Sam Quinones on Chalino Sánchez, the King of Corridos Who Couldn’t Sing (And Why That Didn’t Matter)

Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with Sam Quinones, journalist, former L.A. Times staff writer and one of the first reporters to write about Chalino Sánchez in the U.S., to talk about the man who looms large over Mexican-American music and the legend that outlived him.
They start with who Chalino was: an immigrant from Sinaloa who wrote corridos in Los Angeles, sang them “like battery acid,” and became a star in the Southeast cities before he was killed in Culiacán in 1992. Sam explains how he reported a biography on a man with almost no paper trail, from the polleros of Tijuana to the engineer who recorded his first album, and why he’s comfortable with a story where the myth is part of the record.
Then they dig into why Chalino connected. Sam talks about the Southeast L.A. cities as one big rancho, the cowboy hats, belt buckles and brick cell phones at El Parral, and how a singer who sounded like his audience closed the gap between star and fan. They trace how he got famous without radio, selling tapes at bakeries, car washes and swap meets and blasting them from truck stereos, and compare it to punk and early hip-hop. They also talk about why Sam sees the murders of corrido singers after Chalino as vengeance, not censorship, and how the corrido went from a poor man facing power to propaganda for the powerful.
Plus: how Chalino made the tuba cool, and Sam’s latest book, a photo project on the Virgen de Guadalupe murals of Los Angeles, with an interactive map where you can add your own.
And because this is De Los Podcast, they end with Sam’s lesson from Chalino: don’t copy the hat, find your own way.
Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro.
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From the Los Angeles Times and Sonoro comes the De Los Podcast — a weekly conversation where music, pop culture and Latinidad collide. Hosted by De Los editors Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito, the show pulls back the curtain on the stories, people and cultural moments shaping the Latino experience in the U.S. and beyond. Every episode is a front-row seat to conversations with the artists, actors, filmmakers and thinkers who are moving the culture forward — not just talking about it. Guests include Leslie Grace, Sen Dog of Cypress Hill, Xolo Maridueña, Fabrizio Guido, producer and singer Empress Of, among others. Think of it as the cultural conversation that major American media rarely makes room for — a space where Latinos get to talk, unfiltered, about what they create and who they are. Produced by Los Angeles Times, L.A. Times Studios, and Sonoro. New episodes every week — available on YouTube and all major podcasts.