Juanes

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When 21-year-old farm worker Joan Giraldo stepped on a land mine in his native Colombia two years ago, his right leg eventually had to be amputated. Before that, he’d depended on that leg to make his meager $6.50 a day in the fields. Unfortunately, Giraldo’s story is not rare in Colombia, where land mines kill more people than anywhere else in the world. Colombian rocker Juanes doesn’t want to see another Joan Giraldo suffer ever again. “We need the support of the international community to help the victims of land mines and to prevent more deaths and mutilations,” he told the BBC. “Many of these victims are young children, stricken on their way to school, playing in the mountains or getting water from the rivers.”

The title of the singer/songwriter’s latest album alludes to the preciousness of life. Inspired by a comment from his mother, La Vida Es Un Ratico translates to “Life is a moment.” In Colombia, where violence sometimes seems the rule rather than the exception, life can indeed come and go in a moment. This may be why so many of Juanes’ fellow countrymen—from mainstream act Shakira to underground rockers Aterciopelados—share his concerns, speaking out in protest far more freely than their U.S. counterparts. Shakira has condemned the justice system, while members of Aterciopelados point to how U.S. demand for cocaine has turned their country into a hornet’s nest of thugs and drug lords. For Juanes, the simplest answer right now is to help the victims directly.