My cheeks are red
My mouth is singing
My heart is beating
And my brain is thinking
I like to swing, but that’s not all
My favorite thing is to sing this swinging song
This is a song that was heard on the playground at school, and is sometimes sung by the students while playing on the swings. She also sings it on her swingset at home. She likes it because it’s a fun song to sing.
I’ve never heard this song before, so it may have come about recently.
The informant is a musician from Oaxaca, Mexico. He has been playing Bolero music for sixteen years and is incredibly talented. I approached him at an outdoor coffee shop after hearing him on his guitar. I’ve included a clip of him strumming a Bolero chord.
“Yes so, something I would like to share is music. When I think of folklore I think of my music, Bolero music, the genre of Bolero music. It was something that was taught to me by my dad when I was ten years old. And Bolero music comes from Cuba but it also kind of influenced from myself, to stay connected to my own culture, my own language.
So there’s a folklore of Bolero music. It’s kind of a lost tradition. So I celebrate it, I preserve it, everyday by playing the music, if not listening to it, that style of song on Spotify or on the radio.”
How did your father introduce it to you?
“I think through cassettes or CDs, we would listen to it every evening. And he told me and my brother ‘I want you to learn it, to learn this type of music. So he hired a teacher because it’s folk music. So Bolero is folk music, so you won’t learn it in universities or in schools. It’s specific to my culture.”
So what makes Bolero music distinct, what defines it?
“In my opinion what makes it distinct is the lyrics and talking about it musically, chords, the artists, what they call the golden era of Bolero music. It was started in the 1920s. It started in Mexico. But the music has history since 1883, so it has African, Cuban, European influences.
It’s a lot of heartbreak songs, like blues. But also celebrating love. There used to be serenades, like back in the 1930s-40s where you would serenade a woman that you felt attracted to, a partner. So it’s about love songs, it’s about feeling nostalgia.
I’ve been playing since I was fifteen, so sixteen years now. So now I’m trying to preserve it myself through a concert series that I started two years ago. There’s a lot of artists in LA that play this music but there’s no space or outlet for them to showcase especially folk music, and just folk music in general. So I created this concert series called Boleros De Noche.”
Some songs the informant recommended: Sin Ti, Amorcito Corazon, Cien Años, Sabor a mi, Besame Mucho. The first bolero is called Tristesas. That’s the first Bolero recorded.
Sana, Sana culito de rana
Si no sanas hoy, sanaras manana
Translate to: Heal, heal, little bug of frog, if you don’t heal today, then you’ll heal tomorrow.
This song is usually sung to small children that have been hurt. it is a way to keep children from crying to when they get hurt.
My informant is a service coordinator. She likes to help people. She also migrated from El Salvador to the United States. Most of her stories are from her mother or personal experiences.
I talked to my informant over coffee in our house.
Una tortillita para mama, una tortilito para papa, hechos a huego por que ya se van.
A little tortilla for mommy, a little tortila for daddy, put them on the fire because they are leaving.
The informant was taught this song by her mother-in-law. The song is sung to kids that have fallen hurt. You massage the injury a you sing the song.
My informant is a service coordinator. She likes to help people. She also migrated from El Salvador to the United States. Most of her stories are from her mother or personal experiences.
I talked to my informant over coffee in our house.
Informant: Valentina Williamson. 11 years old. Born and raised in Mexico City. My little sister.
Informant: “When the cake comes out at birthday parties everyone sings ‘Las Mañanitas.’ When the song is over, the person blows out the candle. After, we all chant ‘MORDIDA, MORDIDA! (BITE, BITE!) and push the person’s head into the cake!”
Collector: “Why do you push the persons head into the cake??”
Informant: “Because it’s funny! The face is covered in cake and we can’t stop laughing!
Informant:
“Estas son las mañanitas
Que cantaba el rey David
Hoy por ser tu cumpleaños
Te las cantamos a ti!
Despierta, “Nombre”, despierta
Mira que ya amaneció!
Y los pajaritos cantan
Y la luna ya se metio! WOOOOOOO”
(Informant motions as if she pushes a head into the cake)
Translation:
These are the dawns
That king David sang about
Today for being your birthday
We are singing to you!
Wake up, “NAME”, wake up
See that it already dawned
and the little birds are singing
and the moon has already set! WOOOOO”
Thoughts: It is really interesting that the birthday song in Mexico is much more romantic than the “Happy Birthday” song in the United States. In my opinion, this romanization is a direct reflection of the Mexican cultural values. I know that there are some slight variations from the version my sister gave me. Instead of “Hoy por ser tu cumpleaños (Today for being your birthday) some sing “Hoy por ser día de tu santo (Because today is your saint’s day).” The gesture of pushing someone’s head into the cake is something I did as a child too but no longer do it. Certainly, this only tends to happen at children’s parties.
For a full version of the song: “http://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=1180983”