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How Ivan Cornejo Became the Música Mexicana Heartbreak Kid

Ivan Cornejo used to be too shy to sing in public. But at 20, his bruised, brooding ballads have made him a rising superstar of música mexicana

A smiling Mickey grins out from a Ferris wheel that glows like a firework in the middle of the park, fluorescent lights blink at every corner, and tinny theme songs from every Disney classic you can think of blast constantly. And tonight, in the middle of it all, amid the smiling patrons decked out in Mickey ears, you might spot 20-year-old Ivan Cornejo, the rising star widely considered the future of regional Mexican music, awestruck by the neon rainbow of activity around him. With his easy smile and enormous eyes that peek out from under an oversize green hoodie, Cornejo seems like a normal kid — very much the same one who was raised by Mexican parents in a modest Riverside, California, neighborhood and taught himself guitar at age eight.

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