Mexico's Songs of Yesteryear
(Click here for Spanish translation) "Say that I'm asleep, and have me brought back to you, dear and beloved Mexico, if I were to die away from you."
So goes the chorus of the famous song "Mexico Lindo y Querido" popularized in the last century by the immortal Jorge Negrete, the Mexican singer and actor. According to Wikipedia, that cooperative of "all-knowing" omniscients, that song is almost an "informal national anthem” in Mexico and the most popular for the Charo. Those who belong to my generation (I was born in ‘46) recognize in "Mexico Lindo y Querido," a song that was popular not only in Mexico but throughout the Spanish speaking world.
One may wonder: why did this song reach almost universal popularity? It was due in part, no doubt, to the fact that Mexican cinema was the first one to produce films entirely in Spanish, thus enjoying an early popularity. But we must recognize that the song brilliantly poses, in a few words, a dramatic situation that arouses intense feelings and resolves it based on cultural values profoundly rooted in our collective Hispanic psyche. In effect, in facing the possibility of dying in a foreign nation, the song responds with unwavering loyalty and toys with the idea of pretending that the deceased is merely asleep, but must be returned to Mexico.
To die in a distant land away from home is one of the least desirable fruits of "progress." Many years ago, as I researched the impact on Mexican farmers of new roads connecting their remote villages with the rest of the country, an old man replied: "Nowadays people travel to Jojutla to die!” Thus one of the emotional prices paid by immigrants is the possibility of dying far away from their homeland and their loved ones. This started becoming the reality for multitudes only since the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution caused massive migration. Today, economic migration has produced a diaspora of millions of Hispanic and Latin American immigrants throughout the world. The fear of going to the grave without the care, prayers or offerings of loved ones, has given rise in the United States to a small industry of repatriation of remains. There are many recorded cases of such repatriations, largely to Mexico where honoring the dead, especially in the "Day of the Dead" on November 2nd, is a very popular practice even today. http://hamptonroads.com/2009/04/even-death-mexicans-us-still-feel-call-home
That loyalty to our land and family, which goes beyond death, gives a dramatic emotional content to the song’s request of being brought back to Mexico "if I were to die away from you." Countless immigrants of many nationalities must have shed tears of nostalgia and patriotic zeal at the sound of that song. And as to give it a touch of “Latin flair” the author shows poetic mischief in saying: “say that I'm asleep, and have me brought back to you." What a classic combination of traditional Mexican values (and beyond Mexican) are blended here. Octavio Paz, the great auscultator of the Mexican psyche - and I would add of Latin psyche in general – diagnosed us well in saying that we are a people of lies: we lie even when there’s no need to.
I invite you to share your comments with me at blog@joselgonzalez.com and to read many more of my articles on our Hispanic culture at www.semilla.org. We’ll talk more next week…
