Dolores Huerta Unites Latin Musicians for Amor

By Michael Lopez

It takes a special kind of person to get Carlos Santana, Los Lonely Boys and Willie Nelson in the studio for free. And legendary social activist Dolores Huerta is just that kind of person. Her charity and the Hermes Foundation assembled an awesome list of musical talent to record the album, Proyecto de Amor.

The 15-track Amor features spoken poems from spiritualist Deepak Chopra and no less than five renditions of the lead charity single, “Claro Que Se Puede.” There is an Español version from Santana, an English version from Willie Nelson, even a Los Bravos Del Norte Norteño version of the song!

Trust us, after hearing it you’ll understand why. The glowing guitar solos (courtesy of Mr. Santana), gorgeous melodies and “Yes We Can” message about positive change are inspirational on multiple levels. And interestingly enough, Huerta actually co-wrote the track along with Hermes founder Alberto Kreimerman.

Both were on hand, along with Sony representatives, to talk about the album at a press conference this week in Los Angeles.

“La música soporta la lucha,” Dolores said.

And “la lucha” is something the 80-year-old Huerta knows quite a bit about. Dolores, a co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez, has been fighting for Latino rights for more than 40 years. Her foundation is extremely active in community organizing and will use profits from Amor to build awareness about immigration reform.

The Hermes Foundation is also backing the single and will use its portions of the profits to aid children in Mexico’s poorest districts. Since its launch 24 years ago, Hermes has given away more than 100,000 toys to kids in need and paid for countless cleft palate surgeries in Mexico’s Chiapas region.

So, if you think about it, picking up a copy of Proyecto de Amor should make you feel twice as good. Not only will you be aiding Dolores and her immigration fight, you’ll be improving the life of a child. And you’ll have a bunch of really cool new songs to load into your mp3 player. Sounds like a win-win to us!

Proyecto de Amor is available on iTunes and Amazon beginning Tuesday, Dec. 14.

Which version of “Claro Que Se Puede” do you like best? Sound off in the comments or @MTV3.

Tags Carlos Santana, Claro que se Puede, Dolores Huerta, Hermes Foundation, Los Lonely Boys, Música, Proyecto De Amor, Willie Nelson