On Thursday, November 20th - Calle 13 Extended Their Mark As The All-Time Leading LATIN GRAMMY Winners, With Nods For Best Urban Album (MultiViral), And Best Alternative Song (El Aguante) Bringing Their Career Tally to 21 LATIN GRAMMY Awards.
The Groundbreaking Puerto Rican Group Also Opened The Awards Broadcast With A Powerful Rendition Of El Aguante In Which They Paid Tribute To The 43 Missing Students of Ayotzinapa, Mexico Immediately Following The Broadcast Of President Obama s Immigration Reform Speech.
"Calle 13 Invokes 43 Students Killed In Mexico At Latin Grammys - We are all Ayotzinapa, said René Residente Pérez Joglar, wearing a shirt that read Ayotzinapa is missing 43. - BUZZFEED
"Calle 13 Have Won the Most Latin Grammys in History. Whats Their Secret?- From smashing Maseratis to mixing Irish pop into urban music, the Puerto Rican duo has not taken the usual route to award show success" - ROLLING STONE
"Latin Grammy winners Calle 13 on hip-hop swag and Julian Assange ...Calle 13 is a musical force to be reckoned with. The pair released its fifth album, Multi_Viral, earlier this year to generally ecstatic reviews. Rolling Stone included the album on its list of the "45 Best Albums of 2014 So Far", along with compilations by Jack White, Skrillex and Beck. On Thursday, Calle 13 took the stage at the Latin Grammy Awards, where they brought the crowd to its feet with the anthem El Aguante (The Endurance), a song about enduring difficult circumstances. It was the perfect segue from Obamas talk, which was all about the hardships faced by immigrants in the country illegally. Toward the end of René Pérez Joglars performance, the singer ripped off his jacket to reveal a T-shirt that read Ayotzinapa Falta 43 (Ayotzinapa is Missing 43), a reference to Mexico s 43 disappeared students...It was a historic night for the band...putting Calle 13 s Latin Grammy haul at a record-setting 21 awards, making the band the top winners in the 15-year history of the Latin Grammys. (This is in addition to the two regular Grammy Awards the band has already has to its credit.)" - LOS ANGELES TIMES
"It was only appropriate that a performance of Calle 13 s hit song "El Aguante," which is an homage to humanity s resilience, followed the president s speech. Though frontman René Pérez chose to shed light on the disappearance of the 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa with a shirt showing solidarity with the thousands who were protesting the government that very night." - HUFFINGTON POST
Two Nights Later - On Saturday, November 22nd - Calle 13 Gave A SOLD-OUT Performance For 20,000 Fans At The Palacio de los Deportes In Mexico City. The Highly-Charged Concert Saw Calle 13 Continue Their Call For Justice In The Case of TheAyotzinapa 43 By Asking Family Members & Friends Of Some Of The Missing Students To Join Them Onstage & Address The Crowd.
"Calle 13 shares the stage with relatives of the 43 students ...Calle 13 invited relatives of the 43 Ayotzinapa students onstage during a concert held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City." - People en Español
"Calle 13 and Parents Do Not Want a 44th Victim... "We will always defend social causes, because these are the values that our parents instilled in us" - CNN Mexico
"René "Residente" Pérez announced Saturday at a press conference that although the Mexican laws do not allow him, being a foreigner, to speak against Mexican politics and policies, he would allow Mexicans - the parents of the missing students - to speak about the issue, and he did.
I met with a father and a mother of a missing student and the story of their sons was very moving; since I recently became a father it was heartbreaking, I support these causes because I can t avoid doing it, it is my duty. For me it is impossible to be on a stage and not mentioning these situations in Latin-America. I will not speak tonight at the stage, the Mexicans will," said Residente Perez
The parents of the Ayotzinapa students delivered their speech during Calle 13 s performance and thousands of attendees joined in solidarity, shouting: "You are not alone." - Telesur
