LOS ANGELES, May 9 (UPI) -- The U.S. immigration rights movement has chosen Neil Diamond's 1980 "America" from the film "The Jazz Singer" as its rallying cry.
The song opened and closed rallies at Los Angeles City Hall and is being played in Dallas, Kansas City and Milwaukee as well, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The Times said Diamond's song is to Latinos what Bob Dylan's "If I Had a Hammer" was to the 1960s civil rights movement.
"It's the immigrant anthem," Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles told the Times. "Every time I've been at different activities over time, you'll have the Neil Diamond song. It speaks to the experience."
Diamond, 65, said his 26-year-old song fits the movement.
"That's what it's there for," he told The Times by telephone. "That song tells the immigrant story. It was written for my grandparents and the immigrants who came over in the late 1800s, the Irish, Jews and Italians. But it's the song for the modern-day Latino coming as well."
