The Estefans representing
USA Today: They aren’t all Mexicans but they will be in spirit for the anti-Donald Trump song a group of Latin stars are planning to release later this month.
Carlos Santana
Billboard magazine reported Thursday that Grammy-winning producer/musician Emilio Estefan has signed up a group of stars and famous friends — including his Grammy-winning wife Gloria Estefan, Shakira, Carlos Santana, Thalia, Pepe Aguilar and Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean — to record a song aimed at combating a wave of anti-Mexican rhetoric sparked earlier this summer by Trump, the real-estate mogul-turned-Republican presidential frontrunner.
Estefan, 62, told Billboard he reached his fed-up point after listening to a TV pundit/talking head say “false and vindictive anti-Latin statements on TV.”
Thus was born the idea for recording We’re All Mexican, which Estefan describes as a musical “celebration of Hispanics and our accomplishments.” The track, to be released later in September, will also include reggaeton singer Wisin, radio personality Enrique Santos, and the Spanish-American chef José Andrés, most of whom will be rapping on the record.
The idea echoes the Je Suis Charlie (We are all Charlie) slogan chanted by free-press advocates around the world after the January 2015 massacre of 12 people in the Paris offices of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. That in turn borrowed from the “Tonight, we are all Americans” eulogy spoken on French media the night of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the USA.
A long line of Latin and Latino-American celebrities have criticized Trump’s rhetorical jabs at Mexicans. Even if they’re not themselves Mexican, they perceive the hostility Trump inspires as directed at anyone with Spanish names.
The Estefans and Santos are Cuban Americans, born in Cuba. Santos is Cuban American born in Chicago. Shakira was born in Colombia and is part Lebanese. Wisin is Puerto Rican American born on the island. Santana and Thalia were born in Mexico, and Aguilar is Mexican American born in Texas. Jean was born in Haiti. Andrés was born in Spain.
At his campaign kickoff announcement in June, Trump specifically railed against Mexico and Mexicans, promising to build a giant wall at the border and make Mexico pay for it because, he claimed, Mexico is “sending” criminals, rapists and drug dealers, plus “some” good people, to the USA.
Since then, the rhetoric from him and his growing base of supporters has grown hotter; at one point last month, Trump angrily threw Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos out of a press conference as a Trump supporter sneered at him, “Get out of my country!” Ramos is an American citizen born in Mexico.
“There’s a message being sent out to the world where people are giving opinions that are plain wrong,” says Estefan, who has won 19 Grammy awards. “We need to lift up our pride and show the world what we’re doing.”
Although it is true that Cuban-Americans have tended to vote Republican, especially the exiles who still harbor loathing of Fidel Castro and the communist takeover of Cuba nearly six decades ago, younger American-born Cubans have been leaning more to Democrats. The Florida exit poll showed President Obama won the Cuban-American vote in 2012.
In any case, Trump means nothing to him, Estefan said. “Everyone has their opinion, and he can have whatever opinion he wants, as long as he doesn’t humiliate my people.”
He says the song is not so much a direct repudiation of Trump as it is an affirmation of pride. “We’ve progressed (as Hispanics) and we need to let people know that,” he says. With this song, “I want to send a message that represents unity.”
Wonder what Estefan’s message represents for the Steinle family?
DCG
