Music has the power to lift us up and carry us out of situations, whether those situations are just crossing the street or crossing the border.
“The Hamilton Mixtape,” a musical companion to “Hamilton: An American Musical,” will drop Friday with a selection of 23 songs from the Tony Award-winning musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, according to a press release from Atlantic Records.
The mixtape will feature songs from the musical, as well as three unreleased Hamilton demos. One of the seven songs pre-released was “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)” featuring K’naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC and Residente.
The unique syncretism of hip hop and rap mixed with the complexities of musical theater gave “Hamilton” a fan base bigger than those of the usual Broadway buffs. The “Hamilton” fandom matured over the internet, with Miranda and others emerging as gods. Fans of the musical, and eventually the mixtape, express their support online wherever they can.
One of these fans is Nayi, a Santa Fe College psychology freshman.
Nayi, who requested we use a nickname to conceal her identity, is an international student from Spain.
She connected with the song “Immigrants.” The part that stuck with Nayi was when Residente raps, “Por tierra o por agua/Identidad falsa/Brincamos muros o flotamos en balsas,” which translates to “By land or by water/False identity/We jump over walls or float on rafts.”
This particular set of couplets stuck out to Nayi because just two years ago she crossed the Mexican border with her mother, seeking asylum.
“It was one of the scariest and hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said.
Crossing the border from Mexico into the United States, Nayi had to memorize the names and addresses of her relatives in South Florida and remember to fully cross into the United States and ask for political asylum, all while trying to remain calm and collected.
“We had like 20 bucks in our pocket, no phone or anything,” she said. “Just the papers and the 20 bucks, that’s it.”
Once in the Laredo Sector of the United States Border Patrol, Nayi and her mother were kept for more than 24 hours in a place eating raw chimichangas and drinking from small bottles of water.
For the past two years, transitioning to life in the United States as an immigrant has not been easy for Nayi.
“When I first got here, I had three jobs while going to school; I was living in a house with seven people and a dog,” she said. “I was sharing a bed with two girls.”
However, when she heard the song “Immigrants,” Nayi suddenly didn’t feel alone. The beginning verses from K’naan made her feel represented and hopeful.
“We come to America because we want to succeed,” she said. “The majority want to succeed. It’s like, immigrants, we get the job done.”
Nayi found a community in musical theater during her junior and senior years of high school, specifically while performing the other musicals by Miranda. During her junior year, for “In the Heights,” she played Yolanda, and for “Bring it On,” she played one of the cheerleaders.
“I like to do different stuff so I don’t get bored,” she said.
Miranda released “Immigrants” the day after the general election and said over Twitter that it “could not be more timely.”
With the aftermath of the election and people around the country and world feeling insecure about their futures, Nayi feared for her own in a country that she was beginning to feel at home in.
Nayi is waiting to receive permanent residency in the United States, and more than that, because she is in the process of obtaining residency, her status in the country is currently expired.
“It’s pretty scary,” she said. “I have nothing to hold me here.”
Even though Nayi’s residency situation is unstable right now, she can take comfort in the fact that she’s not alone. She said that “The Hamilton Mixtape” takes the issues that the country is facing and tries to bring people together to fix them.
Nayi isn’t giving up on her dream of making it as an immigrant. Once she gets her residency papers, she wants to study at UF and “get the job done.”
“I feel like this is my country now,” she said.
