Dan Zanes and NYC Latino artists record a pro-immigration CD - in Spanish only

I always thought that "Nueva York" was a bad language choice, because it mixes Spanish and English in a weird way. Besides I don't think that some places names need to be translated, since everyone knows where New York city is located, right. I guess.

However, Nueva York is how Spanish-speaking people recall the most popular city in the planet and precisely ¡Nueva York! is the title of a new music CD to be released by June 9, which includes music from several Latin American musicians based in the big-apple.

The music included in this production intends to show our diversity "from American blues and jazz, to Colombian cumbia, Dominican merengue, Puerto Rican aguinaldo, Bolivian bailecito and even hip hop" but the catch is the strong pro-immigrant message included - with the "good side" of immigration in the US.

Among the artists of Nueva York are: Mexican-American songstress Lila Downs, Colombian band La Cumbiamba Eneyé, Panama-born Broadway singer and dancer Daphne Rubin-Vega, American guitarist Marc Ribot, Mexican singer Sonia de los Santos, Nyorican hip-hop poet La Bruja, the Villa-Lobos brothers band (also Mexicans) and Argentina-born Bernardo Palombo, founder of arts group El Taller Latino Americano. All of them joined Grammy award-winner musician and producer Dan Zanes -who is a white guy from New Hampshire / Boston area- in the production of this only-Spanish album. Zanes is known for his children-oriented music and his work with rock band Del Fuegos in the 1980s.

Now when it comes to music, this idea sounds great. I personally love the work of Lila Downs and La Bruja (I met both of them in their concerts in DC) and I heard good things about the rest of the musicians.

But if you want to spread a good image of immigrants among American people, anyone would think the best way to do it is by communicating with them in English, a language that most Americans understand.

If you sing a pro-immigrant message in Spanish -there is a difference no doubt- the result might sound wonderful for a music critic and for us who speak Espanol very well, but it might fire back as a tool for immigration advocating purposes. I can see Lou Dobbs using this material really soon.

Here are some videos
of the artists that are part of ¡Nueva York!

La Bruja and Dan Zanes
Pollito Chicken





La Cumbiamba Eneyé

El Loro y la Lora in NYC

Lila Down in Washington, DC





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