‘RiseUp AS ONE’ concert bridges U.S.-Mexico border
Their voices rising in English and Spanish, an all-star cast of performers called for building bridges — not walls — during a Saturday concert in San Diego by the U.S. border.
The outdoor concert, called “RiseUp AS ONE,” was a celebration of immigration, cultural diversity and Latin identity — and a call for political participation — before an audience of some 15,000 people gathered as the sun went down by the border fence in Otay Mesa.
The message reached a far broader audience, as the concert was broadcast live nationally and streamed worldwide by the event’s hosts, the Spanish-language television network Univision and Fusion, a cable channel and digital platform aimed at English-speaking millennials.
The lineup included Spanish singers Miguel Bosé and Alejandro Sanz, Colombians Carlos Vives and Juanes, Mexico’s Natalia Lafourcade, Mexican-American Lila Downs, Tijuana-raised Julieta Venegas, San Diegan Andra Day, Mexican-American singer Lupillo Rivera, the famed Norteño band, Los Tigres del Norte and Puerto Rican rapper Residente.
In between rhythmic cumbias, ballads and norteño songs, the performers sounded a political message: That it’s time for U.S. Latinos to exercise their political clout.
The concert’s timing a little over three weeks before the U.S. presidential election was no accident. And the setting, right by the Cross Border Xpress elevated pedestrian bridge that spans the fence, presented a counterpoint to Republican candidate Donald Trump’s call to build a continuous wall on the Mexican border.
“On Nov. 8, you have a very important appointment, one in which you will decide whether you want progress and dignity or whether you want regression and chaos,” Bosé told the audience before launching into a performance. “This is your vote, and this is your voice.”
The concert stage was set next to the pedestrian bridge that gives ticketed airline passengers direct access from San Diego to Tijuana’s A.L. Rodriguez International Airport. One of the hosts was Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who has clashed openly with Trump over the candidate’s statements about Latinos and unauthorized immigrants from Mexico.
Several of the performers have spoken out openly against Trump, but they took care to avoid mentioning his name during the concert. The Latin Grammy-winning group Los Tigres del Norte, based in San Jose and especially popular among Mexicans in the United States, have been actively promoting the vote and publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The audience was not a group that needed much convincing.
“I’m not planning to vote for Trump. I didn’t need a concert to tell me that,” said Ana Ruiz, 42, a Spanish-born U.S. citizen who works for a pharmaceutical company in San Diego. “But I think this is a way to bring awareness. Instead of looking for differences, let’s look for what makes us the same.”
Irma Covarrubias, a 51-year-old office worker from Chula Vista, said she came to hear music, “but also to create consciousness about the vote.”
“It’s time for Latinos to vote and to make our vote count,” Covarrubias said.
The idea for the concert was born this past summer in Miami over an informal paella meal shared by Univision executives and members of the music industry.
“We were just tired of the divisive rhetoric, how everybody’s saying mean things about other people, how this fear and xenophobia and bad messages were just getting traction,” said Kevin Mills, Univision’s vice president of strategy and news, in an interview before the concert. “One thing led to another and 20 minutes later we said, ‘We should do a concert on the border.’”
They leaped into action, setting the concert date three months away, on Oct.15. “We really wanted to do it before the elections,” Mills said. “We felt that this was a great platform to get people motivated to exercise the vote.”
San Diego was selected because it was the easiest area to access and close to Univision’s large Los Angeles station. The original concept was to have it on both sides of the border, but the logistics were too challenging in such a short period of time.
Just choosing a site presented an unexpected problem: Two possible locations in Otay Mesa had to be ruled out over environmental issues involving the protected habitat of the burrowing owl.
The third option was perfect: a vacant 15-acre lot abutting the U.S. border fence and next to the Cross-Border Xpress. Environmental reviews had already been completed on the property, which had been equipped with services and utilities.
“We loved the symbolism,” said Paola Avila, who helped organizers find the site as vice president for international affairs for the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Here, we are a region that actually built a bridge over the border.”
