Watch Quetzal create their song “Get to Knowing” in the studio.

“Pillow People,” featured on Quetzal’s new Smithsonian Folkways album The Eternal Getdown, delineates the dangerous trek many Latin American migrants take, from the first step out of their home communities, on to a near impossible and treacherous journey. From the bestia, into the hands of coyotes, it is an ode to the sacrifices migrants make on a daily basis. In the same breath, “Pillow People” is a truthful account of all that migrants have given to this country—how they sweat and lose much more than they gain. It is about the great distances that keeps them from their native lands, home culture, memories, language, and family closeness.