Stars Band Together to Protest AZ Law

Four summers ago, a handful of Spanish-speaking radio disc jockeys helped bring hundreds of thousands of Latino marchers to the streets of Los Angeles and other cities to support immigration reform.

Now, in what is partly a sign of the growing clout of U.S. Latinos both as voters and cultural consumers, a number of prominent artists, both Latino and non-Latino, are urging a boycott of Arizona's controversial new statute that requires law enforcement officials to determine the status of people they suspect are illegal immigrants whom they've stopped or detained for other reasons.

Several musicians, including Carlos Santana, Willie Nelson and the Mexican pop-rock band Mana, are recording songs in support of the millions of immigrants, mainly from Mexico and other parts of Latin America, living in the United States, whatever their legal status.

"These folks are coming to us the way immigrants have always come to us. We really need to welcome these people," Nelson said in a phone interview, explaining why he took part in recording the song "Si Se Puede," colloquially translated as "Yes We Can."

Meanwhile, a growing number of other musical performers, including Colombian pop stars Shakira and Juanes, Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, Los Tigres del Norte, Sonic Youth, Kanye West and Ozomatli have called for a boycott of Arizona to protest the new statute. So far few, if any, prominent musicians or artists have stepped forward publicly to support the Arizona law.

While opinion polls indicate that voters in the U.S. are deeply divided over the Arizona law, it's doubtful that groups like Ozomatli and Rage Against the Machine need worry about alienating members of their multicultural, politically progressive fan bases.

In a statement released this week, De la Rocha expressed concern that Arizona's SB 1070 could lead to fans of the group being "pulled over and harassed . . . because they are brown or black, or for the way they speak, or for the music they listen to."

"Yes We Can" imparts a message largely of solidarity rather than protest. But other musical artists are recording songs with more politically pointed lyrics.