Tapatio rock band Maná performed at a campaign rally in support of President Barack Obama in Las Vegas last Sunday, after which they begged the president to carry out an “comprehensive immigration reform” if reelected.
The hugely popular rockers played a free concert before more than 11,000 Obama supporters at the Desert Pines High School, a week before online voter registration ends in Nevada and three weeks before early voting begins.
Both Republicans and Democrats have been targeting Hispanic voters, who comprise 27 percent of the electorate in the swing state of Nevada, by making frequent campaign stops and investing heavily in the area’s Spanish-language TV and radio stations.Formed in Guadalajara in 1986, Maná have sold over 30 million albums, winning four Grammy awards and seven Latin Grammys in the process. Impressed by Obama’s policies toward the Hispanic community, they decided to lend their weight to his re-election campaign. The band have worked closely with the non-partisan Voto Latino organization in recent months, even holding on-site voter registration during their concerts.
“Through President Obama’s Recovery Act, nearly two million Latino families, including children, were kept out of poverty. The healthcare law will provide coverage for nine million Latinos who previously had no medical insurance,” said lead singer Fher Olvera prior to the performance.
“We have the conviction that Obama is the best candidate for all Latinos,” Olvera added during the concert. “Vote for the president who has cared most for Latinos and minorities.”
Ironically, Mexico’s Constitution forbids foreign involvement in domestic politics, meaning it would be illegal for a U.S. artist to perform at a rally in favor of any Mexican candidate. However, radical U.S. rock band Rage Against the Machine once pushed the law to its limits by playing a concert in support of the indigenous Zapatista rebel movement in Mexico City in 2000.
Maná’s next hometown show will be on December 7 at the Auditorio Telmex in Zapopan.