Diandra Reviews It All- Interviews Tito Rey: Nobody's Illegal

This summer I really want to focus on spreading the new. Perhaps, it was the quarantine, which if you have read my playlist diaries, you know it hit me hard. Old issues have amplified to have new strains, and Tito Rey is someone whom understands what it is like to have so much on your plate, you wonder whether you can feel “hunger”? In essence, having so much financial and social stress, you don’t even know if you can dream or feel permission to be so ambitious. In our interview, he discusses why he speaks up for others but sings for himself.

Diandra: How has quarantine been?

Tito: It has been bittersweet. I have been working on this project for two years. We were starting releasing and do these string of concerts. I was going to open for Pablo Vittar, and do all these tv shows and appearances and then “Boom! Coronavirus!” in a Cardi B voice. “Sh*t is getting real!” And it got real! My manager, in the beginning, thought it was going to be fine, and now I cannot even see him.
Tito Rey – Nobody’s Illegal (Lyric Video) #NobodysIllegal #LettersofLoveToKids

Diandra: I was, particularly, curious about how the pandemic affected you because your life has been so up and down, and your, finally, approaching this new “up” and it becomes a down.

Tito: Yeah! Exactly! That is what is going on right now. I had doors open and this virus closed it on my face. I just did this livestream, and it went great. I sang original songs, talked about immigration and what is going on right now during the coronavirus, and it got a lot of interest. At first I was going crazy, but I began a routine. I started waking up at a real time and having a real breakfast. Within the last two weeks, I found my equilibrium,

Diandra: You mentioned immigration, how do you feel your music sheds light upon the immigrant experience?

Tito: It’s vicious. It is messed up. I was undocumented for seven years. I didn’t go to the doctor’s or dentist for seven years. Someone could just have an experience with me, call ICE, and then I was gone. So I kept on thinking, “What is someone has coronavirus?” I can’t even imagine what to do. Most undocumented immigrants are mistreated and work under the table. ICE is still doing its raids. It is f**ked up. They are going in to people’s houses, because they know we are in quarantine, and they do not care about protocols. It is rough. I have my green card, but I don’t want to forget where I came from.

Diandra: Some artists take on “representation” like an honor and others a pressure. How do you feel about representing oppressed groups?

Tito: I take it as a responsibility. God gave me a talent, personality, charisma, and I have to use it for the right reason. That is why I chose “Nobody’s Illegal” for my first single. This is what I have wanted to say for years, and I take it as a duty. It is not an option in my mind.
Tito Rey – Nobody’s Illegal (Spanglish Version) [Audio] #nobodysillegal

Diandra: So how do you balance your own personal life and journey while carrying this responsibility?

Tito: You just have to be bigger than yourself. I can’t complain that a tour got cancelled or I am stuck in my house, when there are people out there who do not have asylum and are being unjustly thrown in prison. Personally, to keep my sanity I have started meditating 20 to 30 minutes a days. I can tell you I was falling into a depression. I was eating a lot, I was waking up late in the afternoon, and spending my time just watching Netflix, but then I said to myself, “You have been through worse. It took you 7 years to get a green card. You can wait a few months.” Everything is going to be alright.

Diandra: I am kind of shocked because, again, with all that you have gone through, I would imagine you Mr. Patience.

Tito: Oh My God! I really am not. Right now, I am mastering that side of me. I need to remember this is not about me. I am just trying to put myself in others’ shoes, and I have to think of the elderly, especially my grandma in Chile.

Diandra: How do you feel then, as a songwriter, the power of words?

Tito: You have a choice. Everything is a choice. You can be a popstar, and choose to be self-centered. Everything is for the likes, but I choose not to do that. I feel like God gave me this experience for a reason, and it would be a waste of an experience to not talk about it through my music. If people don’t like it, so be it. One of the reasons I wrote “Nobody’s Illegal,” I wrote it for racist people to understand how we feel. I know how it is to have your boss tell you not to speak Spanish; things like that. I believe I need to talk about it. There are so many people who are coming into this country, seeking asylum, because they are going to be killed in their country. They are waiting in cages, being fed frozen food, for months; hoping a judge will see their case.
Here’s what I sang for the first round of Hollywood week on American Idol

Diandra: And we cannot forget migrant children.

Tito: It sucks. There are people who go, as support systems, for these children in cages. They are horror stories. I have to speak up.

Diandra: But can you make a racist “wake up?”

Tito: You know when I was in Adelanto, a detention camp in California, I sang Nobody’s Illegal. So many people were there; asian people, Native American people, black people, white peole, and all these organizations. Then, these white people cars pulled up and pulled out there phones, and started yelling, “Are you from this country? Why are you here?” We said, “We are here to protest parents being from their children and being cruelly detained when they are seeking asylum!” They were so rude and very violent to everybody; the Mexican women who went up to talk them. Then, my friend Jonathan, who was the only white man in the group, went up to talk to them, and it is weird when these racist people had this white man stand up to them. They were quiet.

When they pulled up I thought, “They are going to start shooting us!” They came with The Devil’s Energy. That is why I want people to go to my website and see how we have written letters to these children, in the detention camps, to give them compassion. I can’t understand why people will get in the way of us trying to show love, and I never experienced that in Chile. I experienced racism here. Somebody, once told me, I am second-class citizen and she laughed at me. This can’t be true! This can’t be reality.

Diandra: So how do you feel hope and strength transformed you? With all that you have been through and seen?

Tito: What kept me going was singing. I remember, even when my dad died, my shield and escape from reality was singing. Passion keeps you going. If you have something that keeps you excited like, belting a high note, it gives me hope. It tells me, “I still got it!” Even when I was working at a restaurant, getting paid and not paid, and calling me second class citizen. In 2014, they were doing raids on the freeway and stopping anyone that “looked Latino.” So, I would just go to the bar and sing, and it gave me hope. It saved my life.

Diandra: How would you describe your journey of love?

Tito: My father giving me a guitar, when I was 4 years, old by a lake, and I remember it as him giving me the gift of music. His whole side can play music and are Christian singers. Then, I have a memory of my father putting a gun to my mother’s face. That moment really marked me, and then I was looking for anyone that would give me the slightest bit of love. I never had an example of that because the relationship was abusive. It has been tough growing up. After meeting my partner and going therapy, I had to realize I am not my father. I am my own person, and for while I felt like I was becoming him. That is why I chose the name “Tito.” It was my father’s name and I wanted to let go of that toxic memory. I wanted to let go of the anger. Wow! I am being so honest with you.

Diandra: (I laugh) It was good. This was beautiful.

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