JM is 80-year-old market trader and frontman for Los Crack del Puerto

Luis Gómez, known universally as JM, is an 80-year-old market trader from Valparaíso who has become a celebrated Chilean music frontman for the traditional band Los Crack del Puerto. Despite spending decades hawking vegetables on Avenida Argentina, his late-blooming musical career has taken him to stages across Chile, Argentina, France, the UK, and Mexico.

From Market Trader to International Stage

At a concert hall in Santiago, an 80-year-old man edges unsteadily down a steep staircase, gripping a metal bannister in one hand and carrying a mug of hot water with a slice of lemon in the other, as if heading to bed. But when the red stage curtain opens, JM transforms instantly, skipping onto the stage to a roar from the crowd to launch into a bolero punctuated by hip thrusts and shuffling two-steps.

Things could have worked out very differently. At 65, JM was still hawking vegetables at the market where he had worked since the age of eight. In May of this year, the fourth album by Los Crack del Puerto, Lo Mucho Que Nos Queda (So Much Yet to Come), was issued on cassette to widespread praise. “Singing has always been my release,” JM said in a wavering voice, contrasting with his confident onstage vocals.

A Lifelong Musical Partnership in Valparaíso

JM was born in the O’Higgins neighbourhood of Valparaíso in 1945, the youngest of five children. He was three when his father died and 10 when he lost his mother, sleeping on the street between parked cars for a time until his aunt and uncle took him in and insisted he be home by 10pm each night. A childhood friend named Juan Muñoz earned him the cheeky nickname JM, which has long since replaced his full name.

Valparaíso has long been defined by its music, with 20th-century styles like boleros, waltzes, tangos, and cueca—Chile’s official national dance—barely changing in generations. “The same songs that were sung before are still the ones they sing now,” JM said. One of his cousins, Juan Navarro, known as Juanín, would bring friends home to play guitar while the younger JM sang along. While Juanín worked in the police force and JM traded vegetables at the market, the cousins stayed friends for their entire lives. “That’s still what I am—a market trader,” JM said.

Through middle age, the self-taught double act entertained crowds in Valparaíso’s bars, with JM acting as the entertaining foil to his older cousin, who perched on a stool to play guitar in an immaculate pressed suit. In 2017, JM and Juanín began taking their music more seriously, forming Los Crack del Puerto with a group of talented local musicians. “That generation is an intangible cultural heritage. They’re a living legacy,” said 33-year-old guitarist Felipe Riveros.

Carrying on the Legacy After Juanín’s Passing

Juanín died in 2025 at the age of 87. “For three or four months, I missed him so much, I couldn’t bring myself to get back on stage,” JM said. “People would request Juanín’s songs, but they were his, I didn’t feel like we could play them.”

As JM approaches his 81st birthday, royalty cheques supplementing his state pension are of little consequence. “I never planned any of this, and I’d be happy still working at the market,” he said during a break between songs at La Quinta de los Núñez, a hillside restaurant in Valparaíso where he sings every Sunday for an adoring crowd. “But I suppose it’s never too late to give something a try.”