[ad_1]
ELOY, Ariz. (AP) — Colombian musician Juanes and singer John Legend met immigrants at a jail in Arizona on Wednesday before performing for a small crowd outside the facility to draw attention to immigration.
The Grammy winners each played two songs separately and one together — Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” — as dozens of people sang along in Eloy, about 60 miles southeast of Phoenix.
“The reason why we’re here, one, is because we want to bear witness to what’s happening so we could tell the world about it,” Legend said to the cheering crowd of immigrant rights activists and relatives of detainees.
Juanes played the guitar and Legend the piano atop a flatbed truck parked across the street from the federal detention center. An empty desert field served as the backdrop while people in the crowd held large signs and chanted “Not one more deportation” and “Si se puede,” meaning “Yes we can.”
Their intention was for the detainees to hear the music. But organizers were told the inmates were not let out of their cells to hear the concert.
Earlier, Juanes and Legend took a tour of the detention center and spoke to detainees inside.
Juanes said in Spanish that he was “heartbroken” by what he saw.
“It’s very hard to understand that someone is deprived of their freedom unjustly, and that’s why we’re here with our music, with our culture, which is the strongest tool to bring attention and give a voice to those who don’t have one,” Juanes said in Spanish.
Maria Gomez, of Phoenix, said the singers’ visit will let immigrants know that people care about them. The 16-year-old said her brother and other relatives are being held in Eloy after traveling from Mexico City to Nogales, Arizona, where they sought asylum. Gomez said her family had been victims of kidnappings for ransom.
“It’s something very special because not any artist would do this,” Gomez said.
[ad_2]
Source link
