Updated 05:50 PM EST, Sun, Dec 22, 2024

Latin Grammys 2015: Music & Ballads Turned Political With Donald Trump Bashers 

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The Latin Grammy Awards, like the traditional American one, is supposed to be full of song, music, and ballads. This year, though, it seems that there's also a bit of politics added to the mix.

A few minutes into the show, The New York Times reported that Fher Olvera, lead singer of Mana and this year's winner for Best Pop/Rock Album, joined the California norteno band Los Tigres del Norte to sing "Somos Mas Americanos" ("We're More American).

The song examines a history and insists that Spanish and Native American bloodlines, and Mexicans are more American than the Anglo-Saxon immigrant descendants. One line declared, "I want to remind the gringo that I didn't cross the border - the border crossed me."

It went on in its polka beat to say, "America was born free, but the man divided it / They drew the line so I could cross it, and then call me an invader." The song ended to show Olvera and Los Tigres members holding up a large banner that read, "United Latinos, Don't Vote for the Racists!"

The song, as well as the banner, was noted by Rolling Stone as a jab at Donald Trump, who has targeted Mexican and Latino immigrants in his policy papers upon his bid for the Presidency.

Olvera spoke with Rolling Stone, saying that they took the song "as a weapon of protest to what's happening here with immigration reform and all the xenophobic remarks made by Donald Trump."

"The declarations that Trump made are against a race, and that's the problem. Politically, you can be for or against Obama's, Trump's, or Hillary's [views], but there is a universal truth: We can't be racist, and we can't judge people because of their skin color," he went on.

Los Tigres singer Jorge Hernandez echoed Olvera, adding, "I'm personally offended. And I think our people are too. I don't like what he said about us and what he thinks about all Mexicans," referring to Trump's comments about Mexicans being rapists, drug dealers and killers.

For Olvera, being onstage at the Latin Grammys is more than the performance or the award. "What it's really about is to speak about something that's really important: The Latin vote. it's the only real weapon that we have in our hands," he shared.

Finally, Hernandez concluded, "The message ["Somos Más Americanos"] has it that despite white America taking over our territory, all of us can unite and build more consciousness. Don't give this man [Trump] a chance."

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