Help Bring Jimmy Back Home

Hi, me and a few other New Yorkers are starting this campaign to bring Jimmy Martinez (Tambores) back to New York City from Monterey, Mexico. Jimmy is a drummer who first arrived in New York in 2012, playing at live venues all throughout the city. He had a prolific career up until 2020, when performers everywhere saw their livelihoods get cut off.

Instead of giving up, Jimmy kept coming to public spaces like Washington Square Park and busking for the city. He became the centerpiece of performances in the park, eventually coming there daily to play his drums and giving several young musicians cutting their teeth in the Greenwich Village music scene a platform to hone their skills and build their audience. Jimmy also gave novice drummers a chance to practice their craft on his drum set, which he would dutifully lug back and forth from his apartment in Bushwick, helping them become bona fide artists in their own right.

New York was written off as a city that’s dead forever. The rich with second homes fled and those who stayed faced a shared trauma unlike anything the city had seen before. Jimmy, like many other New Yorkers, lost his mother to the COVID-19 pandemic. But he kept coming back. Spreading his love for the city. A love that he expressed daily. A love that goes beyond trust. A love that New Yorkers of all ages and backgrounds felt when they walked by him at Washington Square Park. When the city opened up again this spring, Jimmy was right there in the celebration to wash away the sadness and grief of the pandemic with free concerts in the park nearly every day.

Unfortunately, Jimmy had to return home to Mexico in a rush to take care of his ailing father this October. Returning home meant he couldn’t come back without a protracted fight with US Immigration, which is why we’re creating this GoFundMe. We want to use this money to get an immigration attorney who can prepare a formal case for Jimmy to come back with an artist visa. Jimmy also had to leave behind most of his possessions, which include his collection of drum sets. Unlike New York, Monterey doesn’t have a vibrant arts scene, so we want to help Jimmy get back on his feet and start a life for himself there while his immigration case is making it through the system.

How the funds will be used:

Because Jimmy doesn’t have a US bank account, one of the organizers will hold the money on Jimmy’s behalf with all accounting made public.

As we consult with immigration attorneys, we will make all invoices public

Once all costs related to the visa application (attorneys fees, government fees) are paid for, we will wire the remaining money to Jimmy to a bank account in Mexico, so he can use it to start his life back again. The wire details (with sensitive information redacted) will also be made public.

Jimmy is a big part of the reason that New York is back. Thousands of visitors walked through the park just to get a taste of his music. His music kept the park lively at the height of the pandemic, making it a safer place to be. The city has used videos of him playing his drums in their advertisements. He is the reason the city has bounced back. And we need him here.