I was watching this video by Lindsay Ellis discussing why Pocahontas was a failure:
In it, she mentions that cultural appropriation is generally okay when it's a country that was exploited by colonialism appropriating the culture of a colonizing country. She mentions that nobody gets mad when Mexico appropriates elements of German culture, and jokes that unless you live in LA and hear it on the radio all the time.
I don't live in LA, but I do live in Houston with a very heavy Mexican population, and I as well hear this style of music all the time. I live by a little strip of Mexican stores and I hear this type of music being played constantly.
The most prominent aspect I have noticed is the heavy use of the accordion. It is used in almost every one of these songs. Personally, I don't mind the music. They usually have nice instrumentation and harmonies, but I also do feel like they sound somewhat sound the same, and that's probably also due to me not speaking Spanish.
So I'd never considered the historical origin of this music. And I do think of the accordion as a German instrument, so how did this style of Mexican music become so prominent? What would have been the context for Mexico appropriating German culture? Furthermore, what genre of American music could I consider to be its equivalent, if that makes sense. I can't think of an American genre of music with a similar sound and a similar presence.
There was extensive German settlement in Texas by the mid-19th century. In fact there are still elderly German speakers in south-central Texas who are descended from these settlers. By the late 19th century there were German engineers working in Mexico in the process of developing mines and railroads and German military advisors were present in Mexico. Ample opportunities for the accordion and polka style music to diffuse into Mexico from different points. It also spread into the American southwest as well. The noted Tex-Mex (Tejano) accordionist Flaco Jiminez was a Texas native as was his father Santiago who was a noted accordionist.