Julieta Venegas discussed how memory, migration and her Baja California background shaped her new album and memoir, both titled Norteña, during a Latin Alternative Music Conference panel in New York. She said the paired projects helped bring her back to Mexico and offered a personal exploration of music, family and place rather than a conventional norteño record.

The Tijuana-raised singer began developing the work while living in Buenos Aires and missing Mexico and her family, drawing on research into Baja California and a family photography project. She recalled learning piano, joining the band Chantaje as a teenager and identifying first as a songwriter; she also discussed collaborations including “Lo Siento BB:/”, which reached No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, and “La Línea” with Yahritza y Su Esencia, about the human impact of border separation.