In late January, all of Mexico’s TikTok For You Page came across a video of Macario Martinez, dressed in his fluorescent yellow street cleaner uniform riding through CDMX. “Life asks for a lot and I’m just a street sweeper that wants you to listen to his music,” read his caption at the time.
The video was backed by a snippet of his emotional sad boy track “Sueña Lindo, Corazón,” which almost almost instantly became a TikTok hit. The video was reposted by thousands, Martinez was invited to TV stations for interviews, and his career began to take off.
“It caught me off guard. I always wanted something like this to happen, but I never imagined it would be like this,” he tells Rolling Stone.
Two months since the viral post, “Sueña Lindo” has garnered more than 13.6 million streams on Spotify. Martinez earned a slot at Mexico’s Vive Latino festival this weekend, he was announced as an opener for Kevin Kaarl for later this year, and on Thursday night, he’ll join “Ella Baila Sola” stars Eslabón Armado as the only featured act on their new album Vibras de Noche II.
“I always wanted this to happen. I would get up every day hoping that music would work out for me,” he says. “I knew I had a talent and that my music connected deeply with the people I shared it with. I always knew I’d go far.”
There was a time not too long ago when Martinez would spend entire days under a bridge performing his songs for passersby, bringing home 100 pesos (or about $5) home to his family. “There was always a fear that I would fail or that my dreams would not materialize because of where I come from but I never gave up on music because it made me really happy,” he says.
When he did have a job, he’d balance work with music on the side, writing about love, heartbreak, and the passing of time. He cites Current Joys, Spoon, and Norweigian singer Aurora as some the artists who have really inspired his artistry, and he evokes nostalgia in many of his songs.
Over the last two months, Martinez has focused on setting a foundation for his burgeoning career: He has a team now, he quit his street-cleaning job, and he’s built a fanbase that includes Silvana Estrada, one of his heroes. Martinez also used the time to perfect album he recorded before his newfound audience, where he taps into the traditional sounds of Southern Mexico, son jarocho and huapango.
“I want to give visibility to traditional genres of Veracruz and keep them alive so they aren’t forgotten,” he says. “I get such a happy feeling every time I make a song and I feel like that helped me persevere.”
One upcoming song, “Azul,” features the strums of eight-string jarana jarocha mixed with mariachi, huapango and dream-pop. “The sea told me it would always be you,” he sings on the track, tapping into his musical muse, the ocean. “It’s about a person, the person. They might not be in your life anymore but they really affected your life and generate a feeling every time you think of them.”
Martinez’s career is just taking off but he’s already thinking of how he’s going to give back to the street cleaner family he made before his song went biral. During a recent public performance, he welcomed his former co-workers to sit in front of a barricade to watch his show. “I want to do something for them and give back,” he says. “My story changed the perspective of the people in Mexico on cleaning workers, and I carry them in my heart.”
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