that you belong here. get up every day, go to school, go to work, be a member of the community. be a good neighbor, be a good parent, a good citizen. we don t need a authorization. however, it is necessary to have that legal authorization such so they can maximize their potential. this, to me, is not an immigrant story. it is an american story. it is really important for us to change the way we define american to borrow from the organization that was just here talking to you. what is really the meaning of american? who are we excluding and what are we losing when we exclude people from this understanding of the country and people that we have? fernanda santos, the musical theater garnered in me cannot wait to see this and have a new favorite musical. congratulations to you, thank you for spending time with us. still ahead, free speech or
status. we have the co-writer here. fernanda santos, washington post contributor fernanda, i could barely get through that intro because i know how much work and love you ve poured into this. i ve been able to watch the process from afar, tell me, why did the story need to be told? it s an important american story. it s a chapter for fights for civil rights in this country. it s something we have been, as consumers of news, hearing about for 20 years now or more. and it is to me the most important element is bringing this story to a global audience, in a way that is different than the way we consume the news. it is theater, it is musical, people go with open minds, open hearts. we really hope that it is a way of changing the way people think about immigrants and dreamers and americans.
More than a story of the difficulties faced by an estimated 1.8 million children of immigrants who entered the U.S. before their 16th birthday, “¡Americano!” is a story about overcoming obstacles and continuously moving forward.