GROOMING BY SARAH LEDDICK AT ZENOBIA
AUGUST 4, 2018 WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 19only crime is wanting a better reality and
quality of life.Immigrating to the United States was
not easy during the Barack Obama
administration, either. What is the
difference now?
NACHO When [Trump] became president,
the first thing he did was sow xenophobia.
When you mark a difference between one
person and another, that’s where conflict
begins. We feel segregated and don’t feel
we have the power, even if we do.
ASHLEY PÉREZ MOSA Negative attention
is in the news every night and you have
a president that says, “Latins are bad,
Mexicans are bad.” What do you expect
people to feed off of that? No. 1, that’s not
true. No. 2, it’s offensive. No. 3, you have to
be ignorant to be saying all those things.
HANNA PÉREZ MOSA What if that dialogue
changes? What if it’s, “People are comingin and this country will become more
prosperous”? People need to know that
someone who speaks a different language
than you or has a different culture is not
bad. On the contrary, it’ll enrich us all.Victoria, you marched in Los Angeles. Talk
about that.
LA MALA I was so surprised to see theamount of people from all walks of life, who
weren’t Latinos. But I must say, I expected
a little more from the Latino artistic
community. I know that not all of us could
have gone to march because everybody has
a busy schedule. But I didn’t see a lot of posts
about it, and I didn’t see a lot of awareness.
NACHO Many of us weren’t even aware. And
that also speaks to the need to be informed.
And to be informed, you need to be involved
in the country’s politics, and many times
that’s not the case.All of you are directly involved in causes
affecting immigration. What are they?
NACHO When protests started in Venezuela
I went there to see for myself if the army
was really repressing the people. Now, as
a successful artist, I want that Venezuelan
government I don’t agree with to allow me
to send food and medicine from the U.S.,
a country that’s allowing me to help my
country. And if someone thinks I’m a rapist,
or a criminal, they’re being very unfair to
someone who came here legally, who pays
taxes and employs more than 30 people
from the U.S.
LA MALA The day after they announced
[Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or
DACA] would be revoked, I wrote “Corazon
Valiente” [“Brave Heart”] and just released
it along with a campaign highlighting
immigrants that have come to this country
without a legal status and made a big
contribution. I’m also doing a fundraiser for
RAICES, an organization that helps families
at the border with lawyers and legal fees.
HANNA PÉREZ MOSA We’ve been working
with Save the Children for the past 10 to 12
years. They’re at the border right now helping
all these children, and we’ll be posting on our
social media ways that people can continue
to actually make a difference.Do you feel it’s your artistic responsibility
to speak out?
ASHLEY PÉREZ MOSA I think like Spider-
Man: “With great power comes great
responsibility.” At the end of the day we’re
humans, we’re here thanks to the people.
NACHO Everyone is free to do as they wish.
But beyond the law, there are moral issues,
and there is nothing compassionate in
thinking that separating children from their
mothers will benefit them.
VELEZ This is something that affects all of
us as humans. We all should have the same
rights, the same opportunities to grow.
COLÓN To all those young people, I want to
say, live your dreams. Don’t let anyone stop
you. If we can live our dreams, so can you.
And stay positive.“People need to know that
someone who speaks
a different language than
you or has a different
culture is not bad.”
—Hanna Pérez Mosa456P h o t o g r a p h e d J u l y 1 8 a t t h e
Gibson Showroom in Miami.Visit billboard.com/videos to watch the full
roundtable discussion.