When their close friend and frequent musical-theater collaborator Mauricio Martinez, best known to Broadway fans for his starring role as Emilio Estefan in On Your Feet!, was facing his fourth bout with bladder cancer during the national tour of the show in the summer of 2018, composer/musician Jaime Lozano and singer-songwriter and actress Marina Pires decided to express their love and support by writing him a musical “love letter” entitled “Nothing Is Broken.” That uplifting song, the first single from the upcoming album Songs by an Immigrant by Jaime Lozano and the Familia (an all-Latinx group of Broadway and Off-Broadway performers, formed by Lozano to give voice to their immigrant experiences), has just been released on all digital platforms, along with a video version directed by television producer Alejandro Pujol and featuring expressive movement by Mexican dancer Cesar Zetina.
The now-healthy Martinez, who most recently appeared in the world-premiere production of Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Paper Mill Playhouse, felt “very honored and deeply moved by such a beautiful gesture, of two wonderful friends, and wonderful artists, creating a superbly written and performed song for me during a sad time in my life.” And while Mau affirms that, personally, “it has a very special place in my heart,” he also thinks that “it is imperative for audiences to listen to this incredibly touching and inspiring song, for it holds an empathetic, reassuring, hopeful, and loving message during these uncertain and trying times.”
Lozano believes that the release of this particular single during the present pandemic is proof “that everything happens for a reason.” When he and Pires (a native of Brazil) began working on it two years ago, the original plan was to invite a group of Mau’s friends from New York and Mexico (both Lozano and Martinez were born and raised in Monterrey) to record it. He recalls that after they finished the song and he started working on the arrangement and music production, “I began contacting people, but it was so hard to organize so many singers from a distance. But now I’m sure that I wasn’t able to do it at that time because it wasn’t meant to be.”
Instead, Jaime continues, he just recently got together with Marina in the recording studio “a few weeks before this weird time that we are currently going through.” He explains, “This was the song I needed to survive; it has helped me to stay strong. I think that God, the universe, or any energy you believe in made the song survive, to be heard now . . . It’s funny that something that was created to give comfort and hope to a friend has actually been the thing that has helped me to be patient and to have faith that ‘everything is gonna be alright.'”
For Marina, “Writing music was my emotional and creative outlet . . . In this case, I just wanted to let my friend know that I was there for him. I know how hard it is to ask for help when you need it . . . I wanted to get the message across that nothing is ever so irretrievably broken that you can’t make something of it, that the scars we have might take time to heal, but we’re stronger for having suffered at all.”
Jaime agrees. “I think that when you create something honest you can touch people’s hearts. And because it was written with another Familia member, someone I love and admire as well, I want people to relate to it and to realize that we are not alone. We are together in this and when it ends we will be stronger than before.”
Thanks to Jaime and Marina for sharing this positive message and for entertaining and encouraging us when we need it most.
“Nothing Is Broken” by Jaime Lozano and Marina Pires is available for listening on Spotify and viewing on YouTube.
