Musician's Profile: Wilson Sandoval

We interviewed Wilson Sandoval, also known as "Innocent Mind," in November, 2014.  Since then, he has released a new video, "Que Bonito," [es El Salvador!/How Pretty El Salvador Is!] from the album Preservando Elementos [Preserving Elements], which he filmed filmed in El Salvador.  In January,2015, SV Noticias El Salvador published a story about him, titled "Innocent Mind:  Hip Hop Positivo" [Positive Hip Hop]. 

[NOTE:  ¡Qué bonito! means "How pretty!" in Spanish.]

According to the article, Wilson's mother was born in El Salvador; his father was from Mexico; and he, being from East L.A., was born in the U.S.A.

Apparently, Wilson tries to use the art of Hip Hop to encourage his listeners to focus on positive aspects of life, and to tell young people that drugs and violence are bad.

Although his music is Hip Hop, he admits that it is influenced by some of his favorite non-Hip Hop musicians, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin.

In the music video "Que Bonito," Wilson pays homage to El Salvador, his mother's native country, trying to show its beauty, and divert attention from all the bad press about it.  He filmed "Que Bonito" on various Salvadoran locations, including Texistepeque and Santa Ana.

[NOTES:  Although formed in Los Angeles, California, in the Nineteen Eighties, M.S. 13 [Mara Salvatrucha, Spanish for "Street Tough Salvadoran Posse"] is, perhaps, the most famous Salvadoran "product."  In 2005, PoliceMag.com identified them as "America's Most Dangerous Gang."  The Overseas Security Advisory Council (O.S.A.C.), of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the United States Department of State, reported in the spring and summer of 2014 that, in El Salvador, every type of crime, "from credit card skimming to homicide," occurs "twenty-four hours a day," and "daylight is not a significant deterrent."  They further stated that El Salvador recorded two thousand, four hundred twenty-six homicides in 2013, a rate of 43.3 per hundred thousand inhabitants.  San Salvador, the capital, averaged forty-four homicides per hundred thousand inhabitants that year - only slightly fewer than Detroit and New Orleans, which averaged forty-five and forty-six, respectively.

On November 6, 2014, the New York Post published an article, titled "El Salvador's Horrifying Culture of Gang Rape," in which it states that "there are no reliable numbers on sexual violence in El Salvador."  The New York Post further states that some people in El Salvador "may not even recognize rape as a crime."  The New York Post indicates that, as a nation, El Salvador's homicide rate is second only to that of its next-door neighbor, Honduras.

Honduras is Spanish for "depths."

If Wilson intends to put a positive spin on El Salvador and Central America, he has a long flight, swim, and/or climb!  If he succeeds, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay will have nothing on him.]

Que Bonito is a very pretty song, featuring very light-hearted fare, about visiting friends and family members, and enjoying a vacation in El Salvador; Wilson's new music video can be viewed at:

http://youtu.be/Bew_1zwWMkE


Musician's profile by William Mortensen Vaughan