Alejandro Sanz, a Spanish singer-songwriter who has sold more than 25 million records since his 1991 debut, dedicated his Latin Grammys “Person of the Year” honor to Dreamers during last night’s ceremony:
Sanz … named the Latin Recording Academy’s Person of the Year, dedicated his award to recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, or DACA, an Obama administration immigration program that allowed young adults who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children to remain in the country.
“They are dreamers, they are our children, they are from our community,” he stated. “This goes to them.”
He followed the speech with a performance of his 2004 flamenco-tinged hit “Corazón Partío” backed by a chorus of DACA recipients wearing T-shirts that read: “We have one dream.”
As he was walking out for the “Corazón Partío” performance, Sanz said “the world spends half its life trying to build walls, and its other half trying to break them down. For every stone, there is a DREAMER.” Hamilton star Lin Manuel Miranda tweeted, “not a dry eye in the house” following the performance.
According to Univision, the Latin Grammys also addressed other issues affecting U.S. Latino communities, including the disaster in Puerto Rico and the victims of gun violence. While receiving an honor that night himself, Miranda stated he wanted to “remind the White House and Congress that [in Puerto Rico] we are human beings too.”