Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts
Showing posts with label campaign. Show all posts

Monday, February 27, 2012

Our DREAM Act song (full) + Obama on Immigration (FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT)



Dream to Belong  -The complete song in support of the DREAM Act, dedicated to all the Dreamers and in memory of Dreamer Joaquin Luna. Full credits here

Let's keep putting pressure on the ground, organizing, demonstrating, talking to people online and in person and reminding everyone that this country, founded on the ideal of equality and opportunity, can only benefit from each Dreamer's desire to educate themselves and contribute openly to this nation. Any society can only benefit from its struggle to overcome prejudice, selfishness and xenophobia, and every person can only grow from attempting to become more inclusive and compassionate.
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Univision's blog post on "Dream to Belong" can be found HERE and includes lyrics.
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Scroll down to skip this intro and go directly to the TRANSCRIPT of Obama's interview...
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On Feb 6 2012 Interview I gave an interview to Tim Paynter of Denver's 1150am radio. The first part of that interview was about our new song and the Dreamers and you can find it in my last post. In the second part I addressed questions about Obama and immigration reform and for those who don't speak Spanish, here is the gist of what I said:
While volunteering in support of the DREAM Act, I've come across some supporters of immigration reform who are understandably frustrated that the law hasn't been passed yet but who are unjustly blaming President Obama. Let's not forget the facts. While Obama, Reid, Durbin and most of the Democrats continue to push for the DREAM Act, (98% of Dems voted to pass it), Republicans as a whole have blocked it in congress, and their candidates oppose it as well, with Romney explicitly declaring he'd veto it.  Through the "Morton Memo" the administration has tried to shift ICE's focus to deporting high-risk individuals and actual criminals instead of DREAMers, (resulting in a drop in deportations according to this story by the LA Times) sparing many who were in line for deportation and whose cases have been dropped, including several who I've volunteered for and with. I've seen this progress first hand and think it is important that DREAMers know they can appeal to ICE's  Prosecutorial Discretion as laid out by the administration and John Morton. However any president's constitutional limitations require support in congress to pass a federal law that would offer the DREAMERs a lasting path to citizenship. We need our allies in government to make the DREAM Act a reality and we need to keep acting marching and demonstrating peacefully, creating awareness and putting pressure on senators to vote for the DREAM Act. We have to pay attention to who is promoting anti-immigrant laws like HB 56 in Alabama and  SB 1070 in Arizona (Which Obama opposed). There are too many Republican politicians constantly taking anti-immigrant positions in every state, and we can stand with those who oppose them. By making sure we are doing all we can to strengthen the campaigns of senators who represent our ideals and trying to help them get elected we will also increase the number of votes in favor of immigration reform and will help those trying to  get it passed when it comes to the floor of the congress again. Here's the audio in Spanish:


so that was Feb 6.

On Feb 21, President Obama gave an interview to Piolin of Univision radio in which he tackled questions about his immigration reform promises (in similar terms to those I  used in my Feb 6 interview).  : http://univisionnews.tumblr.com/post/18103030750/obama-i-didnt-break-my-promise-on-immigration-reform





Thursday, April 16, 2009

Videos: TV news interviews about our Obama grassroots efforts, songs, videos and what comes next

Two Interviews about the role of our videos and song played during the Obama campaign, about my career and about what comes next for all of us who volunteered.

Video:

Below is another, shorter interview I gave later that day (the day after performances on Obama's inaugural galas):
Video:


You can find the full music video question "Si se Puede Cambiar" at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky8Hvq-F0U
and the later english version at Will.i.am's website
http://dipdive.com/member/Andres-Useche/tv/

In the second Univision interview I spoke also about the meaning of this democratic victory and the need for our continued engagement to be able to seize this opportunity to make real lasting change.

La entrevista en espanol para Agenda Washington (Univision) fue relizada en Enero 21, 2009. In the interview I also mentioned working with United for Obama and pointed to our page on youtube, I also want to praise the amazing work of Eric Byler and Annabel Park specifically.




Photos from both interviews








Monday, September 15, 2008

Andres and Governor Bill Richardson working to get Obama elected in Las Vegas, great times with APAP and AAPI too

I went to Las Vegas to volunteer and perform for Obama and had the pleasure of meeting with former presidential candidate Governor Bill Richardson, who turned out to be a big fan of my pro-Obama video "Si Se Puede Cambiar" which incidentally has surpassed the 350,000 viewer mark on youtube.
Thanks to my friends at APAP, AAPI and everybody responsible for organizing this trip. It was great meeting all of you. It's the home stretch and we have to keep at it, keep on with our struggle for greater justice and equality by making Barack Obama the next president of the United States of America. Si, Se puede!






Thursday, February 28, 2008

Texas, here we come! Sen. Cedillo and Si Se Puede Cambiar Artists to join forces for Obama

I'm pasting the United for Obama press release below:


8:40 AM - MEDIA ADVISORY: Obama Viral Video Artists Travel to Houston

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 28, 2008

OBAMA VIRAL VIDEO ARTISTS TRAVEL TO HOUSTON
Latino/Asian American Artists Behind "Si Se Puede Cambiar" Arrive Tomorrow

HOUSTON, TX – The artists behind the viral music video "Si Se Puede Cambiar" (Yes We Can Change) will fly to Houston, TX this weekend to volunteer for Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign. "Si Se Puede Cambiar" has now been posted to the internet with English, Vietnamese, and Korean subtitles, where it has been viewed more than 80,000 times in six days.

Singer/songwriter Andres Useche (30), an immigrant from Colombia whose father lives in Houston, will arrive in Texas on Saturday morning. He will volunteer on Latino outreach with California State Senator Gilbert Cedillo, who makes a cameo in Useche's video.

Useche said of his new hit song, "I felt disillusioned and powerless for many years as I watched our government fail us. But Obama's message awakened me. While volunteering for him, I experienced the spirit of renewed enthusiasm that has touched so many people, and this inspired me to write the song."

The opening words of the song — "For too long we have been sleeping, but we have been afraid to dream" — came to Useche while door-knocking in East Los Angeles with film director Eric Byler (36). The two began shooting the music video two days later on Super Tuesday, while Useche was still memorizing the lyrics. Byler, best known for South by Southwest award-winners CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES and AMERICANESE, said his favorite thing about the video is the volunteerism it captures. "We are a team that includes some talented artists, but more importantly we are a group of citizens who feel a responsibility to help move this country forward."

Byler and Annabel Park (39) fly to Houston on Friday morning from Baltimore, MD. Both are Asian American filmmakers who work closely with Latinos on the immigration issue. Park and Byler are co-directors of 9500 LIBERTY, an on-going series popular on YouTube documenting the politicization of the immigration issue in Northern Virginia. 9500 LIBERTY has generated 394,000 hits since October, including 132,000 for a video in which Park compares the Latino immigration experience to her own.

"The obstacles facing the Latino community today mirror my own immigration experience as a Korean American," said Park, who moved with her family to Houston at the age of nine. Tomorrow's return to Houston will be her first in two decades.

Park and Byler began their latest YouTube series, "United For Obama," on January 14th in Las Vegas, NV. The series chronicles road-trips, canvassing, and in-language phone calls (over 20,000 to Virginia from cities around the nation) on behalf of Sen. Obama. The videos include such celebrities as Kal Penn, Kelly Hu, Kerry Washington, and Tatyana Ali. But their most popular video by far is Useche's moving ballad.

Useche joined "United For Obama" after coming across their videos on the internet. "The internet has been a crucial component in this movement, and in our case in particular," Park said. "YouTube and Facebook have allowed us to collaborate with volunteers from around the country."

Monday, February 25, 2008

Si Se Puede Cambiar Launch report

Hi everyone and thank you so much your support for our music video! Thanks for the messages and comments on Youtube. It's very inspiring to connect with so many that like us believe in Barack Obama's quest to stop this war, claim the government for the people, not the corporations, fight discrimination of all kinds, offer better opportunity to the underprivileged and engage with the world in a more humane and honest way.

"Marching into the Light" by Andres Useche