Who is Ernesto Barajas' wife? All about the Enigma Norteño founder, shot and killed in a Mexican car park

Mexican regional music singer and songwriter Ernesto Barajas was shot and killed in Jalisco, Central Mexico, on Tuesday, August 19, 2025. He was 38. Barajas is survived by his wife Alexis Sillas and their two children.

According to the media outlet El País, the frontman and founder of the band, Enigma Norteño, was murdered in a car park/ vehicle depot in Zapopan, a neighborhood in the Guadalajara metropolitan area. One of his male companions in his 20s was also fatally shot, and an 18-year-old female passerby was severely injured.

No suspect has been named yet, as an investigation remains ongoing by the local municipal police department, state prosecutor’s office, and forensic department. According to preliminary reports released by the Jalisco Public Security Secretariat, Ernesto Barajas was traveling in a pickup truck when two assailants riding on a motorcycle opened fire. The motive of the crime remains unclear.

Exploring the life and career of Ernesto Barajas

Ernesto Barajas was a singer, songwriter, musician, entertainer, and performer born on September 16, 1986, and raised in Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

He had been married to Alexis Sillas since 2012, and they shared two children: a son, Ernesto Junior (born in 2014), and a daughter, Alix Emilia (born in 2016). They lived in both the USA and Mexico. Ernesto’s former partner, Willy Moytez, founded the group Efecto Xpansivo with Alexis Silla.

Barajas founded the band Enigma Norteño in 2004, which quickly gained popularity for its narcocorrido music. It refers to a subgenre of Mexican corridos (narrative ballad) that often musically narrates stories of the lives of those in the drug trade.

The group often dedicated their songs to Mexican cartels. For instance, the song Will They Want More? (El Mencho) was dedicated to Nemesio Oseguera, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), and other members of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Likewise, Los Placeres de Archivaldo is dedicated to Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, the eldest son of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán and leader of the Los Chapitos faction, and Efecto Mayiza/ El Sr. Mayo Zambada is based on the life of a former leader of La Mayiza, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

According to El País, Ernesto Barajas’ band has over 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify, of which he was the lead vocalist, director, and producer. Some of the other members of Enigma Norteño include Adán Hernández, Freddy Hernández, Macario Moreno, and Humberto Pérez.

The late artist also hosted a YouTube podcast titled Puntos de Vista, where he interviewed guests, including Carín León, Gabito Ballesteros, Roberto Tapia, and Eduin Cazares, among others. His episode with Jesús Ortiz-Paz amassed over 2 million views.

While Ernesto Barajas often shared in interviews that he was careful not to offend people with his music, in August 2023, he had to cancel his band’s performance in Baja California after receiving a reported threat from CJNG.

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At the time, Enigma Norteño released a statement announcing the show’s cancellation, upon the recommendation of the authorities and the organizers.

In March 2025, Mexican artist Arley Pérez accused Ernesto Barajas of negatively affecting his career at the alleged orders of Néstor Isidro Pérez Salas, aka El Nini, the ex-head of security for the Los Chapitos cartel.

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