Julieta Venegas
“I always remember when we used to go to the beaches with the family. We were going through the expressway, that part of the city where the migrants were, standing looking the other way from there. While people with stalls sold their things, something to drink or eat. And on the other side the trucks of the migra, with the gentlemen standing behind the fence, watching. All like frozen in time. I saw that scene hundreds of times, during my childhood and adolescence, in the multiple walks we took with the family on one side and the other of the line. It has always been part of the landscape of Tijuana, the people who come, and who try to pass to the other side. People who don't give up. It is his fight, arriving to move on, Tijuana being the last stop before the big jump. Hopefully, they will find a better life, with better conditions. That reality and that landscape is tangled with all my memories. Hopefully and someone who needs encouragement, who is trying to cross, see that phrase in the sky and gives him strength, strength to continue his fight, on his journey. Sometimes they try it several times before they succeed, crossing, sometimes they stay to live in Tijuana, sometimes their stories end in that they return to their country, and it all starts again. Hopefully, and all the lives we see every day on the border, they will find what they are looking for, be it on this side or the other.”
BIO
Julieta Venegas is a Mexican singer/songwriter. She initially established herself as a cutting-edge Latin alternative artist during the late '90s, before her career shifted direction significantly with her third album, Sí (2003), a broadly appealing pop/rock effort graced with genuine hits, including a couple chart-toppers. In the wake of her 2003 breakthrough, Venegas didn't look back. Her next album, Limón y Sal (2006), was just as broadly appealing as its predecessor, and it was an even bigger hit, spawning several major hits and finding success in Western Europe as well as the Americas. Moreover, Venegas was as acclaimed as she was popular, customarily earning the praise of critics and winning awards, including numerous Grammys. Her musical abilities were sometimes overlooked, for in addition to writing and singing her own songs, she plays numerous instruments, including guitar, accordion, and keyboard. Venegas also made a name for herself as a collaborator, writing songs for and performing with a range of Latin artists, from Paulina Rubio and Mala Rodríguez to Miguel Bosé and Los Tigres del Norte.