On Thursday, French-raised Chilean hip-hop artist Ana Tijoux held an interview and performance for Democracy Now!, and had bold words to say about her home countries, the United States, and the global system.

Tijoux, born in France to parents fleeing the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet spoke in her interview with a perspective that is too often brushed aside – the perspective of an immigrant caught in the space between two cultures, forced by society away from forging connections to either of their homelands.

It is music that served as a uniting factor among the disenfranchised.

Tijoux hailed hip-hop’s uniting capabilities amongst immigrant communities in her youth in France, and the political consciousness that accompanied it.

This was especially clear in her first performance of “Antipatriarca,” or “Anti-Patriarchy,” which confronts the lack of female revolutionaries in the foundation stories of countries like Chile, and stresses the importance of feminism for young boys, in order to “break the chains of indifference” surrounding political issues, especially those relating to women.

Tijoux continued, voicing her support for student protests in Chile, with a wish for the United States.

“It was amazing to see so many people knowing exactly what they wanted,” she said of the populist movements which began in 2011. “They are an inspiration, and a wake up to the whole country.”

She wished for a similar wake-up call “not only for students, but for immigrants in Arizona and the United States,” where she believes that massive action can change the system from the inside.

Clearly, Tijoux’s music echoes her belief in music connecting resistance across borders, which she discussed in the context of the Israeli-Palestinean conflict, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

“Music exposes truth,” she said. Whether it is the truth of “violent countries with nice faces” like the United States and Chile, or the truth of people pushed to society’s fringe, music is there, “a land for the landless.”

“Trying to rediscover the stories of the forgotten,” is Ana Tijoux, hip-hop’s voice for the voiceless. (Wikimedia Commons.)