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A banal question that I have asked myself since I remember ever having seen
my first sombrero, or heard the words Arriba Arriba screamed by a little
mouse. And I think that I have found out why; it´s because they have so
much to be singing about. Life, the universe and everything, as Douglas
Adams famously said. I remeber at school being cajoled into singing loudly
for a music contest by one of my teachers with the dubiously inspiring phrase,
“the class that sings together, succeeds together.” I am sure that this
was said in good faith, but we did not win the competition. Nonetheless,
this could potentially prove to be the key to my quandry. Now that I think
about the immortal words of my music teacher, I must immediately think of
Mexicans. I would understand everything, if in newly discovered diaries,
we were to read that in fact Benito Juarez hadn´t only talked about the
respecting the rights of others, but had also told his fellow Mexicans that
everyone should sing, all the time. This to me would make some sense. Unfortuanately,
I think that this is one of my more ridiculous presuppositions, following
closely on the heels of Salma Hayek is coming for dinner soon. But if it
were true, then it would make sense. I think. Another way that we can look
at it is to try and empathise - try and live in their shoes a little. If
I were a true Mexican, would I have lots of things to sing about. For fears
of bringing up cries of jingoism, is that similar to my asking if I was
American, would I complain, or if I was Canadian, would I be bitter. No
that´s just ridiculous. (If I was Swiss, would I be impartial?) But if I
was Mexican, would I sing? Yes. Even now, when I leave my Spanish classes,
I am sitting there mumbling to myself, and I have only been studying Spanish,
albeit mexican Spanish, for 5 weeks. By that logic, I´ll have progressed
from mere words under my breath to outright opera within a few months. Mmmm.
A dubious proposition. But feasible nonetheless. I have asked many people,
from different walks of life, what they think of my hypothesis. My paranoia
that Mexicans sing beacause they have so much more to be passionate about,
life, language, culture. Some believe me, a few ridiculed me, whilst the
majority agreed with me.´Mexicans sing because to them, life is a song,´
an aerobics instructor told me. ´They sing as part of their courtship routine,
because Romeo and Juliet made such an impression, believing that the truest
expression of passion comes in verse.´ Now this was starting to make some
sense. Logic came from a psychiatrist |
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friend of mine. ¨I sing because I am Mexican. I am Mexican beacuse I sing.´
This was a tautism that I couldn´t fault. Still, I felt that everything
hadn`t been quite expained clearly. `Singing is something that I do to make
me happy, to keep me happy, and to show that I am happy,` a university student
told me. Although this brought back ideas of nursery rhymes, I did feel
that singing and happiness were beginning to form some sort of Mexican equation.
And then there was the age old question of sanity - Catch 22 was sure to
be looming. `I sing to try and keep me a little sane, to make sure that
I know where I am,` I was told by a teacher friend. Mmm, very dubious for
a person who earns the name `poco loco` every time we sit and talk. But
still a clue for in the mystery - singing helps to keep feet on the ground.The
riddle was beginning to unravel. (Did you know that unravel and ravel have
the same meaning?!!) Another thought came to me, as I sat in my imaginary
Provencal artists writers den, desperately tapping my pencil; artists (!)
have many different ways to hold their concentration; many smoke, some drink,
some cut off their ears, whilst others tap their feet incessantly. If we
extend this idea, could we encompass Mexico to be a country of `singing
artists`? Sounds more like the name of a music group to me, but a plausible
suggestion. Mexicans sing to keep themselves a little distracted, a little
happy, a little sane (or do I mean insane?). The whole thing was coming
together. But it needed one last burst of revolutionary reasoning. This
unexpectedly came from one of my younger friends, a perceptive clandestine
figure, who told me that he sings to be part of the group, to be one of
the norm. “In a country where almost one in three guys know how to play
the guitar, basically everyone sings. If I don`t sing, all the time, especially
when I am on my own, everyone is going to know that I am an alien.” He said
this with such sincerity that I had to smile, and hope that there was some
communication breakdown. But then I realised that this kind of made sense.
Singing has been so engrained into the Mexican culture that it is now a
virtuous circle - I sing because they sing, and they sing because everyone
else sings. Not the most inspiring piece of logic, but it kind of tied everything
up. So there you have it; Mexicans sing because it keeps them united, improves
their concentration, their passion (both latent and outright) and their
happiness, because they need to keep a little sane, a little insane, and
because it makes them special. All I know is that although I don`t fully
understand this logic, hearing the guys sing as they were cooking their
tortillas a few days ago definitely put a smile on my face. |
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