THESE HANDS BUILT AMERICA If I could sit down at a kitchen table with one immigrant family and tell them why I wrote “These Hands Built America,” this is what I would say. I’d pull up a chair, look across that table at the mother, the father, and their children, and before we talked about politics, borders, or anything else, I’d want them to hear four simple words from me: I see you.

I see the long hours, the early mornings, the tired hands, and the sacrifices you make for your family. I see the people working in our farms, kitchens, hotels, hospitals, warehouses, construction sites, and neighborhoods every day.

When I wrote this song, I wasn’t thinking about numbers or labels. I was thinking about families like yours. I was thinking about the hands that harvest our food, build our homes, prepare our meals, repair our roads, and come home at night hoping their children will have a better life.

That’s why the line “Estas manos built this land” means so much to me. Those are your hands. Working hands. Tired hands. Proud hands. Immigrant hands. American hands.

The Blue Wave Revival Band and I didn’t want to write a song that argued about you. We wanted to write a song for you. A song you could play for your children and say, “That’s our story too.”

Because America was never built by just one kind of person. You didn’t just come here looking for America. You became part of America. And with your own two hands... you helped build it.