One thing was clear: The fight for migrant rights continues.
To keep us motivated and to keep pushing forward, we put together this playlist based on lots of people’s recommendations to give us all a soundtrack to struggle to. You can click the full (33 track) playlist above or choose from one of the 15 below to fuel the migrant rights movement into 2015.
Los Jornaleros del Norte – Que no pare la lucha
We may be biased but any mix has to start with Los Jornaleros del Norte. We could’ve chosen newer songs like Ese Güey No Paga (that dude doesn’t pay), or Serenata a un indocumentado, the song Omar wrote during the Chant Down Walls protests at the LA detention center. But figured that a mix about keeping the fight going ought to start with this classic, El pueblo que lucha triumfa.
Ana Tijoux – Somos Sur
Try not to bounce out of your seat when that beat hits. Tijoux has filmed videos with undocumented youth who dared Sheriff Arpaio to arrest them in civil disobedience. And in this song and video lifts up international solidarity with a guest verse from Shadia Mansour. This one’s for “todos los callados, todos los sometidos, todos los invisibles”
OLMECA – Browning of America
The song is about the changing demographics of the United States. The video features families from Arizona who have fought their own deportation cases alongside the activists on the front lines. Say it with him “Browning of America.”
Rebel Diaz – I’m an Alien
The song opens with a clappable beat and a sample of UNIDOS students taking over the Tucson school board when it was slated to vote to ban ethnic studies. The video shows neighborhood level organizing, we go this way, ICE goes that.
Also on the theme, check out “Alien” by Gil Scot Heron here.
Frank Waln – Ab Original
The premiere video from Frank Waln: This pain that I can’t shake, these ties to my people I can’t break… When I rise, we rise.
Ceci Bastida – Canta el rio (feat. Outernational)
Brand new video for anyone who ever wanted to dance in the aqueducts or see the dully grey of the city painted vibrant. Dedicated to everyone who came and come after the cut off dates.
Chuck D – Fight the Power (LIVE at NDLON Assembly)
The classic fight song + Chuck D speech between ad libbing at the NDLON concert in 2014.
Janelle Monae – QUEEN
Sci-fi utopian cyborg revolution or funky soul jam or both. Break out of the mold with this one from Janelle Monae.
K’Naan – Waving Flag
Motivational enough to become the Word Cup theme song. Juntos in Philly says they play it in their office whenever they need a dose of inspiration.
Femi Kuti – The World is Changing
“More people are suffering but suffering people can’t take any more.”
Calle 13 – Latinoámerica
It’s probably already on your playlist but this Calle 13 video has nearly 32 million views for a reason. For a system that takes our labor but refuses to recognize our humanity, a helpful reminder: “You can’t buy the wind, the sun… my happiness or my sorrows. ” And for a people in struggle, a reminder of how much we have in the earth and in each other, “vamos caminando.”
Los Tigres del Norte – Jaula de Oro
The classic from los Tigres, perfect for singing outside any detention center, for everyone left out of the President’s executive action and still fighting for status in this country.
And of course, this version of Somos más americanos with Zack de la Rocha, is a must add.
Mercedes Sosa con Hector Guaraní – Si se calla el cantor
Que ha de ser de la vida si el que canta
no levanta su voz en las tribunas
por el que sufre,´por el que no hay
ninguna razón que lo condene a andar sin manta’
Silvio Rodriguez – La era está pariendo un corazón
Keeping up the fight doesn’t mean going 100 all the time. Slow down for a second with Silvio for this one.
Sam Cooke – A Change is Gunna Come
No explanation needed to close out with this 1963 classic.