The Ultimate Latine Music Travel Playlist
Starting with some old-school rancheras until the most recent reggaeton hits, we have gathered a playlist that we hope will inspire Latines to travel, even if to adventure to the nearby park. May the playlist encourage viajeres to reflect on our international world, connecting with ancestral roots, immigration struggles, and solidarity across nations in Latin America or beyond. The aim is to create viajere nostalgia from past adventures near (family rancho or finca in the motherland) or far (international travel to a new continent). The main list of 25 songs below has been added chronologically, including additional “honorable mention” songs also added in chronological order. All the songs are included in our Youtube playlist and Spotify playlist for your enjoyment!
Allá en el Rancho Grande - Jorge Negrete (1920, Mexico)
“Allá en el rancho grande, allá donde vivía”. A song that invokes nostalgia of the rancho or finca where our families live in the motherland. As is with most old school media, we can’t forget to point out the machismo of some of the words:
“Había una rancherita, que alegre me decía
Que alegre me decía (¿Qué te decía?)
Te voy a hacer tus calzones (¿Cómo?)”
2. Volver – Carlos Gardel (1934, Argentina)
With this song, the lyrics speak for themselves as to why it made the list:
“Y aunque no quise el regreso
Siempre se vuelve al primer amor
La vieja calle donde el eco dijo
Tuya es su vida, tuyo es su querer
Bajo el burlon mirar de las estrellas
Que con indiferencia hoy me ven volver”
….
“Pero el viajero que huye
Tarde o temprano detiene su andar”
3. Samba De Avião – Tom Jobim (1963, Brazil)
A beautiful interpretation of flying over Rio and observing the most famous part of the city from the view of an airplane window, this song is one of a few Brazilian Portuguese additions to our playlist.
4. Rutas Argentinas - Luis Alberto Spinetta (1970, Argentina)
Who else wouldn’t want to road trip through Argentina, maybe from Buenos Aires to Patagonia? This song speaks of taking routes through Argentina:
“A ese auto que me lleve por las rutas argentinas
Rutas argentinas, rutas argentinas, hasta el fin”
5. Volver, Volver - Fernando Z. Maldonado (1972, Mexico)
Although it talks mostly about love and going back to an ex lover, “Volver” makes us think of going back to a land once visited, a place once called home, or finding love abroad. We love all of the covers that exist of this song, even if Vicente Fernandez first popularized it in 1978! Ana Gabriel’s cover is a perfect feminine interpretation of this beautiful song.
6. Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club (1984, Cuba)
This song tells the story of a couple - Chan Chan and Juanica - who are building a house and travel to the beach. There are four Cuban towns mentioned in Chan Chan, and they are located on the Sierra Nipe corridor in the northern sector of the former Oriente province, now known as Holguín. Mayarí is on the Bay of Nipe - the largest of the 4 townships located in sugar cane country. From there the route begins towards the southern side of the province to the province capital of Santiago de Cuba, going through Cueto, Marcané and Alto Cedro. Compay, the bandleader, is from the Siboney - a suburb of Santiago in the southern region of Oriente but used to travel to the northern side because his auntie was a resident of Marcané, from there he would go to the beaches of Mayarí Bay, which explains the “sex on the beach” innuendos.
“De Alto Cedro voy para Marcané
Llego a Cueto, voy para Mayarí”
7. Vamos Fugir - Gilberto Gil (1984, Brazil)
“Fugir” means “to run away”, and Gilberto is urging his love to go away with him in this chill reggae vibe in Brazilian Portuguese.
8. Baila Esta Cumbia - Selena (1990, Texas / TexMex)
Although this song isn’t specifically about travel or adventures, we love how Cumbia represents a genre of music that spans many Latin American countries with cross-cultural collaboration. Cumbia was originally born on the Caribbean coast of Colombia in the 1800s colonial era when enslaved Indigenous and African people mixed their music as a way to find some kind of joy through such terrible conditions. The word Cumbia derives from African Bantu (a language of the Central African area, especially Equatorial Guinea and Congo) word “Kumbé” which means “to dance” or “drums”. By the 1940s, a Mexican orchestra director Rafael de Paz brought Colombian musician Luis Carlos Meyer (from Barranquilla, of parents from Martinique and Trinidad & Tobago) to Monterrey for the very first recording of Cumbia. After that, the genre exploded in Mexico, and then throughout Latin America, which created other categories of Cumbia. They began mixing Cumbia with other Latin big band rhythms. By the 1980’s, Cumbia even made it to the US TexMex / Tejano scene, which eventually inspired Selena’s music. Who doesn’t love Selena in the Latine community? Anything for Selenaaaas!
9. Tren al Sur - Los Prisioneros (1990, Chile)
Wouldn’t it be fun to take a train ride through Chile? This song helps us envision just that:
“Siete y media en la mañana
Mi asiento toca la ventana
Estación central, segundo carro
Del ferrocarril que me llevará al sur
Ya estas fierros van andando
Y mi corazón esta saltando
Porque me llevan a las tierras
Donde al fin podré de nuevo
Respirar adentro y hondo
Alegrías del corazón, a ha ha
Y no me digas pobre
Por ir viajando así
No ves que estoy contento
No ves que voy feliz”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNOdFQ-BN7o
10. Amor a la Mexicana - Thalia (1997, Mexico)
This song makes us think of falling in love with someone from another culture, specifically someone who is Mexican, and how falling in love with them would be or feel like as a non-Mexican:
“Amor a la mexicana
De cumbia, huapango y son
Caballo, bota, y sombrero
Tequila, tabaco y ron”
11. La Vida es un Carnaval - Celia Cruz (1998, Miami / Cuba)
Although this song doesn’t mention travel, or anything international for that matter, it does mention life being like a “Carnival”. One of the most widely celebrated seasons around the world is Carnival, with world famous celebrations in Brazil, Colombia, Trinidad, and more. This song might not refer to the actual celebration itself, but rather to look at life as a celebration metaphorically. The fact that it’s the Afro-Cubana queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz, makes this song that much better.
12. Extraño Mi Pueblo - Frank Reyes (1999, Dominican Republic)
The title explains enough why this song made the list. Who doesn’t miss their pueblo, the pueblo(s) where your parents or family are from, and the nostalgia a song can bring when you think back to that special ancestral location.
13. Clandestino - Manu Chao (2000, Spain)
This song is an ode to all of those who are labeled as “illegal” or “criminal” for being immigrants even though they are looking for a better life for themselves and their family, or dealing with the fact that a border crossed their own ancestral land. Travel isn’t always leisure, travel is sometimes forced migration, under a refugee status, and/or for survival.
14. I Love Salsa! - N’Klabe (2005, Puerto Rico)
What can bring people together, across borders, and in solidarity better than music and dancing? Salsa! This song talks about how this genre of music and dance has crossed borders from Puerto Rico to New York, and:
“De Colombia a Venezuela, de Japón a Panamá
Todos lo dicen de su manera de una forma peculiar
Esto es un ritmo muy contagioso que a todos lleva a bailar
Si la gente me pide salsa, salsa les voy a dar
I love salsa!”
15. La Vuelta al Mundo – Calle 13 (2010, Puerto Rico)
Calle 13 never disappoints, and their reference to travel is clear in this song:
“Así que agarra tu maleta
El bulto, los motetes
El equipaje, tu valija
La mochila con todos tus juguetes
Y, dame la mano
Y vamos a darle la vuelta al mundo”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_zZmsFZDaM&t=129s
16. Bachata en Fukuoka – Juan Luis Guerra (2010, Dominican Republic)
Who doesn’t want to dance a style of music that doesn’t correspond to the location even a little bit. Latin music and dance has taken the world by a storm, so wouldn’t it be fun to Bachata from Japan, to Russia, to Nigeria, to Turkey, and so on? It would be amazing to exchange a style of dance like Bachata, and in return learn, for example, a Japanese style like Kabuki.
17. Latinoamérica – Calle 13, Totó La Momposina, Susana Baca, Maria Rita (2010, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil)
This song has recently become a battle cry for the 2020 civil unrest in Colombia protesting the government, and displays such beautiful solidarity across Latin America to fight for your motherland:
“Soy lo que me enseñó mi padre
El que no quiere a su patria, no quiere a su madre
Soy América Latina
Un pueblo sin piernas, pero que camina, ¡oye!”
18. De Donde Vengo Yo - ChocQuibTown (2010, Colombia)
What do you share with pride about the place you’re from? This song encourages pride from where you come from, especially the bandmates ChocQuibTown who come from el Chocó, a department in Colombia from which negative stereotypes are created by people in the rest of the country.
19. Somos Sur - Ana Tijoux ft. Shadia Mansour (2014, Chile)
A creative display of international solidarity of people from Chile to Palestine, this song includes an Arabic appearance from Palestenian Shadia Mansour:
“Nigeria, Bolivia
Chile, Angola, Puerto Rico y Tunisia
Argelia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Costa Rica
Camerún, Congo, Cuba, Somalía
México, República Dominicana, Tanzania
Fuera yankee de América Latina
Franceses, ingleses y holandeses
Yo te quiero libre Palestina”
20. La Patria Madrina - Lila Downs ft. Juanes (2015, Mexico / Colombia)
This is another Latinamerican collaboration showing solidarity from Mexico to Colombia:
“¿Cuáles son los ideales de los latinoamericanos?
Mis hermanitos
El sueño de Simón Bolivar
José Martí
Vicente Guerrero”
21. La Gozadera - Gente de Zona ft. Marc Anthony (2015, Cuba / Puerto Rico)
Yet another gorgeous masterpiece of Latin American solidarity, with lyrics like the following:
“La cosa está bien dura, la cosa está divina
Perú con Honduras, Chile con Argentina
Panamá trae la zandunga, Ecuador bilirrubina
Y Uruguay con Paraguay, hermano con Costa Rica
Bolivia viene llegando, Brasil ya está en camino
El mundo se está sumando, a la fiesta de los latinos (Ponle)”
22. La Bicicleta - Carlos Vives ft. Shakira (2016, Colombia)
This song was serendipitous for our founder Ale because it came out right before she moved to Colombia from San Diego, California. For two years before that moment, she was getting to her nearby yoga classes by bike. Soon after, she moved to begin her Peace Corps service, where training took place in Shakira’s birthplace of Barranquilla, mentioned in this song, and was later placed not too far from Parque Tayrona along the Caribbean coast also mentioned in this song. Ale later rode her bike everywhere at the pueblo she was placed in, Dibulla, La Guajira. Who doesn’t love to get around, adventure, and travel by bike? (Also, this song didn’t age well, no dejes que las letras te Sal-Piquen if ya know what we mean…)
“Todos dicen (Lleva, llévame en tu bicicleta)
Pa' que juguemos bola 'e trapo allá en Chancleta
Que si a Piqué algún día le muestras el Tayrona
Después no querrá irse pa' Barcelona”
23. Internacionales - Bomba Estéreo (2017, Colombia)
This title speaks for itself, with another anthem for solidarity across borders, as foreign travelers, as immigrants, etc:
“Somos los originales
Súper internacionales
Escuchamos tus consejos y aprendemos tus modales
Y aunque somos diferentes, a la vez somos iguales
En la misma situación en distintos lugares”
24. Telepatía - Kali Uchis (2020, US / Colombia)
This is such a Millenial/Gen Z style song, for two generations that love non-religious spirituality. The song title translates to “Telepathy”, referring to how two lovers connect in an ethereal way even if they are in a long distance relationship:
“You know I'm just a flight away
If you want it, you can take a private plane
A kilómetros estamos conectando
Y me prendes aunque no me estés tocando”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn_p95HbHoQ
25. Me Fui de Vacaciones - Bad Bunny (2022, Puerto Rico)
It was hard to choose which song from Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” album was best for the “Top 25” list, as the whole album is an ode to Summer and vacationing in Puerto Rico. A close second was his song “Un Coco” (added to the following “Honorable Mention” list), which mentions:
“Búscame el encendedor, ey
Que si no te olvido me vo'a mudar pa Chile
Pa Argentina o pa El Salvador”
But it’s his song “Me Fui de Vacaciones” that hits the nail on the target:
“El sol salió a janguear con las nube' y me regalaron un día cabrón
Como cuando me quedaba en Boquerón o en Manatí
Lo mejor nunca se sube, a menos que en la radio salga esta canción
Hoy vo'a darle paz a mi corazón, por eso me perdí
…
Me fui de vacacione' “
Honorable Mention Songs for Traveling (these are all included in playlists created):
Guantanamera - Joseíto Fernández (1929, Cuba)
One Love - Bob Marley & the Wailers (1965, Jamaica)
Un Beso y una Flor – José Luis Armenteros y Pablo Herrero (1972, Spain)
Quimbara - Celia Cruz (1974, Miami/Cuba)
Jamming - Bob Marley & the Wailers (1977, Jamaica)
A Dois Passos do Paraiso - Blitz (1983, Brazil)
Cali Pachanguero - Grupo Niche (1984, Colombia)
Encontros e Despedidas - Milton Nascimento (1985, Brazil)
Rebelion - Joe Arroyo (1986, Colombia)
Rayando el Sol - Maná (1990, Mexico)
Vento Ventania - Biquíni Cavadão (1991, Brazil)
Voy en un Coche – Cristina y los Subterráneos (1992, Spain)
Bidi Bidi Bom Bom - Selena (1994, Texas / TexMex)
Abriendo Puertas - Gloria Estefan (1995, Miami/Cuba)
Candela - Buena Vista Social Club (1997, Cuba)
Fiesta Colombiana - Orquesta Guayacán (1997, Colombia)
La Negra tiene Tumbao - Celia Cruz (2001, Miami / Cuba)
Me Gustas Tu - Manu Chao (2001, Spain)
Sueños - Diego Torres (2001, Argentina)
Aquele Lugar - Planta e Raiz (2002, Brazil)
Encontros e Despedidas – Maria Rita (2003, Brazil)
Esta Vida - Jorge Celedón (2006, Colombia)
Atrévete-te-te - Calle 13 (2006, Puerto Rico)
Mama Tierra - Macaco (2006, Spain)
Oye Mi Canto - N.O.R.E. ft. Daddy Yankee, Nina Sky, Gem Star, Big Mato (2006, NYC)
Vilarejo - Marisa Monte (2006, Brazil)
Fuego - Bomba Estéreo (2008, Colombia)
Colgando en tus Manos - Carlos Baute ft Marta Sanchez (2008, Venezuela / Spain)
Yo me llamo Cumbia - Totó La Momposina (2009, Colombia)
Llegará la Primavera – Bongo Bontrako (2010, Spain)
Zapata Se Queda - Lila Downs ft Celso Piña y Totó la Momposina (2011, Mexico)
Te Invito - Herencia de Timbiquí (2011, Colombia)
Pongan Atención - Farina (2012, Colombia)
Vivir mi Vida - Marc Anthony (2013, Puerto Rico)
Madre Tierra (Oye) - Chayanne (2014, Puerto Rico)
Prende la Vela - Totó La Momposina (2014, Colombia)
La Vida (Respira el Momento) - Calle 13 (2014, Puerto Rico)
Mi Libertad - Monsieur Periné (2015, Colombia)
Algo está Cambiando - Bomba Estéreo (2015, Colombia)
Contra el Viento – El Son de la Chama (2016, Spain)
Cuba Isla Bella - Orishas (2016, Cuba)
Vacaciones - Wisin (2017, Puerto Rico)
Soledad y el Mar - Natalia Lafourcade (2017, Mexico)
Flight 22 - Kali Uchis (2018, US / Colombia)
Ahora o Nunca – La Pegatina ft. Macaco (2018, Spain)
Aguacero de Mayo - Totó la Momposina (2018, Colombia)
Otra Noche en Miami - Bad Bunny (2018, Puerto Rico)
Portarme Mal - Farina (2018, Colombia)
Salsa Pa' Olvidar las Penas - Víctor Manuelle ft Gilberto Santa Rosa (2018, Puerto Rico)
Aguacero - Farina (2018, Colombia)
Calma - Pedro Capó ft. Farruko (2019, Puerto Rico)
La Playa - Myke Towers (2020, Puerto Rico)
Del Mar - Ozuna ft. Sia & Doja Cat (2020, Puerto Rico)
Agua - Bomba Estéreo (2021, Colombia)
Un Coco - Bad Bunny (2022, Puerto Rico)
Ciudadana - Romeo Santos (2022, NYC / Dominican Republic)
Make sure to check out all of these songs included on our Youtube playlist and Spotify playlist.
To save this playlist to a Youtube library:
Go to a video that's part of a playlist.
On the right, select the playlist.
In the playlist box, click Save playlist.
How to copy someone's Spotify playlist:
Open the Spotify app on your computer.
Click on the New Playlist button.
Name your playlist, and click the CREATE button.
Search for a source playlist.
Select all the songs by pressing Ctrl+A.
Click on the songs, drag them over your playlist name on the left-hand side.
ALSO...Select on a playlist to save it to Your Library.
What other songs should be added to this playlist, and why? Comment below!
