Traversing the Atlantic Border

While in the throes of writing my book A Kiss across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and US Latinidad, a particular band that fell outside the purview of what I categorized as “post-punk” nonetheless loomed large in my mind as an example of the transatlantic musical and cultural exchange I aimed to map.¹ This band, Los Pacaminos, is a self-described Tex-Mex band from the United Kingdom (Fig. 1). Formed in 1992 by English “blue-eyed soul” singer Paul Young, Los Pacaminos—whose name is a Hispanicized version of the phrase “pack ‘em in”—stands as a fitting example of how Latinx culture in the United States has influenced British musicians.² Not unlike a band such as Blue Rondo a la Turk, Los Pacaminos draws influence from U.S. Latinx and Latin American sonic and visual aesthetics, paying homage to musical and fashion styles that may at first...