Juan of Words

Great Songs # 2

Originally released in 2001 as track number five on Lila Downs’ Border/La Linea album, this poetry of song was written by Lila herself and Mr. Paul Cohen of BMI Records.  The song La Niña (The Young Girl) was dedicated to the maquiladora workers of Mexico by its authors. It went on appear as one of the title tracks for the movie Real Women Have Curves starring America Ferrera, of Ugly Betty fame, and Lupe Ontiveros, Selena the movie and Desperate Housewives, in 2002.

The lyrics are simple and poignant, and there is one scene in the movie with Lupe Ontiveros and this song that always makes me want to tear up.

I’ve translated the song from its original Spanish to English in my own words, since I did not really agree with the Label’s translated version.

The Young Girl

From early morning, the young girl prays,
So that her day won’t be so long
And with the light of dawn,
She organizes her errands,
She closes her eyes to not see,
That in the mirror she is noticing
That her work is wearing her out
And it’s because her Saint is resting
All of the days, All of the hours,
In that lather of her sadness,
Nails and meat, sweat and effort,
All of her willpower, all of her dreams,
Are being left behind in her memories,
In the memory of her desires

Oh long haired sad face, Rosa Maria
Searching you spend your days and nights for a way out
That one Sunday will change your hell for happiness.

The sweatshop will one day only be a memory
And the harvest your own fruit will be one day,
Will be one day.

That your bosses will repent one day,
And that humility will become pride one day
And that you will be the same as everyone else one day,
Will be one day.

Great Songs # 1

So I’ve always been a huge fan of great lyrics.  Notice I said great lyrics and not music or singers, although who can resist the likes of Amy Winehouse, Mariah Carey, Whitney, and yeah even some of Beyonce’s body of work.  My taste in singers has always leaned more towards feminine vocals.            There is just something about the female’s ability to harmonize that mesmerizes me.

Anyhow, I digress.  In this new series of posts I’m going to share some of the lyrics and videos (when available) of the songs that have moved me with their words.  The first is Kelly Clarkson’s latest single: Already Gone. Since I first heard this song it has just been stuck in my head…so here’s to hoping this post will cure that!

Credited to Clarkson, Kelly Brianne, Tedder and Ryan, this song speaks to the universal emotion of love gone wrong.  Great lyrics include I want you to know that it doesn’t matter/Where we take this road someone’s gotta go/ And I want you to know you couldn’t have loved me better/But I want you to move on so I’m already gone. Are you kidding me?  If you’re going through a tough breakup or reminiscing about a lost love, this is the perfect song for you.  Even better than that, the words are just so real and raw.

Here are the full lyrics and video. Enjoy!

Already Gone lyrics
Songwriters: Clarkson, Kelly Brianne; Tedder, Ryan;

Remember all the things we wanted
Now all our memories they’re haunted
We were always meant to say goodbye

Even with our fists held high
It never would’ve worked out right
We were never meant for do or die

I didn’t want us to burn out
I didn’t come here to hold you, now I can’t stop

I want you to know that it doesn’t matter
Where we take this road someone’s gotta go
And I want you to know you couldn’t have loved me better
But I want you to move on so I’m already gone

Looking at you makes it harder
But I know that you’ll find another
That doesn’t always make you want to cry

Started with a perfect kiss then we could feel the poison set in
Perfect couldn’t keep this love alive
You know that I love you so, I love you enough to let you go

I want you to know that it doesn’t matter
Where we take this road someone’s gotta go
And I want you to know you couldn’t have loved me better
But I want you to move on so I’m already gone

I’m already gone, already gone
You can’t make it feel right when you know that it’s wrong
I’m already gone, already gone
There’s no moving on so I’m already gone

Already gone, already gone, already gone
Already gone, already gone, already gone, yeah

Remember all the things we wanted
Now all our memories they’re haunted
We were always meant to say goodbye

I want you to know that it doesn’t matter
Where we take this road someone’s gotta go
And I want you to know you couldn’t have loved me better
But I want you to move on so I’m already gone

I’m already gone, already gone
You can’t make it feel right when you know that it’s wrong
I’m already gone, already gone
There’s no moving on so I’m already gone

Cada Uno Sabe Donde Le Aprieta El Zapato

Every Person Knows Where Their Own Shoe Tightens  

Alright, if you’re reading this translation and thinking “what?” allow me to elaborate.  Meeting people is a natural part of life – obviously – and, fortunately or unfortunately, you can’t really avoid the act of socializing.  Sure some of us prefer it less than others, and depending on our mood on any given day we may be better adept at different times to put up with people.  That said, another popular saying closely related to this dicho is you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Hermano: My Brother

My earliest childhood recollection is of the sun.  It’s warmth wrapped around me like a blanket, melting down my back, caressing me tenderly, from head to toe, in a way that made me feel so comfortable and relaxed.  I couldn’t have been more than four years old because I remember lying there waiting for my older brother to come home from school.  He is one year older than me and had started kindergarten that year.         The sofa where I lay was coffee brown with caramel-colored flowers and blue or green leaves scattered throughout and it was positioned smack in front of a long, slender window in our living room for which my mother had sewn sheer yellow curtains that now only add allure to the memory of that day.  I could hear the clutter of my mother in the kitchen moving about as she took plates to water, spoons to pots, plates to plates, and yet I vividly remember being paralyzed by the euphoric state of comfort I was in, halfway between sleep and being awake.  The sound of the beat-up old yellow school bus finally awoke me and when I lazily knelt on the sofa to gaze out the window my brother was walking down the long dirt road in front of our house.  He couldn’t see me, but I could see him; slowly becoming more visible as he approached our modest little one bedroom home in the southern most corner of Texas just across the Rio Grande River in Edingburg.

Image obtained from http://www.dualbo.com/

Mientras Hay Vida Hay Esperanza

While There is Life There is Hope

Never give up – on life, on people, on hope, and especially not on ourselves.  That’s what the closest interpretation of this popular saying would be if we are to accept it at face value.  Basically, that while we are living and breathing we are capable of doing anything no matter how daunting the obstacles.  Are we?

We’ve all heard the rags to riches stories of people who have overcome great odds to be where they are today.  Or the miraculous accounts of people who survive unimaginable pain and suffering (self-inflicted or otherwise) to become championed heroes for others, but are we truly capable of believing in the people we care about when we see them making one mistake after another?  I mean after we’ve tried to help and gone out of our way attempting to lead them down the right path.  Even after you feel emotionally drained and exhausted – when there is nothing left to do but hope.

I believe so…if we really want to.  One thing I’ve learned from my formative years in a household of seven kids and two parents is that you never give up on the ones you love.   No matter how hard things get you just don’t.  You pull yourself through, even if you have to be dragged part of the way.

On a salary of $100 dollars a week and $15 a day here and there for cleaning houses, my parent’s always managed to keep us clothed and fed.  Our first home in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas might not have had electricity, but we never went without.  So many times I’d hear my mother say God is good, he won’t forget us and at times, I have to admit, her notion of blind faith seemed a little ridiculous to me.  Yet every time things had a way of working themselves out.  When we didn’t have money for food or clothing people would unexpectedly bring it to us.  After we were deported to Mexico for being a mixed legal-illegal family, the Immigration Reform Act of 1986 allowed us to come back.  When my mother was told she would be the only one in our family not to get legal residency in this country, her outburst in court softened the immigration judge’s heart.  She did receive her legal residency along with my dad and two older sisters.

Oh yeah, and there was the time in the Valley when a man who was working near our home saw how we were living and built us a house of our own with electricity.

Later in life when I had overburdened myself with financial debt for driving without a license as a high school junior, my mother took from her bank account and gave me what savings she had from her minimum wage paying job.  In my earlier tweens, when I had taken to the idea of cutting class in middle school and basically felt hopeless about my life, Ms. Quirk saw something in me and reached out to me.  We never said much to each other in the way of what had happened to me, and I never told her about my hilariously failed attempts to take my own life – all of these consisted of me concocting a disgusting combination of all the liquids I could find in the bathroom of our apartment (Clorox, Fabuloso, Old Spice, toothpaste, rubbing alcohol, shampoo, etc.) and then backing out of drinking them – but she made an impact in my life that I will never forget.

I’ve often pondered the idea of looking her up and thanking her for changing my life.  There we would sit everyday after school in her English classroom grading papers.  When we were done she’d drive me home in her vehicle and tell me she’d see me in class the next day.  Ms. Quirk awoke in me the love for the written word, and believed in me when I had given up on myself.  She made me believe in myself and probably saved my life, although I don’t think I would have ever worked up the nerve to drink that mixture.

Today, I understand my mother’s blind faith.  Not to say that I have never given up completely or lost faith when I shouldn’t have. I have!  But when things start getting tough and I don’t know how to overcome a certain obstacle I find myself repeating those same words: God is good, he won’t forget us.  Often when I’ve been at the end of my rope with despair it is those who care about me who have brought me back.  I don’t ever want to lose faith in them.  I want to always believe in them, even if they do one day give up on themselves.

While we are living we can never lose hope.

No Hay Peor Ciego Que El Que No Quiere Ver

No One Is More Blind Than The One Who Refuses To See

I never really understood this saying completely.  How can someone who is not blind actually see less than someone who is?  Well in fact this statement is very true as I have come to realize.  Not because we close our eyes and pretend not to see, at least not literally – more so because we choose to see what we want.  As when people say Love is blind.

Of course love itself is not blind.  If it were perhaps we would have a lower divorce rate and people would always forgive based on how much they love the person who hurt them.  We don’t live in a society where everyone forgives.  In fact, sometimes the act of forgiveness is viewed as a sign of weakness in an individual.  How many men/women have not been encouraged to leave their partners immediately after an infidelity by their peers and confidants without so much as a second thought?  Not that in some instances that decision is not merited, but whatever happened to independent thinking and laying all the cards on the table before rushing into a decision.  Be that as it may, when we fall in love we are blind.

We don’t see the negative attributes of our partners.  Instead we focus on the thrill of getting to know them, the first kiss, the first time, their unique little quirks that make us love them more.  And why not?  After all the beginning of a relationship is one of the most exciting things to experience in life.  Especially when it leads to a deeper, more committed partnership between two people.  Yet in this honeymoon phase of any relationship each half of the couple is putting their best foot forward.  Insecurities and the fear of rejection make us watch what we say, how we dress, how we eat, what friends and family members we bring our new love around.  Ultimately creating an altered sense of who we are and how we behave to the other person.  That’s why the real test of love is finding out whether you can live with your significant other. 

That’s when you find out he doesn’t really cook, she doesn’t bathe every day, he releases gas out of both ends at any given moment, she doesn’t shave her legs or her moustache very often, and of course that we as men always leave the toilet seat up.  If these were your most serious surprises upon unpacking your lover count your blessings.  Unfortunately for a lot of others when the honeymoon is over and the address is now shared, the discovery they make is that they never really knew their partner.  At that moment you realize all the little things you dismissed as insignificant were actually tell-tell signs you should have paid attention to.  Now you have a decision to make. 

Those who leave, move on…sometimes after a long and painful mourning period for the lost relationship.  It is those who stay who are at risk of becoming blind. 

Over the past several months I met a lot of strong, smart, independent men and women who at one point or another had been through very toxic relationships in which their partners verbally and/or physically abused them, and they put up with it – some for so many years that it was difficult for them to imagine any other reality.  What struck me most about our conversations, at the shelters where they now live, is how easily these folks recounted being knocked unconscious on multiple occasions, constantly being degraded in front of their children, and so many other horrible accounts they had to share.  One lady laughed the whole time as she went on and on about how every week her boyfriend would beat her up at the home they shared with their children.  I don’t honestly believe she thought it was funny, but this reaction was the only thing that kept her from crying at how long she had put up with his abuse (10 years).  When I asked them why they had put up with their partner’s abuse for so long all of them had the same response:  “I never thought it was that bad.”

Like the blind person who cannot physically see, these people were so blinded by their “love” and dependence on the other person that they could not see what was actually being done to them.   

And so this saying that I have heard so many times now truly makes sense to me.  As we celebrate love this Valentine’s Day let’s keep our blindness in check.