Tony Melendez Video — English Translation

The guitar is special to me; I found my father's guitar and started playing with it. At the beginning it was only a toy, it was something I was just trying to do and never thought I would hear music from it someday....

Holy Father... we are proud to present to you... Tony Melendez!

I'm Tony Melendez, I was born in Nicaragua but have lived in the US almost my whole life, I'm a singer, and guitarist.we came here to the US because I was a kid with no arms and medicine in Nicaragua was nowhere near as advanced. I was born like this because of a medicine called thalidomide that was given to my mother while she was pregnant with me... that's why I don't have my arms. At the beginning I was so young that I did not understand that I didn't have arms. When I was a little bit older other kids teased me saying "he doesn't have arms... he doesn't have arms." My heart was sore... it hurt so much.

Since I was a young man I had to learn how to use my feet. I wanted to help myself. I wrote and played with my toes. I have two sisters and a brother. My brother and I work together. My mother is still alive but my father passed away. I see now what they sacrificed back then... my father sacrificed everything. He left his country to bring his son here; he was the one that always told me: "Tony, you have to try... you have to do it by yourself."

As a young man I always dreamt of one day getting married, but as a teenager the girls ran away from me saying, "a guy with no arms... a guy with no arms!" Finally I found a beautiful girl. Her name is Lynn. To me, she represents strength and companionship. We had to adopt two kids because we could not have any children. We went to El Salvador where my father was born and we adopted a girl and we went to Nicaragua and adopted a little boy.

I started in music since I was a little boy. My mother sang and my father used to play the guitar. I think I decided to follow their steps. I used to practice 6 to 7 hours every day and eventually what I did started to sound like music.

God has given me strength, God has given me my family, and he has given me my music which makes me feel strongly connected with him. That helped me grow... it has calmed my heart. People ask me, "Tony, why do you feel so whole? And I answer: "I have these (my feet) which do everything for me, I have my family... my heart wants to dance, wants to sing, and wants to live life... because in God's eyes, I'm whole."

Song

Holy Father... we are proud to present to you ... Tony Melendez.

Holy Father:

"Tony... you are truly a courageous young man; you are giving hope to all of us. My wish to you is to continue giving this hope to all people."

God has always been in my life. At that moment (with the Holy Father) it is as if he had told me: "Tony, you have to go to work, you have to sing, you have to help, you have to become feet, head and hands," and I started to travel and sing and talk to young people around the world.

I see a person like you that has arms, that has everything, everything, and you say: "I can't, I can't!" Yes, you can! Yes, you can! They have asked me: "Tony, where are the miracles?" and I always say: "I see your hand, and the fact that you are able to raise your hand, that's a miracle."

Please don't ever tell me that you can't. Never tell me that because you. yes you, can do so much more, just get up and say: "I want... I Can... I will move forward. You have a world out there waiting for you to say: "Yes!"