Chino Pacas’ implausible success story starts on the streets of Guanajuato, Mexico. The musician remembers running around with friends, playing soccer, and riding bikes on the streets of the central Mexican city, just about a hundred or so miles outside of the country’s capital. “My childhood was one of the best a kid could possibly have,” Pacas says. “We had so much fun all the time. It was all about face-to-face interaction — not [being] glued to a phone like so many kids are nowadays.” One look at Pacas’ fresh face, complete with a smile still full of braces, and those years may not seem so far away for this 19-year-old. But the new voice of corridos has packed a lot of life into his two decades.
Just a few years ago, in 2023, Pacas became the youngest Mexican artist to enter the Billboard Hot 100 with his TikTok hit “El Gordo Trae el Mando.” Soon, he garnered the attention of música Mexicana royalty Fuerza Regida, specifically frontman Jesús Ortíz Paz, who signed the young talent to his label Street Mob Records the same year. That was the turning point that set Pacas on an impressive roll. Not long afterward, he nabbed a Drake feature for his 2024 debut album, Que Sigan Llegando las Pacas, and helped the superstar out with a corrido for one of his new projects. On his 2025 follow-up, Cristian, Pacas kept on redefining música mexicana by blending his signature corridos tumbados with rap, Latin trap, and banda elements.
It’s a warp-speed trajectory that exemplifies the American dream. “Thank God we have been fulfilling what we set out to do,” Pacas says. “It has been eight years since I left Mexico, but back when we first moved here, I never would have imagined this for myself.”
Born Cristian Humberto Ávila Vega, Pacas immigrated to Tampa, Florida, when he was around 11 or 12 years old. He made the journey with his mom and his older brother, Arturo, who is now his manager and the person who shaped Pacas’ interest in making music in the first place. “My brother taught me the most,” Pacas says, his gratitude apparent in every word.
The pair held a construction job in Tampa but soon grew bored at home in between their shifts. One day, Arturo taught Chino how to play guitar, and the two started writing songs together. “We never really had much going on, but this felt like a real opportunity to start doing something, to seek out new experiences, and — above all — to gain the knowledge that comes from owning a guitar and learning how to play it,” Pacas said. The other instrument he learned to master back then was his voice. “I didn’t know how to sing at all,” he admits. Now, a few short years later, Pacas is leading the new generation of regional Mexican music with his gritty timbre.
Pacas manages to remain both self-assured and adamant about giving credit where it is due. “I am very grateful to Fuerza Regida because by believing in me, all of this was made possible,” he says. He still remembers the day he finally met JOP after initially connecting over social media. “It was in Atlanta, Georgia, at one of his concerts,” Pacas recalls. “It all felt very surreal. I actually teared up just being there with him, for the chance to meet him and to see how far he had come,”
“Our culture is about putting our own kind on,” Street Mob COO Cristian “Toro” Primera said in Rolling Stone‘s recent Fuerza Regida cover story. “Street Mob is a platform where people can come with their dream.… It’s a family-oriented independent record label.… We know what it’s like to build an artist from the ground up.”
With the help of JOP and Street Mob, Pacas has made his wildest dreams come to fruition. The young star is grateful and somewhat astonished by his own success, but he always knew it was a part of his destiny. “I knew that something significant was bound to happen in my life, but I had no idea in what form, or with whom,” he says.
And while Pacas has already achieved more than your average 19-year-old, his sights are set even higher. “I feel like I still have a lot more to do,” Pacas says. The musician has 30 unreleased tracks under his belt, which find him infusing dembow and Afrobeats into his corridos. He also plans to release the second volume to Que Sigan Llegando las Pacas this year. In October, Pacas will reach another milestone: turning 20. For his birthday, he only has one wish: “I want a solo Number One hit,” he says.
