It could be that President Donald Trump and Grupo Frontera — a hugely popular Mexican American band due to perform in Chicago later this year — simply have similar tastes in music.
The president likes to pump his fists to the Village People’s hit “Y.M.C.A.” at rallies. But when Grupo Frontera danced along to the 1978 song in a now-deleted TikTok video, some in the Mexican American community took it as not-so-subtle support of the president’s return to the White House. Given Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, the band — one of the scheduled headliners at the Sueños festival in May in Grant Park — has faced backlash.
A petition posted last Tuesday on Change.org is seeking to have them removed from the festival lineup. As of Tuesday, the petition had over 9,700 signatures.
That’s despite a statement Friday from Grupo Frontera on Instagram stories saying the band has “no affiliation or alliance with any political party that is against immigrants and the Latino community.”
“Sueños Festival is a time to celebrate our culture and heritage. Hate has no place at this event. Cancel Grupo Frontera,” wrote one petition signer.
“They are making money off the Mexican (people), yet they support a man who has been voicing his hatred openly towards the Hispanic community since he first ran in 2016,” wrote another.
The Chicago man who started the petition said he’d been a fan of the band and had paid about $800 for two tickets to Sueños, but says he now hopes to get a refund. He said Monday that he isn’t convinced the Grupo Frontera statement was legitimate, noting that the post has since vanished.
“If it was real, it would be on their page for at least 24 hours,” said the petition organizer who, for privacy reasons, preferred to be quoted as Espiritu. “I have been actively looking at their page.”
A representative for the band confirmed that the Friday statement was authentic.
Espiritu admitted there is nothing in the TikTok “Y.M.C.A.” video that expressly shows the band’s alleged support for Trump. Espiritu said it’s implicit in the timing of the video’s posting — when it became clear that Trump was going to win the election.
Festival organizers did not respond to multiple requests from the Sun-Times for comment.
One of the Sueños festival co-founders, Christopher Den Uijl, however, posted a note on his Instagram page Friday addressed to the “Latino Community.” Among other things, Den Uijl says that neither he nor his festival co-founder are Trump supporters.
“Our festival was created with one purpose — to celebrate, uplift and bring joy to the Latino community,” he wrote. “That has always been our mission and that will never change.”
The post makes no specific mention of Grupo Frontera.