Julián Cedillo, aka WACHO!, Makes Traditionally Spanish Cumbia in English

Growing up, Julián Cedillo listened to a lot of Latin music. With a mother from Argentina and a father from Mexico, Spanish rock ballads and Tejano tracks were a staple in his Fort Worth home. Now, the 25-year-old musician is reimagining traditionally Spanish language music and releasing what he calls “hybrid cumbias” in English.

“I'm from Texas, at the end of the day,” Cedillo says. “I can say, I'm Latino and talk about where my parents are from all day, but like, I was born and raised in Texas, and that's just another way of blending all the cultures that make me.”

While cumbia music is said to have originated in Colombia, its popularity is so widespread that its signature combination of drums, flutes, maracas, accordions and other indigenous instruments can be heard all across Latin America.

Cedillo’s motivation for making cumbia music in English was to introduce the style to people who don’t speak Spanish. He says that while they can listen and enjoy the sound, they won’t really know what it’s about if they can’t understand the lyrics. But that wasn’t his only reason.

“I think it's just neat for people who are from Latin America, or do speak Spanish, or like cumbia in Spanish, just to see it done in a different way,” he says.

Aligning with his goal to make Spanish music more accessible, Cedillo decided to release music under the stage name “WACHO!” rather than use his real one. This pseudonym comes from the Spanish word “guacho” which can mean “orphan” in some Latin countries. In Argentina, Cedillo says you often hear “wacho” or “guacho” used as slang for “dude” or “bro.” However, the word holds an even deeper meaning to his bi-cultural identity.

Cedillo says he went to a predominantly white school and was often called derogatory names. When he hung out with Mexicans, they called him Argentinian and when he spent time with Argentinians they called him Mexican.

“What the hell? Where am I supposed to go?” he says. “So it kind of created this thing where I related to music. Cumbia is a form of protest music. It has a lot of different purposes, but I just found this attachment to it. Especially the cumbias coming out of Argentina. They had their own sound.”

His latest music video, “More Than Human,” was shot in an Austin taco shop and directed by Dallas native Ash Rosas, has a hint of hip-hop to it and his vocal style reminds us a little of another North Texas singing rapper we love, Post Malone. In fact, Cedillo says when he first started writing he did a lot of freestyling over hip-hop beats and originally launched himself into the music scene using the “rapper name” Young WACHO! before quickly deciding it wasn't a fit.

“That is so stupid,” he says with a laugh. “Why did I do that? I was like screw that. I’m just going to take it off and claim WACHO! People have a hard time saying my real name. So it’s easier. WACHO! like nacho – you can’t really mess that up.”

He also notes that the stage name was a nod to his favorite childhood movie, “Nacho Libre.”

“It has this awesome soundtrack,” he said. “A lot of cumbia, Latin rock, Latin songwriter stuff. Growing up, I remember on my dad’s computer, he had the soundtrack downloaded and I always listened to it.”

Cedillo got his first guitar when he was 12 or 13 years old, he says. By age 16, he had started volunteering at a popular DIY music venue called 1919 Hemphill on Fort Worth’s south side.

“I saw a lot of bands there,” he said. “It kind of exposed me to a lot of different types of music and people.”

Around the same time, he began taking guitar lessons with musician Carlos Saenz of the local band Latin Express.

“They are some OGs, and they definitely were also a big inspiration,” he said.

While learning more about cumbia, Tejano and Chicano soul during lessons with Saenz, Cedillo was performing in his high school jazz band. On top of that, he was still exploring other genres while playing in doom and black metal bands around Deep Ellum. But it wouldn’t be until a few years later, after an unfortunate turn of events, that he would start writing and producing for others as well.

When Cedillo was 18, he and his girlfriend at the time were run over by a drunk driver while waiting for an Uber. He suffered serious injuries to his body and brain. The artist’s life, defined by loud and rowdy music venues, was quickly traded for a long stay in his dark and quiet room.

“I was like John McCain,” Cedillo jokes. “I couldn't raise my arms past, like, my shoulders.”

The accident may have been a hiccup in his career as a performer, but the young artist didn’t give up on his musical dreams and used the downtime to improve his technical skills. While concussed, bedridden and unable to do simple tasks like bathe without the help of his family, he began spending hours on YouTube, watching tutorials on how to produce music.

He went on to study marketing at the University of Pittsburgh and is finishing a one year post-grad program for production and songwriting at a Berklee College campus in New York City.

“I was like, this is what I want to do,” he says. “ I need to go and see what the industry is doing. So as I came here, and have been learning a lot, kind of connecting all the dots that I already kind of had mapped out.”

The Fort Worth native isn’t signed to any labels, though he would consider it as long as he maintained artistic freedom over his work and it wasn’t censored.

“I'm always making songs,” said Cedillo. “I can't control it. And if I want something out in the world, it needs to be out in the world."

You can follow Cedillo on Instagram or find his music on Apple Music, YouTube and Spotify.