Shakira won Best Latin Pop Album at the 2025 Grammys. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated the award to immigrants: “I want to dedicate this award to all my immigrant brothers and sisters in this country. You are loved, you are worth it, and I will always fight with you”. Shakira became an international success breaking into the U.S. market in 2001. Throughout her career, she has been no stranger to elevating the voices of the oppressed and speaking out against injustice.
The album that received the honor, “Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran” (Women No Longer Cry), includes a song called “El Jefe” (The Boss) with regional Mexican band Fuerza Regida. The song highlights the stories of immigrant and working-class people, describing the everyday struggle of being poor:
Bills pile up, being poor is garbage
Mom always told me that studying would ensure everything
I studied and nothing happened, such a damn hard life…
How ironic, how crazy, this really is torture
Killing yourself dawn to dusk and not a deed to your nameI have a shit boss who doesn’t pay me well
I arrive on foot he arrives in his Mercedes-Benz…
You’re dreaming of leaving the hood
You have everything to be a millionaire
Expensive tastes, the mentality
All you need is the salary
The music video adds to the message, showing warehouse workers carrying mountains of packages on their backs and people stockpiled onto a truck crossing the desert. Later, we see the bosses in their suits having a fancy dinner. They are eating off the workers shown earlier, not even acknowledging their heads poking through the table. It’s a powerful metaphor of how the rich in this society live off our labor, relying on our exploitation. While we struggle to make ends meet, even when we do everything we’re told is supposed to get us ahead (like getting an education), there is no guarantee of a stable life. In the end, the bosses are the only ones who truly benefit.
With the unrelenting attacks on immigrants from the U.S. government, Shakira’s message reminds us that we must fight together against the division. After all, we have much more in common with each other than we do with any Jefe.
You can watch the video for “El Jefe” on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7oTlx5YC2P4.
You can find a list of immigration resources on this page.
