For most Belizeans getting deported from the United States is embarrassing. It’s not the sort of thing you announce to the world. But that is just what Berne Velasquez is doing. He was born in Belize and raised on the streets of LA but after 23 years in America he was deported last year when he tried to re-enter the United States. So Berne is back in Belize and the entertainer is using his deportation as a springboard to jumpstart his career. Last week he released a CD and DVD entitled “Life After Deportation.” It is a documentary he began filming before he actually he knew was going to be deported. Keith Swift has a look at Berne’s life after deportation.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Life after Deportation follows Berne Velasquez - chasing his dream of going to America and making it big.
Clips from Documentary: ‘After waiting in long lines at the US Embassy only to be embarrassed. I was denied the opportunity to obtain a visa to come America. To them that means I would not be able to go to America. To me, that meant I would go to America through the back door. I would go to America illegally. I crossed the Mexican border into Chetumal and journeyed through Mexico in great hopes of making it to America. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy but I was willing to do whatever was necessary to make my dreams a reality…
…After almost one week on the road I can look into the distance and see the bright lights of America. Once I made my way across the border I made my way to the top of the Hollywood hills. Now that I had made it into America and I was in Hollywood. It was time to make my dreams a reality ‘
Berne made it to America –through the back - and for a while he was making it in America: he performed at small concerts, modeled for the Ras Judah clothing line, recorded an album in an Los Angeles music studio, and he also shot a music video.
[Clip of Music Video]
Berne had made it – or at least he thought he did.
Berne Velasquez,
“I never taught in a million years I could ever get deported. I had been in America 23 years, had a green card and everything and I was doing real well so I just never thought it was possible. But from my experience of people that I do know that had come to America illegally and worked hard and ended up getting deported, I just always ride with the bottom crowd. So I decided to make that movie and put myself in their shoes because I felt that pain and understood what they were going through, me being an immigrant from Belize and that is how we came about with that.”
Keith Swift,
And you were going back to finish the project and that’s when you were turned back.
Berne Velasquez,
“Exactly. On my way back to America travelling with my green card, feeling all executive and everything I am held at Miami International by Homeland Security for a sting that they were doing because of 9/11 so I got caught up in the whole thing and next thing you know I am actually getting deported and being held and detained by Homeland Security for ten months. So here I am now turning it into a positive and that is what I am doing.”
And what he’s doing now is teaching a lesson he learnt the hard way.
Berne Velasquez,
“You don’t have to go to America to make it and to live a good life. It is going to show you the challenges that you are going to face when you leave your home with that lie that’s been told to us, making us believe
that it’s a gold street in America. A lot of people feel that you go to America and life is just easy and everything is all good and the struggle is over. Not true, the struggle begins when you leave here.”
And that life story is also the theme of his music. A CD is on the flip side on the DVD and he says his music is a hypnotic blend of hip-hop, punta, and reggae and it is deeply personal.
Berne Velasquez,
“I never let go of my culture, my Belizean way so I try to come with that more so reggae, Garifuna hip-hop kind of cultural feel.”
Keith Swift,
What inspires you? What do you write about, what do you sing about?
Berne Velasquez,
“I sing about real life experiences. Most of my songs are definitely about my real life experiences and things that I am about. So when you get a taste of this album, it is going to really stare a light on Berne.
The main song that sticks out to me is, ‘whose that Belizean,’ because that song right there really tells the story of this Belizean artist that’s trying to make it and believes that he has to go to America illegally to make it and that’s a lot of the artists’ situation that we are facing right here in Belize. A lot of artists feel that if they get to America they can do so much better but the truth is we can do it all right here.”
Berne is both entertaining and eccentric. He will flash a wad of bills one minute and talk about personal transformation in the next. He says that dualism is all a part of the product he is selling.
Berne Velasquez,
“A lot of people try to keep themselves secret and are embarrassed by a lot of things. There is nothing in this world that embarrasses me. My life experiences are my life experiences and that is just that. I don’t feel embarrassed about nothing. I just live life and I am willing to reveal the story to everybody.
A lot of people was telling me that in Belize you will hard time because Belizeans are not as open and they won’t grab that like you think but the truth is that they’ve been overwhelming supportive of this project. I’ve already sold 13,000 copies of the album and now I’ve got the move and the album one disc. It is astronomical, I’m happy about this. This is really good.”
Life after Deportation is available everywhere music and movies are sold. Click here for Berne’s Life After Deportation.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
