LA SANTA CECILIA: Let me take you down
'Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
Strawberry Fields forever

Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all we see
It’s getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn’t matter much to me.

Déjame llevarte hacia donde voy Strawberry Fields
Nada es real
Y nada en lo que pensar
Campos de fresa por siempre

No one I think is in my tree
I mean it must be high or low
That is you know you can’t tune in
But it’s all right
That is I think it’s not too bad

Always, no sometimes, I think it’s me
But you know I know when it’s a dream
I think I know I mean ah yes
But it’s all wrong
That is I think I disagree

Let me take you down
Hacia donde voy Strawberry Fields
Nada es real
And nothing to get hung about
Campos de fresa por siempre
Campos de fresa por siempre
Strawberry Fields forever

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re joined right now in studio by three members of the Grammy Award-winning band La Santa Cecilia, named after the patron saint of music. The group is usually based in Los Angeles. It’s great to have them perform here in our New York studio. Several of them are joining us now for the interview. The singer is Marisol “La Marisoul” Hernández; the percussionist, Miguel Ramírez, also known as “Oso”; and José Carlos, “Pepe,” who plays accordion and the requinto?

JOSÉ CARLOS: Yes, the requinto. It’s a smaller version of a guitar. It has a higher tuning.

AMY GOODMAN: I welcome you all to Democracy Now! It’s great to have you with us.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Thanks for having us.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: So, in the lead, we just played “Strawberry Fields.” Now, this is a famous song, but you have certainly changed it. In fact, you sang it for the first lady, for Michelle Obama, is that right?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, yes. We did about a year ago for a LULAC luncheon. And we’re huge Beatle fans, and we always loved, you know, playing Beatles music, but this song, “Strawberry Fields,” I guess, took like a different meaning for us as we started traveling out of Los Angeles up towards Northern California and seeing the beautiful fields of strawberries, of fruit, of grapes, and seeing all that work, the migrant workers. And it just took another meaning, you know? And so we decided to make it our own and add a little bilingual twist. And we made it Spanglish—half-English and half-Spanish. So, yeah, it’s our version of “Strawberry Fields.”

AMY GOODMAN: You played it, in addition to Michelle Obama, to many Latin American leaders, hearing this, right?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: Who were there for the LULAC lunch.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Yeah, it’s cool, because it also has a video component to the song that’s really cool. It’s this animated video that kind of shows the life of a strawberry from like your refrigerator back to the field. So it just kind of shows all the work and the labor and the hands that actually cultivate the food. So it was really important for us to show—put a face to that thing, because sometimes we don’t even think about where our food is coming from or anything. But, you know, a lot of times it’s from migrant workers, immigrant workers. And we wanted to kind of try to make a statement, a restatement with that song—it’s already, you know, a huge statement to everybody.

AMY GOODMAN: And when do you choose to sing in English and sing in Spanish?

JOSÉ CARLOS: It’s so tricky.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: I don’t think we—I don’t think we really think about it. I think it just kind of happens. You know, we all kind of grew up like bicultural, I mean, speaking Spanish at home and English—you know, we went to school here. And I think sometimes we think in English, and we speak Spanish, and we—and/or, you know, the other way around. I think it’s just natural for us. We’re bilingual. We’re bicultural. So, that’s just how it goes. It’s in our nature.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about, well, your name. You’re Marisol. You were born Marisol.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, Marisol.

AMY GOODMAN: But you’re La Marisoul.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, yes. It’s kind of like a—I guess, like, you know, Spanglish, too. Marisoul, no? A friend of mine opened an email account for me a long time ago, and he said there’s—”Marisol is already taken, so I made this new one called 'La Marisoul.'” And I was like, “Oh, I like that.” So I just took it as a stage name, I guess.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about the name of your band, La Santa Cecilia, and how you chose that?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, La Santa Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians. And we noticed that, in a trip that we did to Mexico, that there’s a lot of—all over the world, there’s a lot of mariachi bands or orchestras, all kinds of musicians and musical bands that are named La Santa Cecilia of whatever pueblo or city, you know, that they’re from. And, you know, when we were making this band, we thought, “Wow, it would be cool to be La Santa Cecilia of Los Angeles, no?” And that’s how we chose the name of La Santa Cecilia. And we feel like it’s a powerful name, and it represents our faith in music, no? And the magic and the beauty of what music can do, no?

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to the song “El Hielo” that you’re performing, “Ice.” But first, if you could talk about your own experience performing with the band.

JOSÉ CARLOS: Yeah, well, we started the band eight years ago, and we all had the desire of traveling to take our music as far as possible. At that time, I was undocumented, and I had been undocumented for about 28 years of my life. I was brought to the U.S. when I was five years old. Fortunately, three years ago, I was approved for DACA. And it was such an amazing feeling being able to travel with the guys, because the guys had—the band was traveling already to Mexico and out of the country and out of California, and it was getting hard for me to see these guys venture out and to keep on fulfilling their dreams, you know, of taking their music somewhere else, and I was getting left behind. And I think that was—that was so hard for me, because I noticed that it was almost going to be impossible for me to move on with my dreams of being a musician. And luckily, three years ago, I was approved for DACA, which is Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. And it was amazing that I was able to travel with these guys and go back—for the first time after 25 years, go back to Mexico and play with them, see my family.

AMY GOODMAN: Where were you born?

JOSÉ CARLOS: I was born in Oaxaca, the beautiful state of Oaxaca. We are Zapotecs. And it was amazing to go back. It was beautiful. It was—it fulfilled me. It fulfilled—now I just—and then, two years after, I got married, and then my wife was able to petition me for my residency. And now I’m a resident, so—

AMY GOODMAN: Of the United States.

JOSÉ CARLOS: Yes, of the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, was it only Mexico you were concerned about going to, or what about traveling in the United States?

JOSÉ CARLOS: Well, even in the United States, there was trips that I wouldn’t take with them, because I was, you know, scared of being deported. Or we wouldn’t—whenever we had to go to Texas, we would take an extra eight-hour detour just so we won’t go or travel by the border, and so we won’t get stopped by immigration. So, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: What about Arizona?

JOSÉ CARLOS: Yeah, Arizona. I think that was—that was the time during S.B. 1070. And we wouldn’t drive through there, right?

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Well, the north part of Arizona was a lot safer, to take the 40 instead of taking the 10 through Maricopa County, which is where Sheriff Joe Arpaio was. But we would just take the 40 and then come down, you know, all the way down from North Texas to the bottom. So that would add about an eight-hour trip. And it was scary every time, to be honest, even going through North Texas, because it was just like we didn’t want to put him at risk, but at the same time it was like we didn’t not want to take him, because he’s such an integral part of the band. So it was like—you know, it was kind of like, well, he would have to take that risk, and he was OK with it, we’ll do it. And it was just—it was a rough time, I mean, but we just kind of thought it was like a part of what was happening, because we didn’t know how we were going to fix his situation, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: So, “El Hielo,” Marisol, talk about this song, what it means. And it certainly has special meaning for you as a band.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, definitely. “El Hielo” is a song that we wrote because we were experiencing this—no?—of wanting to follow our dreams, and we were a band and traveling, but also because, like our friend Pepe, we had friends—no?—our peers, that were going through the same thing, or our family members. And so, it was—we definitely felt like we needed to humanize this topic, you know, about immigration, about—

AMY GOODMAN: And “el hielo” means “ice.”

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: “El hielo” means “ice.” And—

AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, that’s also—

JOSÉ CARLOS: Immigration.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, I mean, Immigrations Customs Enforcement, or “el hielo” as in just ”ICE,” you know? So, a little play on words there. But using stories of real people—no?—in this song, “El Hielo,” we tried to give it a more human aspect, no? Because, you know, in the news it’s always like this many illegals were deported or, you know, just numbers and negative things. And we wanted to show that, you know, like we’re children of immigrants or immigrants ourselves, no? And maybe not all of our—we didn’t come with our proper documentation, but we’re good people. And so we were inspired by our friends, by our families. So when we speak of the people in the songs, we’re talking about José. We’re talking about Eva, my mother, who’s a domestic worker. We’re talking about Marta, our friend, who’s a DREAMer. And it was just our way to share with people the story of what happens—no?—when people are faced with deportations.

AMY GOODMAN: And what about the video that you use in this song, in “Ice,” in “El Hielo,” Oso?

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Well, the video, we worked with this director named Alex Rivera. And through some friends that we know, through NDLON, National Day Laborers [Organizing Network], we kind of teamed up, and we started brainstorming about what the song could mean to not just us but a lot of people and stuff. And it was a really beautiful moment, because I don’t think we understood just how powerful the song was going to become. And the video was so amazing, because there’s a lot of people in the video who are actually going through the process of being undocumented in this country, or even the process of deportation in this country. And at the end of the video, you’ll see which one of the characters are going through that process and stuff like that. So, I think it was a beautiful moment for us in that video, because a lot of people kind of came out from out of the shadows and were able to kind of demonstrate and say like—you know, say, “This is who I am. This is my situation. We’re standing up. We’re using our voice to try to make a change, you know, for our situation and try to push towards an immigration reform and try to stop deportations.” So I think it was a great video for all of us, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: Of course, you perform “El Hielo” in Spanish. But, Marisol, could you share it a little for us in English—

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —so people have a little access to the song—

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —who are Spanish-ignorant?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes. It says, “Marta came as a child and dreams of studying. But it’s difficult without papers. Those that were born here get the laurels, but she never stops fighting. ICE is loose on these streets, and one never knows when it will take us. How long do the children cry in the doorway, cry to see that mom is not coming back? One stays here, and another stays there. This happens because one goes out to work.” And that’s the story of millions of people in this country—no?—that are out there working for their family.

AMY GOODMAN: And this song was in Treinta Días, the song you won the Grammy for.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: And what was that experience like? Explain that day. Where were you when you won?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Oh, man.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: We were actually—we were actually invited to perform at the pre-telecast. So they said, “Hey, your category’s coming up in a few minutes, so you guys might just want to stay on the side of the stage in case you guys win, you know?” So we were on the side of the stage like a nervous wreck, like we didn’t know what was happening, you know? So we just kind of like—and the intercom was really low, and you couldn’t really hear, so when they announced our category, we were like—oh, man, I was like on the side of the stage by the curtain, like I wanted to win really bad. And they were back there, and I was—and when I heard the name when they called us as the winners, and I was like, “Guys, we won! Let’s go! Let’s go!” And it was just—we just ran out there and—

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Just in case they made a mistake or something, you know? We were like, “We’re taking this award.”

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Yeah.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah. But we ran out like children. We were so happy. I mean, we—

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Yeah.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: It was already an honor to be—to be considered, to be nominated. And when we won the Grammy, we were just so grateful and so proud, and we dedicated it to our City of Angels, to our family and friends and to, you know, all the immigrants, the undocumented immigrants. We felt it was very important to make that statement, to show people—no?—that here are these children of immigrants or immigrants, you know, fighting for their dreams and trying to show a little example of the beauty that can happen when you let someone live their dreams and grow and really realize themselves in this country, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: So you won the Grammy for Latin rock, Best Latin Rock Album of the Year?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes, yes. That’s what it was for.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Yeah, it was this weird category, like Best Latin Rock, Alternative and some—

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Urban something.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: —Urban something, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: And it was Treinta Días, Thirty Days. Why Thirty Days?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: “Treinta Días” is a song in the album, in that album, and it was—it was autobiographical, because we were working to pay for those 30 days, you know? Like 30 days to stay at home—I mean, to have like an apartment. Like we’re always—we’re musicians. You know, sometimes you have work, and sometimes you don’t. And here we are—

AMY GOODMAN: Like the rent is due every 30 days.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Exactly, the rent is due every 30 days. So here we are always worried about that, but, you know, chasing our dreams, trying to be musicians, and, yes, always worrying about 30 days. The rent never—doesn’t care if you’re a musician or if you have money or you don’t, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to “El Hielo.”

LA SANTA CECILIA: Eva pasando el trapo sobre la mesa ahí está
cuidando que todo brille como una perla.
Cuando llegue la patrona, que no se vuelva a quejar.
No sea cosa que la acuse de ilegal.

José atiende los jardines, parecen de Disneyland
Maneja una troca vieja sin la licencia.
No importa si fue taxista allá en su tierra natal
Eso no importa para el Tío Sam.

El hielo anda suelto por esas calles
Nunca se sabe cuando nos va a tocar
Ahora los niños lloran a la salida
Lloran al ver que no llegará mamá
Uno se queda aquí, otro se queda allá,
Eso pasa por salir a trabajar.

Marta llegó de niña y sueña con estudiar.
Pero se le hace difícil sin los papeles.
Se quedan con los laureles los que nacieron acá,
Pero ella nunca deja de luchar.

El Hielo anda suelto por esas calles
Nunca se sabe cuando nos va tocar
Ahora los niños lloran a la salida
Lloran al ver que no llegará mamá
Uno se queda aquí, otro se queda allá,
Eso pasa por salir a trabajar.
Uno se queda aquí, otro se queda allá,
Eso pasa por salir a trabajar.

AMY GOODMAN: That was “El Hielo/ICE,” which is of course “ice” and also ”ICE,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement. What is the response that you get around the country when you perform, not to mention your just videos being out there that go viral?

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: I think it’s a very impactful kind of response that we get. When we play it for—obviously, for our own community, it’s like—it’s like a release valve, and you see people crying in the front row, you see people hugging each other. It’s a very emotional, emotional song, you know? And a lot of times we hear a lot of really amazing feedback from people, like yesterday this girl came up to me. She’s like, “Thank you so much for writing that song. I showed that song to my family, and we’re all immigrants. We’re all still undocumented. And we just all hugged each other and cried when we heard the song.” And you hear stuff like that, and this is—it’s mind-blowing.

But—and also, too, when we play, you know, in areas where it’s like the majority of the audience is not immigrant, they’re not Latino, they’re not people of color, it’s just—you know, we have to try to—like Marisol said, our attempt in that moment is just to really humanize and put a face to this issue that a lot of times people don’t notice. They just—like Marisol said, you know, it’s just statistics in the media and stuff like that, and they don’t understand. We always try to make sure that they know that we’re talking about us, the people that are on stage, and so that they can kind of understand from a human perspective, more than anything.

AMY GOODMAN: Introduce us to your street, Marisol, where you grew up, where your dad has a shop.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Oh, I was very fortunate to grow up and learn about music on this little—this little street in the heart of L.A., and it’s called Olvera Street, La Placita Olvera. And it was—it was like a little tourist place that was made in the 1920s and ’30s, but I think it really—

AMY GOODMAN: And he has a souvenir shop there?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, yeah, my dad has a souvenir shop there, and my grandfather came in the late ’70s, in the late ’60s.

AMY GOODMAN: From?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: From Mexico.

AMY GOODMAN: Where?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: From Guadalajara. And he started taking pictures on the burro and selling, you know, his Mexican crafts and things like that. And that’s where I learned music. That’s where I learned—I met Pepe, when we were teenagers, and we were playing—

JOSÉ CARLOS: We were busking on the street.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Busking on the streets, playing traditional music, traditional Mexican-Latin American music.

JOSÉ CARLOS: Yes.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: And that’s how it started.

AMY GOODMAN: So when did you decide to form this band?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Well, about eight years ago. We were already working together, playing at weddings and busking and things like that. But we wanted to tell our own stories. We wanted to experiment with all the different styles that inspired us, no?

AMY GOODMAN: So talk about those styles. What is it that inspires you, that you bring together?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Ah, I mean—I mean, like I said earlier, we’re kids that, you know, were—at home, it’s like Mexico, and we love rancheras and Mexican music and Latin American music and cumbias and salsa. And at—you go to school, and you’re like an all-American kid, right? And, you know, we listen to Nirvana or to Ella Fitzgerald, to The Beatles. And we always felt like—at least I felt like we were torn, like at home I’m this, and, you know, at school and with my friends I’m something else. And I fell like with this band, we get to merge those lives together—no?—and say—and celebrate that—no?—that it’s cool to be bicultural, that it’s cool to mix ranchero with rock 'n' roll. And I think that’s what La Santa Cecilia is, that celebration of being from two places and honoring and loving both countries, both places where you’re from, no?

AMY GOODMAN: Buenaventura is your latest. What do you mean by “buenaventura”? What does it mean?
Like “good luck”?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: “Buenaventura” is like “good luck.” “Buenaventura” is like a “great adventure.” And we gave it the title of this album because it’s been an amazing adventure that we’ve been going on for the past few years of playing music, of fulfilling our dreams and of so many more dreams that we have, you know, to live. So, I mean, it’s been—it’s been beautiful.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain also to us “Nunca Más,” one of the main songs on your CD?

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: “Nunca Más” is a song that we wrote pretty much as a response to all the violence that we’re seeing all around this country and in Mexico, especially, too. We were kind of just talking about the situation happening with the 43 students in Ayotzinapa, and then we were talking about the Black Lives Matter movement and all the police brutality we see in the media all the time here in our country, here in the United States. And so we just kind of—the same thing. We just kind of wanted to just express, from our perspective, what that made us feel, you know, the impotence that feel a lot of times when, you know, it’s a positive movement by be it students or a social movement that’s like trying to achieve something positive for society, yet they’re met with violence. So, for us, you know, we kind of felt that impotence, and it affects us on a daily basis whenever we see it.

AMY GOODMAN: So these 43 Mexican students at a teachers’ college, Ayotzinapa, who just disappear, who vanish, and it’s been more than a year.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Right, it’s infuriating, because it’s like—you know, it’s like part of us. We’re part of them. They’re like—they’re young people in this world trying to make a positive change. So, for us, it’s—you know, it’s a response in that sense, but it’s also an empowering thing. The song is a song to encourage people to utilize their voice to try to create a more positive world and to try to fight against that violence, really, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts on this, as you become legal in this country? It’s hard to think of a person who is “illegal.” But you’re DACA, and now you’re married. Pepe, what this song means to you and what “Nunca Más” means?

JOSÉ CARLOS: You know, I’ve always believed that as a member of this world, as a human being, I think we have the responsibility to make our lives better for each other, for our kids, for our grandchildren, whoever’s going to come after us. So, I think this is the way of us putting something on the table and saying, “You know what? We want to make this world a better place.” And we want to share our stories, because that’s the only way we’re going to change things that are happening, you know, by speaking out.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Marisol, could you tell us the words in English for the song that we’re about to watch and listen to?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes. It says, “I ask that you give me your hand and follow me on this road to show those above the anger of those below. With fear set aside, it’s time to be courageous. In honor of those who are gone, I won’t stand idly by. Overwhelming guilt silences some. Others simply choose to forget. If violence is a mirror that gets broken, and our fallen tears scream out, simply remember that this face has a name, and never again will it be silenced.”

AMY GOODMAN: “Nunca Más,” La Santa Cecilia.

LA SANTA CECILIA: Nos fuimos siguiendo un sueño
con el corazón en mano
por que ya no es justo nada
en la tierra que habitamos
en medio de la comparsa
nos arrastra un viento humano
pa’ ver si se nos quitaba
las ganas de andar soñando
unos de tanta culpa se quedan mudos
otros tienen memoria para olvidar

si la violencia es un espejo que se rompe
y nuestras lagrimas caidas gritaran
solo recuerda que mi cara tiene un nombre
y nunca mas se callara
y nunca mas se callara.

te pido me des la mano
y en el camino me sigas
vamos traer a los de arriba
la ira de los de abajo
del miedo sepultado
es hora de ser valiente
en honor a los ausentes
ya no me cruzo de brazos
unos de tanta culpa se quedan mudos
otros tienen memoria para olvidar

si la violencia es un espejo que se rompe
y nuestras lagrimas caidas gritaran
solo recuerda que mi cara tiene un nombre
y nunca mas se callara
y nunca mas se callara

cuantas veces velamos la misma historia
cuantas mentiras nuevas se contara
si la violencia es un espejo que se rompe
y nuestras lagrimas caidas gritaran
solo recuerda que mi cara tiene un nombre
y nunca mas se callara
y nunca mas se callara
nunca jamas me olvidara
nunca jamas me callara

AMY GOODMAN: That’s La Santa Cecilia, “Nunca Más,” “Never Again,” “Never More.” Before we wrap up with another song, which actually you do sing in English, “I Won’t Cry for You,” I just heard your little baby crying in the background, even through the—even through the soundproof glass. You’re a new mom, Marisol. How are you doing it? How old is your baby? And how has that shaped the music of La Santa Cecilia?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, well, I just—my baby is two months old. And this is actually her first trip out here to the East Coast. And I feel fulfilled. I feel very happy—very tired, too. I don’t sleep anymore, but I’m happy to be—to be a mother, to experience this new—this new chapter in my life—no?—and to share it with my bandmates, who have been so—they’re so patient—no?—also, with us carrying baby around also on tour. But I feel great, and I feel inspired, man, to just—to work harder for our dreams—no?—to give an example to my child of that you can achieve, you can be happy, you can achieve your goals, you can—you can dream, you know? And, I mean, I hope to put those in, you know, make songs, no? Everything’s a song now with her, but yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: “I Won’t Cry for You,” you’re not talking about your baby.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: No, no, not at all.

AMY GOODMAN: Tell me about “I Won’t Cry for You.”

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah, “I Won’t Cry for You” is a very—is a very light, light song. It’s a fun song. It’s like a breakup song. And it’s just about—I think it’s an empowering song for women, to just—you know, if you’re not happy with the relationship that you’re in, it’s totally fine. If you need another dude, it’s totally cool. And that’s what we’re trying to say in this song, I guess, to empower women to speak up, and if—you know, change what you don’t like and, you know, dump what you don’t need.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Out with the old, in with the new?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yeah.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: That’s a pretty good one. I love that song. It’s super-fun and has a really catchy chorus. And it’s cool for us, you know? Like I think the thing that I enjoy the most out of La Santa Cecilia is there’s so much balance in terms of like the themes and the music that we do. You know, sometimes it’s really fun and energetic, other times really deep and kind of heavy and stuff. So, it’s a really cool journey that we’re able to take, and I really enjoy that, you know what I mean? It’s all of life, not just one little particular part of it, you know?

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So we will end with “I Won’t Cry for You.”

LA SANTA CECILIA: Don’t think you got me figured out
I say don’t think I haven’t been around
I say don’t think I ain’t going nowhere
’cause you could be surprised

Show me that you can take a stand
I said show me that you could be a man
Show me more ’cause this is going nowhere
I will give you up

I wont cry for you
I surely had enough, and I will fly for good
Wish that I’d never met you
This life is such a bore, I need another dude

Listen, we gotta stop the hugging and the kissing,
’cause in the end the goods are missing
Don’t like rides that take me nowhere
I am getting off

I wont cry for you
I surely had enough, and I will fly for good
Wish that I’d never met you
This life is such a bore, I need another dude

I’m so tired of always faking it
I can’t stand another night like this
oh oh oh, oh oh oh
I’m so tired of always faking it
I can’t stand another night like this
oh oh oh, oh oh oh

I wont cry for you
I surely had enough, and I will fly for good
Wish that I’d never met you
This life is such a bore, I need another dude

I wont cry for you
I surely had enough, and I will fly for good
Wish that I’d never met you
This life is such a bore, I need another dude.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s “I Won’t Cry for You,” La Santa Cecilia. Thanks so much for being here.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Thank you for having us.

MARISOL HERNÁNDEZ: Thank you. Gracias.

MIGUEL RAMÍREZ: Thank you. A pleasure.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.