- 10 minutes ago
Edgar Barrera & Jonas Cuaron sit down with Billboard Espanol’s Associate Editor, Isabela Raygoza, at SXSW 2026 to discuss their groundbreaking film ‘Campeón Gabacho,’ which tells a timely and powerful story about Mexican immigration through the lens of music, boxing, and resilience.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Buenas tardes. Welcome to Billboard House, everybody.
00:04¿Cómo están?
00:05Muy bien, muy bien.
00:06Pues aquí tenemos el placer de tener a Jonás Cuarón y Edgar Barrera con nosotros.
00:11And I'm very excited pues para platicar de la película nueva.
00:15We'll do this in English, but sometimes I speak very Spanglish.
00:18So excuse me for my Spanglish.
00:20Good Spanglish.
00:22Yeah, so you know, you've both had such an impressive career.
00:26Obviously, Jonás, you've had Gravity, award-winning films, Desierto y Edgar Barrera.
00:33You're a constant chart topper on the Billboard charts.
00:36The best producer in Latin music, El Jefe.
00:41Y pues bueno, es un placer tenerlos aquí.
00:43Y pues first of all, what has working together on this field taught you about each other's work?
00:51No, you know, I started this movie knowing music was going to play a huge role.
00:57So I, you know, in the editing process, I really quickly found like that I, you know, I like that
01:02I wanted to approach Edgar.
01:04And I think a huge thing I learned about music in this process is that, you know, like the job
01:14Edgar does is very, it's very crazy.
01:18It's like how he manages to write songs, but also bring together artists from all over and like produce these
01:28really amazing songs really impressed me.
01:31And, well, for me, it's so crazy because exactly one year ago, I said to myself that I wanted to
01:39kind of like pivot a little bit more to film and television.
01:44And it's so crazy because I get a call like five days after I mentioned it to my wife that
01:52I wanted to pursue like more soundtracks and like film scoring and stuff like that.
01:57And I get the call that, you know, when I was doing this movie, we have a friend in common
02:03near put us together.
02:05And when he told me about the movie, I already knew who I was big fan of his work.
02:12And so crazy how it happened, like five days after mentioning, after saying it out to the world, putting it
02:20out there to the world.
02:21And for me to be doing this soundtrack and this film with the best of the best is such an
02:28honor.
02:30Campeón Gavacho.
02:31It's such a phenomenal film.
02:33I recently had the pleasure to watch it a few days before its global premiere, which is happening in two
02:39days.
02:40It tells such an incredible story.
02:43And it's a very timely story about a Mexican immigrant, Liborio, who settles in New York.
02:50I obviously don't want to reveal too much, but he's caught in between two worlds.
02:55First of all, what first inspired you to tell this story?
03:00So Campeón Gavacho is based on a novel by this writer called Aura Shilonen.
03:05And she wrote it when she was just 18.
03:07And what's really special about the novel is that she invented a whole new language for it, which she called
03:13Inglignol, kind of like a wink at Spanglish.
03:16And it's a mixture of English, Spanish, and like really weird made up words.
03:20And I was very attracted by the lyrical quality of the language of the novel.
03:27And I knew it would make for a movie that was very fun, dynamic, but that also had a very
03:32musical component to it.
03:34Just because the dialogues and the whole flow of the novel and then the way I decided to adapt it
03:40is very musical.
03:41And so, you know, I think that's I wanted to make something that was fun, weird, but that also spoke
03:50about immigration.
03:51I'm always very interested in the subject matter of immigration.
03:54And I found this story very I loved its approach because it talks about immigration, but through a very human
04:02perspective.
04:03I think many times we part of the issue with the discourse of immigration is that it talks of the
04:09immigrant as a concept.
04:10And in this movie, I really wanted the audience to go inside of our main character, Liborio, and see that
04:17he's just a teenager with dreams, in love.
04:21And I wanted to show that in a movie and, you know, and show also how rich it is.
04:28And that's where music played a really important sense.
04:31You know, the movie takes place in New York and I wanted to have a soundtrack that really showed the
04:38rich, the richness of the Latin culture in the U.S. right now.
04:42And I love that it's based in New York City.
04:47It's such a huge melting pot of cultures.
04:49And as you're saying, the soundtrack is incredible.
04:52And I was just briefly talking to Edgar saying that, wait a minute, I'm listening to these songs and I'm
04:59Googling the lyrics to see what songs it is.
05:02Oh, my God, they're not released yet.
05:03And it's the artist featured in the soundtrack is so incredible.
05:07I want you to talk a little bit more about, like, your selecting process and in that aspect.
05:12Well, I mean, I wanted all the songs to be exclusively written for the movie.
05:18It inspired me a lot.
05:20When we first met, I flew, we had the car and I flew to New York, like, the day after.
05:26It was quick.
05:27And he showed me the movie and was mentioning me, like, there's this scene where this happens, this other happens.
05:34And we, the first time, remember, like, it's my first time doing, like, a soundtrack for the film.
05:40But one thing that I wanted to do, like, from the first moments that I saw the film, because it
05:46really moved me a lot, you know, the whole story of an immigrant coming into the U.S.
05:53and suffering and having all these issues that we all go through, we all are immigrants here.
05:58And I wanted all the songs, first, to be exclusively written for the movie, and second, to have a purpose,
06:06to be songs about immigration,
06:08which is something that you kind of don't hear a lot, which we should.
06:13You know, it's, we were probably used back in the 60s or the 80s where there was this revolution of
06:18artists singing songs about protesting and, you know, about the government, what's going on.
06:26And for me, sitting down with artists like Victor Mendivil, which is one of the artists that is in the
06:34movie, and writing a song about immigration, about ICE, what's going on.
06:41The day we wrote that song, he was, he was part of the march about the, it was this march
06:48that happened in L.A.
06:50It was a huge march.
06:51He went to the march, and he got to the studio, like, at 11 p.m., so he, he saw
06:57everything, what was going on in the streets, and him bringing that to the song was just perfect.
07:02And, you know, we have that song.
07:04We have Arcángel singing a song that's about an immigrant coming into the U.S., Eden Muñoz, also Los Tigres
07:11del Norte.
07:11So, I mean, it's, it's a really, really well-thought soundtrack from my end.
07:18I hope you guys enjoy it, too, and everybody that sees the movie.
07:21But, uh, it's got a purpose.
07:23All the songs have a purpose in the movie.
07:27You know, and also the film's protagonist also just captured hearts, well, my heart at least, because he's not your
07:33typical hero.
07:34He's such an unlikely hero.
07:35He's, like, imperfect.
07:36He's mischievous.
07:38He's impulsive.
07:40But also, you know, he wins us over with his humor and, like, his strengths and also with his experience.
07:45You know, obviously there's so many of us that, and so many that we know that go through this immigrant
07:50experience, and it's so challenging, especially today with everything that's happening.
07:54Pero I wanted to ask you, how did you go about shaping him to be so imperfect but also so
08:00relatable to many?
08:02Well, I think, you know, when I started this movie, I knew Liborio was going to be a very, he
08:07carries this movie.
08:09And, you know, I think what's really beautiful about Liborio is that it's a movie where we see him, but
08:16we also are literally a lot of the time inside of his head and his dreams.
08:19You know, I think that's why this is such an interestingly visual movie, because, you know, half of the movie
08:26we're in the reality of New York that he's living in, and the other half of the movie we're experiencing
08:32everything through his imagination.
08:35You know, like, if he falls in love and he feels like floating, he literally, the characters literally float.
08:41And so, you know, I knew I wanted a, I needed a character that would, like, really immediately brings us
08:50in.
08:50And so I already knew about Juan Daniel.
08:52He'd been in a movie, I'm No Longer Here, was shortlisted for the Oscars.
08:58And, you know, I really knew he had all this, the strength the character needed, but also the heart and
09:04the charisma.
09:06And so it was a lot about working with him to really show that playfulness.
09:14You know, it's a movie that a lot of the dialogues have a stylization, this, like, English language and stuff,
09:22but we didn't want that to kind of get in the way.
09:24So it was a lot of kind of, like, rehearsing kind of, like, for a song where he rehearsed so
09:30much that then on the day of performance, he felt really natural and, like, was really able to shine through.
09:36And, you know, also, like, in the soundtrack, the music really amplifies the emotions that is going on with the
09:44scenes shown in the film.
09:46And I'm such a big fan of a lot of the artists that you've selected for the film.
09:50But I also wanted you, if you are willing to share an anecdote, maybe with you pairing a scene specifically
09:59with one of the artists that you worked with.
10:02Yeah, I mean, well, most of the artists that are in the soundtrack are my friends.
10:05So it was basically, like, me coming into a session with the artists, like I usually do, and then them
10:12asking me, like, what are you working on right now?
10:13So I'll be like, I'm doing this film with Jonás Cuaron about immigration.
10:17He's like, what? Like, what's the film about?
10:20And luckily, Jonás had sent me, like, all the scenes that needed the music to be written for.
10:28And I would sit down, like, with Rawaiana.
10:31There's a specific scene where they're also part of the soundtrack.
10:34And there's this scene where Liborio is getting ready to fight.
10:38So it's like, I want Rawaiana.
10:40That was such a powerful scene, by the way.
10:42Yeah.
10:43In Rawaiana, what we wrote takes place, like, in New York.
10:48It's called Después de un Knockout.
10:51And it's, yeah, the whole process of, you know, Beto from Rawaiana also being like, dude, can I meet Jonás?
10:59You know, can I also have the call?
11:01And we were, like, in constant communication throughout the whole process of the soundtrack, too.
11:08And, yeah, I mean, every artist is there for a specific reason.
11:12Every artist that is in the soundtrack is because the artist also wanted to be part of the soundtrack.
11:17And not because, you know, it's, it just didn't happen.
11:22Like, we didn't get, we didn't get a list of songs and be like, oh, we're going to put this
11:26song in the movie.
11:27We're going to put this song in the movie.
11:28Like, everything is fully written for that.
11:31So, you know, and also just talking about the boxing scene, because boxing is very symbolic in the film, literally
11:37and figuratively.
11:39And it's about, you know, just fighting internal battles.
11:42So, how did you decide that boxing would be the one that would, you know, kind of be based on
11:50this film?
11:51Why boxing in specific?
11:52Well, I think why I particularly love the approach to boxing in this movie is that our main character from
12:02the get-go,
12:03his superpower is not like that he's good at punching.
12:06It's actually quite the opposite.
12:08He becomes viral early on in the movie because he receives a beating and then he gets right back up.
12:15And that kind of, the video that goes viral of him getting beaten up.
12:19And then, even though he got beaten up, standing up in the movie becomes viral because to the community he
12:25lives in represents resilience.
12:28You know, it's a character.
12:29Liborio is a character that has been literally and metaphorically receiving beatings his whole life.
12:35So, I think, you know, boxing in the movie really, to me, represents that resilience of the character, but also
12:44the, you know, like the migrant community and stuff,
12:46which is a very resilient, you know, no one talks ever about migration through that point of view, where it's
12:54about resilience.
12:54And so, I was very inspired by that and also how, by the end, once he finds his community, he
13:00also realizes that with the strength of the community, he's no longer going to, like, stand up for a punch.
13:07Yeah, no, that really gave me goosebumps.
13:08But, you know, let's also talk about the star-studded cast.
13:12You know, we have Ruben Blades.
13:14We have Rosario Dawson, Leslie Grace, Cheech, and so many others.
13:18So, you know, these are all stars with different calibers of talent and, you know, some of them legends.
13:25How do they all come together for this film?
13:28Well, I think similar to when we worked on the soundtrack and I knew it was important for Edgar to
13:35kind of represent the wide scope of Latin America in the music.
13:42In the cast, it was similar for me.
13:44I really wanted to show characters in this universe from all over.
13:51You know, we have Dominicanos, Mexicanos, Panameños.
13:56So, I really wanted Chicanos.
13:58I really wanted to show that scope in the cast.
14:02And, I mean, a lot of them I'm, like, you know, like, I'm a huge fan.
14:08And I also, interestingly, noticed, I think, by chance, but I think since always the movie was very musical for
14:17me, I ended up noticing that almost everyone in my cast, one way or another, they're musicians.
14:23You know, like, Ruben Blades is, like, and I got a music, but Cheech Marine has done songs.
14:30Like, Juan Daniel, the lead, also is a musician, so, Leslie Grace.
14:35So, you know, I think there's something interesting in that, in the fact that my instinct drew me to artists
14:42that understood the musicality of the project.
14:45You know, and a lot of them have a very strong hold in New York as well, like Leslie Grace
14:50y entre otros.
14:51But what was surprising to me, as we were talking back there, was that I thought it was filmed in
14:58Bushwick.
14:59And I actually live in Bushwick myself, so I was, like, oh, my God, you know, my hood is being,
15:03you know, kind of showcased.
15:05And then he's, like, wait, I'm glad we made it look that way, but...
15:08I also thought it was in New York, yeah.
15:10So, you fooled us now.
15:12We were in New York when we watched the movie, so I was, like, where did you film this?
15:15Like, can we go to the places where you filmed this?
15:18It's in Mexico, actually.
15:20Like, yeah, when they told me you, like, were happy it was filmed in your neighborhood, I was very flattered
15:25because, you know, it's a movie that is very, as I said, stylized.
15:29It has a heightened reality aspect, so I knew I really wanted to control all aspects of filming, and that
15:36was going to be complicated in New York.
15:38So we decided, but I have always been a fan of New York, and particularly for this story, because I
15:43think New York, not sound trite, but represents that melting pot.
15:47Like, really, you bring in a lot of varied, particularly in the Latino communities, very rich culture from all over
15:56the place.
15:56So, and it's very loud and playful, but I, so we recreated that New York and Mexico City.
16:04Let's talk about also the title, Campeón Gabacho.
16:08You know, and Gabacho is someone from the U.S.
16:13Usually, like, a Mexican would say it's un gringo, ¿verdad?
16:16Pero why did you land on that title specifically?
16:20Well, it's actually the title of the novel, but I was always attracted to the title even before reading the
16:25book,
16:25because to me, it's a really, you know, Campeón, as you said, champion, and Gabacho is someone from the U
16:33.S.,
16:33so to me, it really speaks about this idea of a migrant coming and succeeding in the U.S., you
16:41know,
16:41and I thought that that was, yeah, and more than succeeding, because I think that that's not the point of
16:47the story.
16:47It's actually finding a place, a community, and I was, I find it a very inspiring title.
16:53You know, and Edgar, I've admired your career trajectory and how you've been able to, you know, evolve,
16:59and especially, pues, in film and becoming the supervisor, the music supervisor.
17:04Can you talk a little bit about some challenges or some things that you've learned in the process?
17:10I think the challenges, the challenges are more from another perspective.
17:16Creatively, I think I was very, I had a lot of liberty to kind of do and kind of write
17:23whatever I thought was best for the movie.
17:27For example, one of my dreams was always to work with Los Tigres del Norte,
17:31which are the biggest representatives of our, you know, immigrant community,
17:36and having Los Tigres on the soundtrack and getting to write a song for Los Tigres del Norte
17:43was just, like, mind-blowing for me, you know?
17:46So, so it's having, having, like, an OG artist like Los Tigres del Norte,
17:51but also having Grupo Frontera, for example, with El Alemán,
17:58was kind of, like, to show a little bit of, you know, this is, this is, this has happened, like,
18:03for generations.
18:04It's not something that had, that is an issue that's going on right now.
18:08It's been an issue forever.
18:09It's just that it's, you know, we're going through it, and it's affecting us personally.
18:16But, but yeah, I mean, I, there's, there's more songs that I, that I continued to write after the film
18:21was done.
18:21There's another song right now that I, we were just talking about it with,
18:25I was talking about it with Alex Gallardo, who's also helping us kind of put all of this together with,
18:30with Sony.
18:31There's this song that I just wrote in December, and I sent it to Juan Asa,
18:34and Juan Asa's like, dude, I love this song, and I hope we can get it into the movie.
18:39And it's a song with Carlos Santana that I hope we're crossing fingers that we get into the song.
18:44It's a really, really, really personal song, and talks about some stories about immigrants.
18:50It's, it's a really good, real cool song.
18:52We hope we can, we can get that done.
18:54And I love that, how all these artists really got, got together to really talk about the subject, you know,
18:59and also the immigration and the struggle from, you know, how one experiences these hardships, right?
19:06And it's such a very beautiful theme as well.
19:10It's very powerful.
19:11And now, we're just two days away from this global premiere here at South by Southwest.
19:17What would you, each of you want the audience to take away from the film?
19:21Jonas.
19:21I mean, I'm very excited.
19:23It's screening here at South by Southwest.
19:25I think it's a festival that, you know, it's very exciting for this movie in many senses.
19:31One is the relationship of the festival to music.
19:33Like, but also, it's a festival that really has audiences that, you know, really enjoy movies.
19:42And to me, it's a movie, I'm very excited.
19:43I've, I've seen it with the team.
19:45I've seen it with Edgar, but I've never seen it with a full audience.
19:48And I think it's a, it's a movie that, you know, it does, to your point, it talks, the character
19:54goes in a journey of hardships, violence,
19:56but it also has a lot of, like, love, and it's really fun and funny.
20:01So I, it's, and it's really moving, you know, so I'm really excited to be able to see it with
20:07an audience.
20:09Yeah, for me, it's the same.
20:10I mean, I just hope people enjoy it as much as we enjoy the whole process of working on this.
20:16It's a, it's a very emotional movie.
20:19When I, when I first saw it, and this is like, this is a funny story because I remember what
20:25I said
20:26before I keep on saying it, it's the first time that I work on a soundtrack and a film.
20:30And I first saw the movie when I played it, played it for me in New York, and the movie
20:34wasn't fully finished.
20:36And I was looking at the movie, and I saw, like, a green, big green screen.
20:40I was like, is that going to be part of the movie?
20:41And then, and then, like, the character with the, yeah, with the wires, because he was floating.
20:47The gravity, another part two.
20:48Yeah, there's the gravity part two.
20:51There's this scene where the, one of the, like, Leslie and, and Livordia are both, like, flying.
20:56I don't know if I'm, like, giving it out.
20:59But when we saw it, it was, like, in pre-production.
21:01Like, I could see the wires, and I was like, I wonder if that's going to be the scene,
21:06or if it's going to be fixed.
21:08Luckily, when I saw the movie that was finished, it didn't have the wires.
21:12But I, yeah, that's, that, those are the things that I've been, like, enjoying the whole process,
21:17and kind of, like, learning that, okay, this is, like, it's like the music.
21:21You know, we write the song.
21:22It's not fully mixed.
21:24When I would send the songs to Honas, I would be like, this is, like, the idea.
21:27This is not the final production.
21:29But check out the lyrics.
21:31Check out the melody.
21:32Check out the rhythm and see if this actually works for, for the film, for the, for the scene
21:36that you're imagining.
21:38And we kind of went back and forth.
21:39There were songs where, were written for a specific scene that Honas is brilliant and also said,
21:45like, I think this scene fits better in another, this song fits better in another scene.
21:49So, stuff like that.
21:51And I just, I really enjoyed the process.
21:53And I hope people that watch the movie can relate to the same feeling that we both had
22:00when, when we were doing all this.
22:02I mean, him in the, in doing the film and, and my process of, of the whole writing.
22:09And, you know, you, you mentioned right now there's about 15 songs.
22:14It's like 16 songs.
22:15I think it's like 16, 16 songs right now.
22:17There's no really, there's no singles out yet, right?
22:19There's no singles.
22:20I think, uh, we're still trying to figure out when, when the movie comes out.
22:24Uh, I hope we can get a single before May 31st, maybe.
22:30I don't know.
22:31I'm pushing the label to try to get a single out before May 31st.
22:35Wink.
22:35Yeah.
22:36I hope we can get one of them because there's one of them that I, I feel like the, the
22:40timing
22:40right now really want to say what I wrote and I just want to put it out there.
22:44And I hope it connects with the audience because it's, most of the songs are very personal because
22:49it's, you know, we're immigrants and, and I'm very furious of what's going on in the streets.
22:55And, and I, it's, it's hard to get artists to sing about with a purpose.
23:03You know, most artists are looking for the numbers or looking for charting on top five
23:10or top 10, whatever, top 50 right now.
23:12And, and they're losing the, the real reason of why we're doing this.
23:18It's art.
23:19We're expressing it.
23:20And I hope we can put music out before March, May 31st.
23:24I hope at least one, please.
23:26And I know that the, the soundtrack is going to go with the movie.
23:30So.
23:31No, it's amazing.
23:32The first song was very elegantly paired because it really did encapsulate the overall arching
23:41theme of the story.
23:42La cumbia.
23:44Esa cumbia contagiosa.
23:45It was really good.
23:46There's cumbia.
23:47There's a, there's a little bit of a reggaeton stuff.
23:51There's Davey is also part of the, of the soundtrack.
23:55It's Eladio Carrion is also there.
23:57Bomba Estéreo is there.
23:59Bu Cuaron is also there.
24:00There, uh, El Alemán.
24:03We have El Alemán, Santa Fe Clan.
24:05There's, yeah, the roster, the roster is amazing.
24:07Yeah.
24:07I love the roster.
24:08The roster, they're all great people, great artists.
24:10So.
24:10I was, I was really amazed always how, you know, because we, Aaron and I spoke and he
24:16saw the movie and since he always managed to really approach the songwriting through
24:21like a very, you could tell, personal place.
24:24Like I remember right after he saw the movie, a couple of days later, he sent me a song.
24:28I think it's Pal Nord ended up being called, no?
24:31That like, it was, you know, it was, it was very personal.
24:35He, it was, it really communicated.
24:37Like I think all the songs really communicate the human essence of the story.
24:42It's a funny story there because Arcangel recorded that song.
24:45It's Pal Nord, it's like a huapango.
24:47So it's Arcangel singing a huapango about immigration, which is crazy.
24:52And the engineer messed up the session and he lost the session.
24:55And, and we, we were so upset at the engineer.
24:59And Arcangel was like, I'm not going to rerecord this.
25:02It took me a whole day to record it.
25:03And, you know, and luckily we got, we got to recover the session.
25:08Yeah, we got it.
25:09We got to recover.
25:10That's why he's part of the soundtrack.
25:12Yeah.
25:12I just wanted to share that funny story that we, the engineer messed it up for us and shout
25:16out to the engineer.
25:17But, but yeah, I mean the whole process, it's just like a regular process of working with
25:22artists and just being there in the studio and just sharing the same ideas and making it
25:28happen and sitting down and watching the whole film and watching every song go by so, so
25:34fast.
25:35It's like, it's so amazing.
25:37I'm just happy to, Jonás, to make me part of this, this film.
25:41Pues muchísimas felicidades a ambos.
25:44Está increíble la película.
25:46Y'all got to watch it immediately in two days.
25:49Any last words before we close?
25:51Just a screening on Tuesday at five, at five at the, at the SAC.
25:59All right.
25:59And Wednesday, 18th at, at six at the state.
26:05Bueno, pues muchísimas gracias.
26:07Thank you, everybody.
26:08Thanks, everybody.
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