Goust and Gameros filmed their video in the majestic Sonoran Desert, in Nogales, Arizona. With hope and joy, the pair share their experiences as migrants and individuals raised on the U.S.-Mexico border.
In this song, they share how each of them have been impacted by border policies, racism, and colorism. The video was filmed in front of the border wall that divides Nogales, Sonora and Nogales, Arizona, and also contains captivating scenes that were filmed in the majestic Sonoran Desert in road movie style.
“Diana Gameros and I both grew up on the border. She is a white-skinned Mexican who was raised in Ciudad Juarez and was undocumented in the U.S. for many years, and I am a brown-skinned Mexican-American born in Tucson," explains Goust.
Colorism and immigration policies have affected us in different ways. We became close friends when we sang together at the Lincoln Center during Celebrate Mexico Now Festival in 2018. In 2019, we played more than 20 tour dates together throughout all of Mexico.
When I decided to include “Our Anthem” in my recent album “Resister”, I knew that Diana and I had to record this song together. It's the first time that I've included a bilingual rap in a song. It was time to do it. Spanglish is my first language," Goust added.
Her experience of living on the border has become part of her musical work where she addresses gender equality, the LGBTQIA+ experience, migration, and other social justice issues.
Some samples of this can be found on her debut album RESISTER. For example, “El Corrido de Sylvia Rivera” is a norteño song with blues and jazz touches that tells the story of the Stonewall Inn and the grand activist Sylvia Rivera, considered one of the mothers of the LGBT+ movement in the United States. “La Apuesta” is a ranchera that inspires to stake everything to defend one's identity with pride and to conduct oneself without taboos. In this track, Goust invites us to live with honesty despite the prejudices that surround us. “Diosa” is a mantra, a creed, a song that you play every morning to give you energy to face whatever comes your way. It helps remind us that we are infinitely divine, that we are our own Goddesses, and have our own voice - it is an anthem of empowerment!
Goust felt a calling as an artist: to break into musical genres that have been historically sexist and appropriate their sounds to promote feminist and LGBTQ+ narratives.
Previously, when singing some traditional Mexican music classics, Goust would think: “What a beautiful melody, but I wish it wouldn’t carry such violent content". That's how she began to write the lyrics she desired to hear within those genres, and to represent herself worthily in them.
"This album was made thanks to the talent of twenty cis-women, two trans-women, and two non-binary folks. RESISTER, as indicated by the compound word in the title, is a collection of songs that seeks to reunite us through resistance, while using the sounds of our territories. I invited very dear and talented artists to collaborate with me and I am very proud of the result," she said.
RENEE GOUST UPCOMING GIGS
- On September 25, Renee Goust will be headlining Andersonville Homecoming, a 3-day and 2-night festival on North Clark Street, in the Andersonville neighborhood in the Chicago area.
- On October 30th, she will premiere “Cantina Cuir” a two-acoustic-guitar bohemian canteen-style concert where she will perform her iconic feminist and LGBT+ anthems. This event will take place at Terraza 7 in Queens, New York as part of Celebrate Mexico Now Festival 2021. She will be joined by surprise guests.
- Renee Goust will also perform at the Siempre Unidas Feminist Festival in Playa del Carmen, Mexico on November 20th to demand an end to gender violence against girls and women.
