Pandora Debuts New Station in Honor of Hispanic Heritage Month

By N. Jamiyla Chisholm Oct 08, 2019

In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month (which runs September 15 through October 15), Pandora launched a new Latinx music station called El Detour. “El Detour highlights the genres and artists that can’t be put in a box and are challenging the definition of what it means to be a Latinx artist,” according to the streamer’s station description. Music lovers who tune in will hear artists like Los Wálters, Bomba Estéreo and Rubytates.

Pandora’s head of Latin music, Marcos Juárez, says the explosion of new, creative projects in the genre makes complete sense. “It’s probably not a coincidence that the current surge of Latin music in the U.S. coincides with some of the most overt attempts to try and intimidate, repress and subjugate our people in recent memory,” Juárez told Forbes on Monday (October 7). “From what I’ve seen in my lifetime, whenever there is structural repression of marginalized people, the creative output of those being repressed accelerates in defiance. By actively and outwardly celebrating who we are, we rise above the bullshit.”