“Are you a Mexican from Texas?”
For 28-year-old Alejandro Garrido, known as one half of rising country duo Kat and Alex Georgia and Alex, the question is familiar to one of their more than half a million — often Mexican or Mexican-American — country music fans on TikTok. .
“No, I’m not,” says Georgia. “I’m Puerto Rican, born in Miami and raised in northwest Georgia. My wife (Kat Luna) is Cuban and grew up in Miami around Cuban cowboys listening to Garth Brooks and classic country artists.”
For a significant portion of country music history, the definition of the Latin art genre is almost exclusively occupied by the likes of San Benito, Freddy Fender, Texas-born Sabinal, Johnny Rodriguez, Guadalajara, Mexico ranchera icon Vincente Fernández , and modern names like San Marcos, Texas’ Star de Azlan, San Antonio-based “Tex-Mex” artist Veronique Medrano, El Paso’s Valerie Ponzio, plus New Mexico-born Frank Ray.
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Save the acclaimed, more than three-decade series of Mexican-Cuban Mavericks, rooted in Miami, so much of the genre’s roots in Mexican and Mexican-American art—mixed with the American pop-cultural boom surrounding food and alcohol from Mexican—has created a culture fueled by the romanticization of rural, fajita-munching vaqueros and tequila-swilling senoritas that dominate Latino interactions in country music.
However, Latin America is a region of 20 countries with nearly 700 million inhabitants. Thus, assuming any level of monolithic notions about these people and their way of life is inherently short-sighted and wrong.
Through Kat & Alex’ Hispanic Heritage Month-released bilingual EP “Side A/Lado B” (chosen because they “own so many records, (their) house looks like a vintage store”), they aim to continue to both change the positive trajectory of their careers as well as expand the narrow-minded notions surrounding the Latino experience in the genre.
The EP will feature bilingual versions of six tracks. For Georgia, the desire to consistently reflect the couple’s Latin and American roots has been imperative. He notes that Spanish is his and his wife’s first language.
“We wouldn’t have it any other way,” says 21-year-old Luna.
Of the collection, the standout is their version of “Marry You,” a songwriting collaboration between Maren Morris and the now-deceased producer Busbee.
The song was originally an uncut demo written by Morris as a tribute to her husband, Ryan Hurd. For Kat & Alex, the song serves as a way to point out how they, as a married couple in love, are united as much by their dreams of success as by the potential of their lives together . It also gave them the ability, if only second hand, to work with the highly regarded producer.
“It’s also really cool to work with so many writers who say, ‘I want to write some songs in Spanish today,'” adds Georgia about a growing trend in country songwriting rooms that Kat & Alex is benefiting from. :
There are more artists and songwriters in Nashville with conversational language skills than ever before.
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“(Singer) Luke Preston once told us he’d learned Spanish in college, then sat down and wrote two of our favorite lines in our entire catalog of music,” says Luna.
Furthermore, when asked to decide which of their EP’s songs — “I Want It All” or the translated “Yo Quiero Amarte” — they favored, Luna smiled, laughed, then composed herself and said:
“For me, I can’t compare. Translations—especially from English to Spanish—change the meanings of the songs. So I love them all the same, in different ways.”
Georgia adds – in an exclusive – that “Side A” Kat & Alex EP will contain a bilingual version of “I Want It All”, combining the two languages.
In the past 12 months, the duo has become a red carpet staple at awards shows, video regulars in CMT rotation, took the stage at Nissan Stadium in Nashville during CMA Fest and debuted at the Grand Ole Opry.
Just two years ago, they were hitting the ground running as Latino country artists as contestants on reality TV singing competitions.
Regarding their pairing being fueled by Luke Bryan’s encouragement while they were both contestants on “American Idol” in 2020, Georgia notes that Bryan “knows his stuff” about country music. Luna added that she’s idolized Bryan “since childhood” and that his mentorship has been “surreal.”
“It’s been a beautiful journey,” says Georgia. “On social media, the time we spent working may look beautiful, but people don’t see the long nights of blood, sweat and tears of fighting for what we believe in.”
Georgia finds no precise definition of what it means to be a “Latin country artist.” Instead, he finds that the growth of opinions and options related to “speaking the truth in country music” is the most critical concept to celebrate in the genre’s modern era.
Georgia notes that Latin and American cultures share faith, family, food and friends as core values in country music.
“When it comes to country music, the culture we share is starting to transcend everything else,” he says. “Like other country artists, we love who we are and what we do, and we’re glad that people are affected by our music. This is an exciting time.”
