 Hello Spectrum community. I am Ray Saragosa and it is such an honor to be playing for you today I wish we could all be in person together and I could see all of your beautiful faces but this this will have to do and I'm here broadcasting from Long Beach, California and It's been it's been a wild few days. It's been a wild few months. It's been a wild year and I've been doing a lot of reflection and You know thinking about how There is so much to fight for there is so much to use our art our music Whatever our motive of changemaking is right now And I've been thinking about how I can be the best ally I can how I can be the best activist I can how I can be the best musician and This first song I'm gonna play for you. It's called American Dream and It truly is about how the way we walk and the country that we walk upon Has to be rooted in love and that discrimination and hatred and violence and Brutality is not something that we can ever stand for. It is something that we should always be marching in the streets against And so this is American Dream I've been thinking about the wars And to be honest I can't take it anymore. I hear you every day The awful words you say Hate can't be the face of the American Dream I've been thinking about my life And how one day I want to be a mother and a wife I've been scared of that thought too In a world of struggle what are we gonna do? I hear you every day Saying it's gonna be okay But hate can't be the face of the American Dream And I've got a lot but I've got to Be that change is a choice and it can start with me Cuz I've been thinking about our mother How they took her away from her people brother sister and culture. I can see her Saying we've got to make Cuz hate can't be the face of the American Dream But I've got to Be that change is a choice. I can start with me And change is a choice. I can start with me And change is a choice and I can start with That was American Dream. Thank you for listening everyone Make sure this is all working okay awesome And um, yeah, you know this Quarantine and pandemic Has been a really interesting time for me personally as a musician You know, I spent two years touring on the road pretty much straight through and um And now I you know, it's very hard to tell when we will be back on the road and It's been it's been an emotional It's been a very emotional thing to confront, you know as a musician like we're always moving forwards we're always going forwards forwards forwards and having to reflect Has been a great challenge for me having to stay here and write songs about The world around me without really getting to To really be stepping inside of it, you know to really be looking at it from a distance from the inside of my home and you know, it's been a pretty crazy time and I think it's been an actually a very big time of growth for me personally and What breaks my heart is that this Disease this virus has been Disproportionately affecting marginalized communities specifically the black community and the indigenous communities As well as other marginalized communities And that's not something that is often talked about and There's so much anger right now and there are so many people who are hurting so bad and um You know, it just Makes me want to fight even harder and to Really hope that we can get the leadership that we deserve in this country the leadership that will really guide us towards harmony and equality And so I'm going to play this song. It's called fight like a girl and I wrote it actually upon meeting This very Wonderful woman. Her name is Deb Haaland and she's one of the two first Native American women in Congress and You know, there's so many ways to make change and One of those ways is absolutely being a policymaker and so Uh, Deb Haaland This is a a song that was very much inspired by her and all the women The women of color Who are fighting every day to make change Make sure this is tuned up Easy Send me Easy So I'm going to play one more song for all of you Thank you so much for being here It means so much to me and I very much hope to meet all of you in person someday And uh, be sure to connect with me online Um as the only way we can now And uh, I'd love to just meet every single one of you I'd love to virtually shake your hand and hear about Everything that you're doing and how I can help And so I'm going to play one more song. This is a song I wrote during the standing rock movement And it's called fight for you And I wrote this song after a march because we were holding a sign that said indigenous women rise And I was just marching at the front and looking at my like sisters I was like I just kept thinking I was like, you know, if you fight for me, I'll fight for you And I've been thinking a lot about that, you know, as the protests have carried on You know, and I have been thinking, you know It's not enough to fight for your community. It is not enough to fight for the things that affect you directly We have to be intersectional as change makers as activists as human beings And so I'm doing everything I can to be the best ally I can be and um And like I said Always let me know Send me a message. I would love to hear what you're doing and how I can be an ally to you and your efforts and uh, so this song is called fight for you and uh It's also very much inspired by my parents, you know, being Native American Mexican And my mom being a Japanese immigrant, you know, they came together and that's so You know, so beautiful to me how they In their own communities They came together and have become one and fight for each other every day And so this is fight for you. Thank you so much everyone. This has been such a joy Uh, such a privilege and um, thank you to Spectrum and everyone for having me and this is fight for you Save the mother How can you take what you want and say that we are free If you put oil in the water, we won't sit quietly and we were singing stand up stand up for The CS through if you fight for me, I'll fight for you save the oceans and the trees Save the people who are How can you do what you want and say you come in peace? If you don't open your eyes How can you see And we would cheer in stand up and don't look down when we march downtown for some truth Because you can't come play if you don't find your way to stand up to Thank you so much everyone. I am so grateful so grateful to have been able to play music for you today I I very much miss being on the road and playing live. So this is so wonderful And like I said, please message me. I'd love to hear from all of you and um become friends and uh community members for life Thanks everyone