President Obama and Ricky Martin in a ceremony.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIt is known that religions as well as politics are very personal in nature, and very controversial topics. As public personas, should Latin music artists and entertainers be actively participating in public political campaigns?<\/p>\n
My personal opinion is that Latin Music artists and other non-political public people should not participate actively in political campaigns. However, I do think they can support their preferred political alliance, be that by money donations or by stating their support to a particular initiative or political party, as a matter of personal opinion, even when stated publicly in an interview. I think that is ok.<\/p>\n
Look, Ricky Martin is now a Buddhist follower (has been for quite a while), but I don\u2019t see him trying to publicly influence people to convert to Buddhism! If asked, he will state why he likes it and why it works for him, and leave it at that. I think artists should stay away of political and religious endorsements. As music fans, we respect their personal opinions and choices, but using their public persona to try to influence the public choice in these two areas goes into the risky proposition of mixing politics and art.<\/p>\n
Look, a couple of years ago I supported Juanes, Olga Ta\u00f1on, and others who went to Cuba to perform for the people of Cuba in a free concert. I believed, and Juanes stated this many times, that it was not a political event. Nor did it intend to show any support for the political system in the island. I supported them because I see the separation between politics and art. On the same token, Ruben Blades has performed in Venezuela, despite not being a supporter of Hugo Chavez.<\/p>\n
If music and politics continue to be mixed, it will bring unintended consequences, when Republicans will despise Ricky Martin and people will continue to insult Marc Anthony in twitter. To paraphrase one of Marc\u2019s songs, eso \u201cno vali\u00f3 la pena\u201d!<\/p>\n
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Is it appropriate for Latin music artists (\u2026and yes, this applies to all artists and other public entertainers in general) to engage in politics and perform at campaign events of political parties? Is the reaction different by either the place (Latin America vs. U.S.) or by type of campaign support (monetary contributions vs. event performance)? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1270,13,192],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Is Politics a Good Mix for Latin Music Artists? - Latino Music Cafe<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n