Lately, Colombian singer Shakira has become one of the great defenders of immigrants living in the United States. He has reflected in speeches and interviews about his own immigration experience, has talked about how he was accepted in the United States in his day and the contrast to the current attitude of the Trump administration towards immigrants.
For example, when Grammy collected the best Latin pop album earlier this year, he referred directly to the situation: “I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country. You love you, you are worth it and I will always fight with you,” Shakira said.
And now, in a report for BBC News, in which the reporter covered the backstage and the entire preparation of the Shakira concert in the Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on June 6, they have asked him again about how it is to live in the United States as an immigrant in Trump. And a hair has not been cut: “It means living with constant fear. And it is painful to see it,” he said.
And he continued: “Now, more than ever, we have to remain united. Now, more than ever, we have to raise our voice and make it very clear that a country can change its immigration policies, but the treatment of all people must always be human.”
In the same interview, Shakira talked about his own experience by emigrating to the United States with only 19 years, when he was already a singer known in Colombia. He realized that international success was to sing in English, but he had a problem: she had never learned it.
“I was only 19 when I moved to the United States, like many other Colombian immigrants who arrive in this country looking for a better future,” he explained. “I remember that it was surrounded by Spanish-English dictionaries and synonym dictionaries, because at that time there was no Google or Chatgpt. So everything was very precarious,” he said.
“I fond of poetry and started reading a bit of Leonard Cohen and Walt Whitman and Bob Dylan, trying to understand how the English language works within the song composition. I think that’s how it was good for me.”
The aggressive deportation tactics of President Donald Trump have been destroying houses and communities. Last week protests in Los Angeles broke out against the administration and against the United States Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE). The fight extended throughout the country on Saturday with the protests “no Kings”, in which thousands of Americans marched against the president.
