Música Not Migra is a Testament to the Power of Community

Cynthia Rebolledo
Aug 1
5 min read

To help the community during this time of heightened immigration enforcement, local bands, writers, artists, elected officials, community members and businesses are coming together monthly to raise funds for the Orange County Rapid Response Network.

At a fundraiser for the Orange County Rapid Respose Network, the crowd swayed and bopped to the sounds of The Desparados at the music lounge La Santa. Photo by Cynthia Rebolledo, Culture OC

On a recent weeknight, Tsui Vasquez zipped around the crowd gathered on the dance floor inside La Santa’s underground music lounge in downtown Santa Ana. He checked in with the people working the door, the band's unloading gear and emcees. Then he took a moment to pause and take in the room.

Vasquez was the event organizer and part of the host committee for Música Not Migra, a fundraiser to support the Orange County Rapid Response Network (OCRRN). Founded in 2016, OCRRN is a coalition of community organizers, lawyers and immigration advocacy groups that work to respond to immigration enforcement activities and policies through legal defense, immigrant justice work and mutual aid.

“It means a lot to put this event together,” Vasquez said. “If it wasn’t for OCRRN, so many more families here in Santa Ana would be torn apart. This is a full circle moment for me, to be able to help OCRRN out and raise funds – every family deserves to live without fear of separation."

The 23-year-old Santanero recalls reaching out to the OCRRN in early June for support. Vasquez was at work scrolling through Instagram when he saw videos showing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surrounding warehouses in the industrial area where his father works in Santa Ana.

“I left work in Anaheim and drove straight there – my dad was OK but that same day, as soon as I got off of work, I did hands-on ICE verification training with the OCRRN,” he said with a sigh. “I felt a lot of emotions that day, but because of that, I was like, ‘OK, it's time to really lock in and see what more I can do in order to help out my community.’”

Música Not Migra comes at a time when many events in Orange County are being postponed or canceled over fears of resident safety following the summer’s widespread immigration raids throughout the region.

“It can be overwhelming for many, and that's why they are canceling their events,” said Sandra De Anda, director of policy and legal strategy for OCRRN.

De Anda said even with a recent temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge that blocks federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests, ICE continues to go after and detain “in vehicles, homes and at the courthouse.”

“Something that we have seen in the community is that many businesses are adapting,” De Anda said. “They are hiring their own security teams to be equipped to respond to ICE officials on their property and investing in security cameras and motion sensor cameras. The more that people know their rights and understand the nature of immigration enforcement, they will feel a sense of ease.”

For the event, OCRRN had ICE watchers assessing and looking for any suspicious vehicles that might have been doing surveillance to ensure that La Santa and surrounding premises would be safe. “We did our due diligence to make sure that the security guard and the security team knew the difference between a judicial and an administrative warrant and that they were trained to hold their ground.”

De Anda emphasizes the importance of resistance. “These agencies want to interrupt the way that we live and this event is a testament to the power of the community. We must experience joy in order to wake up the next day and say, ‘I’m going to continue fighting.’”

Música Not Migra brought together bands, writers, artists, elected officials and community members for a night that started with poetry and continued with an array of musical genres – jazz, rockabilly, psychedelic surf-rock, electro-cumbia and folkloric rhythms – from Chulita Vinyl Club, Gabriel Lopez Quintet, The Desparados, Ingredient 10, LoverSonicos, Valley Rats and MILPA.

PHOTO 1: Emcee and host committee member Jenny Lynn welcomes the crowd at Música Not Migra. PHOTO 2: Artist and host committee member Alicia Rojas speaks with vigor as she recites her poetry. PHOTO 3: The Gabriel Lopez Quintet kicked off the musical acts at Música Not Migra. PHOTO 4: Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem Benjamin Vazquez and SAUSD school board trustee Alfonso Alvarez thank the local businesses and sponsors of Música Not Migra. PHOTO 5: Sandra De Anda, director of policy and legal strategy for OCRRN, reads her piece called “Soft Studs” published in Citric Acid, a literary arts quarterly. Photos by Cynthia Rebolledo, Culture OC

Alicia Rojas, artist and host committee member, recited a deeply personal poem that same night among authors and writers like De Anda, Joesé Gloria, Marytza K. Rubio and luri M. Lara.

“They tried to bury us – but we were seeds. They tried to erase us – but we are murals on walls you can’t ignore. They tried to disappear us – but we are shadows that shine,” Rojas read with vigor. The crowd let out a raucous applause. “We rise from kitchens, from canneries, from fields, from detention centers and ICE raids – from the stories that our mothers never got to finish telling!”

“There’s nothing like poetry to make sense of things and speak truth to power and use words as medicine, healing and empowerment,” Rojas said afterward. “They can’t take that from us and we can’t let them take that from us.”

Rojas’ son, Gabriel Lopez, led his eponymous quintet through a performance of Joe Henderson’s politically inspired 1969 recording “Power to the People” – a song that is fluid, commanding and full of open-ended group improvisation.

“Joe Henderson, of all the saxophonists, was always forward thinking and very involved with the civil rights movement,” Lopez said. “Power to the People was his musical reflection of what was going on in the movement. It's a strong melody and tune that still really resonates today.”

According to De Anda, the OCCRN is hoping to hold a fundraiser a month for the foreseeable future to assist immigrant and refugee communities being targeted by ICE. “In addition to more music events, we’re trying to see what mediums we can use to pierce this collective consciousness of rebellion,” she said. “People can look forward to an upcoming event later in August.”

As for Vasquez, he plans to keep organizing.

“The best part of the night was seeing the different generations of community members come together and support the cause,” he said. “I feel very blessed to have a part in helping to make it happen but I have to thank the OG organizers – they’re passing down their wisdom and allowing the youth to lead this movement.”