Ivonne Galaz is raising her voice to honor murdered U.S. army soldier Vanessa Guillén.
The Mexican singer, one of the young female singers leading the emerging corridos tumbados movement, revisits Guillén’s tragic fate in a tribute song she’s uploaded to her Instagram account.
“JusticeForVanessaGuillen with much respect to Vanessa’s family,” wrote Galaz, who titled the track “Vanessa Guillén.”
After Guillén’s disappearance made national headlines, the lawyer for her family confirmed on Sunday that the U.S. Armypositively identified the soldier’s remains near the Leon River in Texas last week.
Guillén, 20, a soldier in Fort Hood, was declared missing by her family since April, but the search for her only intensified last month when the family went public with appeals to find her.
Galaz, the first female signee on corridos tumbados label Rancho Humilde, uploaded the song to Instagram on Sunday night. Corridos tumbados (sometimes referred to as trap corridos) are a new take on the traditional Mexican song from the perspective of the youth in the streets of the U.S.
Backed by an acoustic guitar, Galáz sympathizes with Guillén’s family in her heartbreaking corrido. “Her suffering family asking, ‘Where is the girl?'” she sings in Spanish. Galáz sadly notes Guillén’s “light has been put out” while highlighting her heritage in the haunting final line: “The Mexican people, we will be there so that her case is not forgotten.”
Many Latino artists, including Becky G, Chiquis, Salma Hayek and Intocable, have posted about Guillen in social media, demanding answers from authorities at her base.
The main suspect in Guillén’s murder, Spc. Aaron David Robinson, who was stationed with the her at Fort Hood, killed himself last Wednesday as investigators were closing in. Robinson’s reported girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, says Robinson murdered Guillén and that she tried to help him dispose of her body. Aguilar was charged with one count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
Galáz hails from Senora, Mexico, the same state as her labelmate Natanael Cano. She made her debut last year as a featured artist on Cano’s “Golpes de La Vida” from his Mi Nuevo Yo EP. On Rancho Humilde’s recent Corridos Tumbados Vol. 2 album, Galáz recorded with Cano again and also teamed up with Natalie Lopéz on the girl-powered “La Rueda.” A solo project from Galaz is due out soon.