With the Supreme Court's decision on Arizona anti-immigrant law SB1070, we need now more than ever, to stand together and send a strong & united message: In this country - We Are All "Illegals"!
The decision, while hopeful in some areas, leaves a huge gap - one in which allows for the discrimination, persecution on profiling of our community. The underlying problem is that as a culture we have defined immigrants as "illegal" entities.
We use the word often, spreading it in every day life - in the media, in our conversations. We have to move away from this frame of mind. Actions are "illegal", human beings ARE NOT!
This is why Cuéntame partnered with Outernational, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, Residente of Calle 13, Pop/Latin Producer Thom Russo as well as video & photo submissions from over 100 fans worldwide to produce a powerful, creative and important music video.
This release highlights the absurdity and obsolescence of the very notion of human beings deemed "illegal" in the year 2012.
The video highlights the obscenity in this day an age on our attitudes about the border, and a system that criminalizes those who create the wealth it rests upon. It penalizes immigrants, locks them up and make a profit.
Furthermore, it uses our community as scapegoats for personal and machiavellian political agendas. This electoral cycle is an opportunity to put an end to it once and for all.
Miles Solay, the lead singer for Outernational best puts it when he says, "See that border ain't sacred or chosen, the land we stand on, every inch of it stolen, how obscene that there's people 'illegal', vilified survival, the journey is lethal."
The release f this video also comes behind the backdrop of President Obama's "administrative relief" for young undocumented Americans, a recognition of the immense contribution of these brave AMERICANS.
It is against the backdrop of heightened drama around issues of immigration, race, and class that Cuéntame makes it clear that we stand alongside and in solidarity with undocumented peoples and say, "Todos Somos Ilegales/We Are All Illegals."