Black singer of regional Mexican music sparks buzz
Before clicking the Instagram video, the sight intrigued most. Sarah Palafox, a Black woman, held an iPhone while standing in front of mariachis. When users turned on the volume, they heard a woman belting out a heartbreak interpretation of Jenni Rivera’s “Qué Me Vas A Dar” in perfect Spanish of Mexico’s Zacatecas. Instagram users said the short clip made them cry. Others demanded more.
But most wondered: Who was this woman with a voice like the late Tejano star Selena? And what’s her story?
Palafox, an African American woman raised by a Mexican immigrant family, has generated excitement online with her versions of regional Mexican music. Born in Southern California but raised in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, 23-year-old Palafox, who goes by the stage name Sarah La Morena, has sparked emotions following a series of viral videos on social media.
The clip of Palafox singing with mariachis spawned a half of million views on Instagram and another 200,000 on Twitter. Other videos of her singing banda — another form of regional music from Mexico’s southwest coast — also have been shared thousands of times. She is working on an album.
However, as Palafox has been stoking a frenzy with her voice, she’s also been the target of a racist backlash online over her love of Mexican music. A few Black social media users accuse of her being ashamed of her Blackness. Some Latino users sling racist slurs and accused her of appropriation. The insults come in English and Spanish.
Palafox said the scorn is
similar to what she faced after her family returned to Southern California when she was in middle school. That has led to bouts of depression and a suicide attempt in 2018, she said.
“Just the fact of how I was brought up, and what I was born into, and what I got raised in, I mean, I have like the best of both worlds,” said Palafox, who sports a Selena tattoo.
On social media, Palafox has shared her story of being born addicted to drugs and thrust into a foster care system after authorities took her away from her biological mother, an African American woman. A devout Christian family from Mexico offered to foster her but soon fell in love with her. They officially adopted her and moved to Zacatecas.
When the family returned to the U.S., kids in school didn’t know what to make of Palafox, a Black girl who spoke no English and saw herself as Mexican. Today, as a mother of two and a recently signed
artist to Silent Giant Entertainment, Palafox is focusing on the positive responses to her music.
For years, a few African American artists have tried to sing in Spanish to reach Latino fans in the U.S. and abroad. For example, Nat King Cole recorded three Spanish-language studio albums in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Other Black artists, such as Beyoncé, have recorded Spanish versions of their popular hits at the time. Michael Jackson also recorded a Spanish-language version of “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” called “Todo Mi Amor Eres Tú.”
But rarely has a Black artist embraced and authentically captured Mexican regional music like Palafox, according to Alexandro José Gradilla, a Chicana and Chicano Studies professor at California State University, Fullerton.
“She takes authenticity to a whole new level. ... She is Mexican and this music is hers,” Gradilla said.