes son". Emiliano, who has conflicts with his family, commented at the same video with many Mexican flags and answered him: "Grupo 'Frontera', me los paso por los huevos. Puro México". After that, he published another series of Instagram stories repeating his hatred to the band and exploding against his stepbrother (referring to him as "Gallito Fino"), relating his sympathy with an indifference to immigrant community, arguing, "Aquí está un mexicano que muere por su raza con los huevos bien puestos. [...] Tú siempre has tenido todo, nunca te ha faltado la atención y el amor del público". He finished saying that they talked about the problem peacefully in private, but Leonardo worsened the situation because "[él] ya [rugió]". According to TVNotas' Jessica Luna, Emiliano may have deleted the stories chain speedly, after a possible scolding from his father due to the overwhelming attacks.