“The people were dancing crazy. I couldn't believe what I was seeing,” recalled Pedro Canale — better known as Chancha Via Circuito — of his first Los Angeles show. “It looked like a party in Buenos Aires or Bogotá. I was surprised.”

The digital cumbia pioneer returns this weekend for a late-night DJ set at a secret downtown venue hosted by ZZK Records, an independent label that was founded in Buenos Aires in 2008 and moved to L.A. in 2019.

“[L.A.] is as Latin American as any city in America,” said ZZK Records founder Grant Dull. “Cumbia has always been here, and there’s a demographic of music lovers here in L.A. that is constantly pushing cumbia.”

Born in 19th-century Colombia from Afro and Indigenous rhythms, cumbia spread across Latin America, absorbing local sounds and styles.

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