Day -39: Quincho

Tonight we're crossing another thing off our fun list! We're going to see Carlos Mejía Godoy perform! You can think of Godoy as the Bob Dylan of Nicaragua, author of a distinctive style of music, the bard of the 1979 revolution and still a hard-working performer at age 70. He usually plays a few times a week but we've never gotten around to seeing him live. The song below is "Quincho Barrilete" an ode to the indomitable youth of Nicaragua, and a song that I will for the rest of my life associate with our boss, Felix Ortiz. He knows why.

Day -40: La Musica

Last month we went to Rosa Grande for one of La Misión Cristiana's regional assemblies. Most nights after dinner a bunch of the more musically-inclined pastors would sit around and play. It was a real treat to listen to. I've been blogging a bit about the music that is used in the worship services, but those songs are mostly from Managua churches. In the campo it's an entirely different musical culture and a different set of shared songs. Here they are planning an accordion plus several variants of guitar (the big bass guitar is called a guitarón). The video is a bit dark, but the sound comes through nicely.

Gracias a la Vida

This past November we celebrated Thanksgiving at the Casa Ben Linder, a community of social justice-oriented English speaking folks (and Spanish-speaking amig@s) who live and work in Nicaragua, many of whom are missionaries sent by U.S. and Canadian churches. Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Nicaragua, it was great to have a chance to eat stuffing and mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce. Plus there was a turkey piñata!

The community was founded by internacionalistas in the 1980s who held weekly protests in front of the embassy against U.S. intervention in Central Ameria. It is named in honor of Ben Linder, an American engineer who was killed by the contra while building a micro-hydropower plant in the war zone. These days it is a pretty lively community of folks who organize weekly talks and social gatherings (and the occasional protest). It has been a great support network for us during our time here.

Anyway, the prayersong at the Thanksgiving gathering was "Gracias a la Vida" (Thanks to Life) by Violeta Parra, a Chilean singer-songerwriter who is known as the founder of the Nueva Canción (New Song) movement. The song was later made internationally famous by Joan Baez and Mercedes Sosa. If you've never heard it before, it's legitimately haunting. The poetic lyrics speak of the beauties of life and love, but the minor key gives it a bittersweet tone, especially so once you learn the story behind it. Apparently there is a new film out about her life, which I haven't seen yet, but which looks really interesting. (Lyrics in spanish and english.)

Mariposa de Alas Rotas

For a little bit of Friday night music, here is Nica singer-songwriter Katia Cardenal's "Mariposa de Alas Rotas" (Broken-Winged Butterfly). Today we sat in on a thesis defense given by a student for her Masters in Feminist Theology. It was a very powerful presentation about the sexual exploitation and trafficking of girls and young women in Nicaragua, and their perceptions and perspectives on God, and the church. It was a grim, enraging topic presented in a hopeful manner, touching on the concept of resiliency in the face of adversity. This song was the presentation's theme music, as Katia sings here ... a broken-winged butterfly, against the hurricane...

Quem ama abraça (S/he who loves, Embraces)

Here's a music video that's been making the rounds at the university. It was shown as part of our "Women and Climate Change" event from December (which I mentioned here, and still hope to post more about). It's a Brazilian video in support of a campaign against violence against women (kind of a "We Are The World"-style collaboration). The title is "Quem Ama Abraça", which (I think) is Portuguese for "S/he who loves, Embraces." Plus, it's pretty catchy.

Random Reading 2

Here are a few interesting Nica-themed articles from the last few months, for anyone who is interested:

• With a lot of geothermal, wind and solar capacity and a big hydro project about to come online, Nicaragua hopes to generate an astounding 94% of its energy from renewables by 2016. ¡Sí se puede! (Nicaragua Dispatch)
  
• Mystery Disease in Central America Kills Thousands (Huff Post). Anecdotally, in addition to the very tragic outbreak of CKD among sugar cane works, more run-of-the-mill kidney problems seem to be really common too.
  
• Got Food? (World Pulse)
  
• Why Nicaragua Chose Ortega (Le Monde Diplomatique)
  
• International Volunteer Service: Good Intentions Are Not Enough (Chronicle of Higher Education)
  
• Two articles by volunteers from the Batahola Norte Cultural Center: Nicaragua's Trash and The Call of Mission
  
• The 7 Worst International Aid Ideas

• The Argentine folk singer Facundo Cabral was murdered last year in Guatemala while being driven to the airport after a concert by a Nicaraguan businessman named Henry Fariñas. Fariñas is believed to have been the real target of a hit by the drug cartels, and is now on trial in Nicaragua accused of drug trafficking and money laundering. And to make the story even weirder, the Nicaraguan police apprehended 18 Mexican nationals posing as journalists, traveling in Televisa vans with over $9 million in cash and drugs. Many have speculated that the phony journalists had plans to "gain access" to the Fariñas trial.
  
  Cabral was a much beloved singer, and seems to have become yet another tragic victim caught in the cross-fire of the drug trade. This song is his most famous: Yo no soy de aquí, ni soy de alla (I am not from here, nor from there). The song proper starts at the 4 minute mark.

They Paved Paradise

When I was a kid there was an enormous empty field across the street from our house where we spent long hours riding bikes, catching tadpoles, getting muddy and doing all that kid stuff. Sometime in junior high it got bulldozed into a subdivision of houses. Since by then I was too cool for kid stuff, I didn't really mourn its passing, but it was a really special gift to have had this parcel of wildness just outside my door growing up. Like Joni said, "you don't know what you've got til it's gone."

Graffiti in Managua: "To lose Bosawas
(Nicaragua's largest nature reserve) is
to lose everything."

Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I think stories like this uncover a bit of our natural ambivalence toward "progress" and "development." Anyway, that was what was bouncing around in my head on during our long, bumpy trip to the campo last week (driving bad roads can be really hypnotic somehow). The dirt road from Matagalpa eastwards to the Atlantic Coast is pretty terrible in the rainy season, muddy and rutted where not washed out entirely. But we passed armies of workers working to extend the cobble-stoned sections of the road, brick by brick, in a constant struggle against the ravages of the tropics.

(Road building in the U.S. is done by machines and a handful of humans; here, where the cost of labor is shockingly low and capital equipment is expensive, roads are built by hundreds of humans armed with shovels.)

It is expected that improved roads will bring economic opportunities and a measure of increased prosperity to the poorest parts of Nicaragua, which is undeniably a good thing! But there are notes of worry and ambivalence too when we listen to the pastors in the region. With roads often come a flood of newcomers, changing the culture and the way of life, new technologies, problems from the big cities, pollution and deforestation. When we visited Ecuador's oilfields a few years ago, many people told us that the road built by Texaco in the 1960s was one of the most destructive elements of the oil exploration, overnight changing an isolated corner of pristine rainforest into a frontier town.

Liscow 2012

This last week I was in the north to teach a class on "The Church and the Environmental Crisis" and several of the studying pastors had harsh words for what they called the "fever of cattle ranching" that has swept Nicaragua in the last few decades, taming the great expanse of Nicaragua's rain forest and converting it into pasture. Since the end of the civil war, Nicaragua's great wild eastern forest--including the vast nature reserves of Bosawas and Indio Maíz--has been nibbled and gnawed, faster and faster, and is now legitimately threatened (see map). According to their testimonials, in the last 30 years, a mere generation, they have seen a drastic reduction in the local forest, and the virtual disappearance of many of the iconic rainforest species. They mentioned, changes in the local climate and rainfall have shifted planting and harvest times by as much as a month.

Apropos of all this, e360 has a really interesting article and video presentation about the planned highway through part of the Bolivian amazon that has pitted Evo Morales against some of the indigenous groups who helped make him Latin America's first indigenous president.

Bolivia has been embroiled in conflict for the past year over the planned construction of a 182-mile highway, 32 miles of which would cut through TIPNIS, a vital ecosystem — located at the geographic heart of South America — that links the Andes and the Amazon basins. The road would be an important addition to Bolivia’s woefully undeveloped highway system. Yet environmental studies predict that the project will cause widespread damage, contaminating the park’s three main rivers, opening large areas of forest to illegal logging and settlement, and altering habitats that are home to 11 endangered species and rare primates. All that would threaten the traditional way of life of the reserve’s three dwindling indigenous cultures — the Tsimanes, Yuracarés and Mojeño-Trinitarios.

There is a sense, fostered by many environmental and development groups, that the twin goals of environmental protection and economic development can be wedded together through the concept of "sustainability." Sustainable development is at heart a positive, hopeful vision of a future that is prosperous, just and green -- although some have argued that it is a mirage that papers over real tensions between the two goals. I still think the concept has a lot of merit, but it's worth recognizing how hard it really is to accomplish, especially when not everyone involved is on board with the idea, even in theory (e.g. a few recent reports on the role of organized crime in driving deforestation).

Managua Soundscape

To get the full sensory experience of a city like Managua, you really have to visit. A visiting friend who had lived in India for a year told us that the smells of Managua recalled in her strong memories of that country from the minute she stepped out of the air conditioned sanctum of the airport. It's not currently possible to embed the smell of the city or the feel of the humidity on a website (and that's probably a good thing), but the music clip above really is a central part of Managua's soundscape.

The song is "Llegó el Lechero" (The Milkman Arrives) and it is blasted throughout the city by delivery trucks with giant loudspeakers selling milk, leche agria and other dairy products. You can hear the song everywhere you go in the city, and if you read the comments on the YouTube video, it's mostly from Managua residents laughing about how early it starts up in their barrio. (Supposedly the phrase has another entendre too, which is interesting.) It passes by the church office around 10 in the morning, driving slowly with the volume up to 11 and repeating on a short loop.

In general, truck-mounted (or horse-mounted) loudspeakers are pretty common, and you get everything from evangelical preachers making the rounds to ads for laundry detergent, political propaganda, scrap metal collectors and vegetable salesfolk.

Evangelical Musical Sampler, Vol. 3

It's been awhile since I've posted about the music we hear in church. So here are a few more pentecostal tunes to start your week.

Our first song is one of the biggest crowd-pleasers in the repertoire -- "Alaba a Dios" ("Praise God") by Danny Berrios. It's got a great build to a dramatic chorus and it does that ascending key change thing at the end. The church often busts it out when they want to bring their "A" game. Church services typically open with an hour of music and this is often the capstone just before the preacher starts.

There are really only a handful of songs that were familiar to us from the U.S. When we have groups visiting, "We Are Walking in the Light of God" is popular since the Spanish version, "Caminando en la Luz de Dios" is well-known. (I keep pushing to get people to sing the Siyahamba verses too.) Occasionally we hear songs that meld church-y lyrics to popular tunes like "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" or this one (listen and let me know if you recognize the melody).

But one popular song that does earn that shock of recognition for us is "Abre Mis Ojos, o Cristo", a translation of "Open the Eyes of My Heart." Thankfully, the Spanish avoids the mixed metaphor of the English version. I could never help picturing a Valentine heart with animated eyeballs when singing this song.

The next song -- "Este corito es" ("This Choir is...") by Doris Machin -- is super-pentecostal in its theme (lots of Holy Spirit) and is one of Laura Jean's favorites because it has fun participatory dance moves. Now everyone spin around!

One more for a closer: here's "Te doy gloria" ("I give you glory") by Luz y Salvación. Mosh pit!

El Ave

To bring you a little music on a Saturday morning, here's a poppy, melancholy song by the Mexican band, Café Tacvba.  Para traerles un poco de música para este sábado, aquí es una canción pegadiza y melancolía por la banda mexicana, Café Tacvba.

Ese ave que volando va con la sensación de poseerlo todo y yo 

aquí sentado sin nada ni un par de alas para escapar

This bird goes flying with the sensation of having everything and I
am sitting here with nothing, not even a pair of wings, to escape

El ave en la avenida vuela por colonias, barrios tristes, solos y enojados que están,
parece un mito la alegría que años atrás 
inundaba esta pobre ciudad



The bird in the avenue flies through colonies, sad, lonely, angry neighborhoods.
It seems like a myth, the happiness that years before flooded this poor city.

... the lyrics continue here ... las letras siguen aqui.

Random Reading

Just a few random articles people might enjoy...

• The long-running border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica has taken a new turn as Costa Rica has begun building a controversial road along their side of the Río San Juan.  Environmentalists on both sides of the border have cried foul, saying it will lead to enormous environmental damage.  Read more from John Perry and Nicaragua Dispatch.
• An interesting story about the founding of a fund for financing community development in Nicaragua, which grew out of the work of a very cool group called CEPAD.
• Where's the Latin American Science Fiction?  (OK, I'm a geek... but actually, I've been asking in all the bookstores down here and nobody can seem to locate any for me.  Magic realism they've got cold, but not so much with the sci-fi.)
• Does the U.S. have a double standard for elections in Latin America? (Hint: yes.)
• Nicaragua's renewable energy revolution cometh.  More here on an army unit assigned to stop illegal deforestation.

And to overfill your quota of cheesy awesomeness, here's a spanish version of Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Catchy Christmas Carol

We may have mentioned before that life in Nicaragua can be rather, well, loud.  For example, the Catholic Church down the street practices a daily advent celebration that involves blasting Christmas carols over their loudspeakers.  At 3 or 4 in the morning.  For 30 to 40 minutes.  Accompanied by fireworks.  Every day until Christmas.

Now I am not at my best at 3 a.m. and, in the moment, I am not generally very appreciative of these full-volume, pre-dawn serenades.  Un-charitable thoughts have been known to flit through my sleep-fogged brain.  However, one of this morning's songs was so INSANELY catchy that I've been humming it constantly ever since.  Maybe the fact of hearing it while half-asleep helps to burn it deeper into your synapses?  Laura Jean helped me track it down this morning -- apparently it's a very popular children's carol about traveling to Bethlehem to see the baby Jesus:
The lyrics can be found here.  Now the catchy song is in your head too -- you're welcome!

You Cannot Buy the Sun

This beautiful song and video -- "Latinoamérica" from the Puerto Rican band Calle 13 -- have been going round and round in my head for the past few days.  I love the different visual styles in the video, from the animation to the street murals to the scenes of everyday life in the diversity that is Latin America.  I haven't translated all of the verses, but the chorus says this:

You cannot buy the wind
You cannot buy the sun
You cannot buy the rain
You cannot buy the heat.

You cannot buy the clouds
You cannot buy the colors
You cannot buy my happiness
You cannot buy my pains.

The spoken intro confused me the first time I heard it.  I got a few words, but why was I not understanding this guy's accent?  Turns out he's speaking Quechua and I am a dope.  Anyway, hope you enjoy it! (via Spanish for Social Change.)

Soy Migrante

I wanted to share this video by the Nicaraguan singer Moisés Gadea.  It's a song about migrant workers and the video has some nice shots of day-to-day Nicaraguan life.  (Via Josh Berman.)  Enjoy!

Evangelical Musical Sampler, Vol. 2

By semi-pseudo-popular demand, I'm going to continue blogging about the music that la Misión uses in worship.  We've enjoyed learning a bunch of new songs -- hope you enjoy them too!

First up is a song that Laura Jean used in a recent sermon as a way of explaining la Misión's theology -- El Espíritu de Dios Está en Este Lugar (The Spirit of God is Here in this Place).  As a pentecostal church, la Misión Cristiana places a lot of emphasis on the Holy Spirit (el Espíritu Santo) and this song is often used as a gentle introduction to the worship service.  This version is by Jessica Landaverde, and for any musicians out there, you can find the guitar chords and lyrics here.




Our second tune is El Poderoso de Israel (The Powerful of Israel), by Juan Carlos Alvarado.  The clip below isn't very long, but don't be fooled, this one can go on for a while once people build up a head of steam.  It's a good hand-clapper.  Lyrics and chords found here.




Our next song is Eres todopoderoso (You Are All-Powerful) by the omni-popular Danilo Montero.  In contrast to the other song of his I mentioned, this one actually rocks pretty hard.  It's pretty catchy and is plastered all over the Christian radio stations down here.  There's a teenager a few doors down from us who spends many an afternoon singing the chorus at the top of his lungs.  Lyrics and chords.




Our last song (for now) is Está Cayendo su Gloria Sobre Mi (His Glory is Falling Over Me) by José Luis Reyes, which has some seriously Coldplay-like guitars.  This one is also very popular in la Misión worship services, probably because it's just a simple, classic power-ballad that you can really sink your teeth into.  Lyrics and chords.

Que caiga un aguacero

We have come to the dusty end of Nicaragua's dry season and in the months ahead we will be well and truly inundated by the rains.  By the end of our summer season Managua is dry and yellow, the drainage canals are clogged with months of accumulated trash, and everyone complains constantly about the heat.  Dust covers everything in our house.  The whole city needs a shower.  I rub the sweat from the back of my neck and my hand gets dirty.  Antici... pation!

But then last week we had our first downpour and even a little bit of hail (!!!).  Check out this video of the waters surging through the canals.  And then this evening we're getting another (much lighter) rainfall.  It feels wonderfully cool right now and the sound of rain on the roof is just about perfect, and I'm happy thinking that we have more of this to look forward to in the months to come (although I know that temperature won't always been this pleasant).

Anyway, to celebrate the start of the rainy season, here's a song beloved by Spanish teachers everywhere thanks to its catchy melody and prominent use of the present subjunctive mood.
(You can find the lyrics and an English translation here.)

Evangelical Musical Sampler, Vol. 1

As we've mentioned before, la Misión uses music a little differently in their services than what we were used to in the states. For starters -- and I say this as someone who used to be involved in organizing music for weekly services -- I am astounded at the sheer number of songs the musicians (and church members) have memorized. There are no hymnals and no sheet music and yet they manage to pull off a 7-8 song service five times a week. And they have day jobs! Totally awesome.

Part of this is that they use a lot of popular music in worship, and (I think) Christian music is a lot more mainstream down here than in the states, so everyone knows the words. We've often heard church songs blasting out of taxis. Anyway, we're slowly learning the songs that get used in worship a lot. I usually try to remember some of the lyrics and then track them down online when I get home. I thought I would share a little of what's popular down here. Enjoy!

The first song -- El Señor Es Mi Pastor -- is super widespread although I should warn that this version (by Danilo Montero) is a little sleepy compared with how la Misión folks play it. The loud drums and guitar and the echo-y concrete sanctuary give it more of a fast-paced, garage-rock feel. Try to imagine it being played by the White Stripes. Or perhaps the White Stripes as fronted by Aretha Franklin, since there are no shortage of awesome women singers. (Lyrics here.)


Continuing in the soft rock tradition (a genre that is surprisingly popular in Nicaragua!), this one is called La Niña de Tus Ojos, which is actually the idiomatic translation for the English phrase "the apple of your eye" (literally, "the girl of your eyes"). Song by Daniel Calveti (lyrics here, sorry about the Mel Gibson).


And to close it out, Sube! Sube! Sube! la Alabanza. This one is more energetic, something you can actually dance to (lyrics). The chorus (which means "up! up! up!" more or less) has become sort of a rallying cry in our house for all manner of things.

Favorite "New" Christmas Song

As you might imagine, the most popular Christmas songs on the radio here in Nicaragua are not exactly the English language classics I'm accustomed to. Actually, a lot of them *are*, which is pretty funny. But, there's one with a super catchy tune that I finally looked up on the Internet, called Campanas de Belén, Bells of Bethlehem. It seems to be one of the songs that's always playing on the radio.



It really caught my notice when a group of kids started singing it at the end of a mini-presentation in church on Sunday -- I think before that, I hadn't paid any attention to what the words were. The lyrics are here if you read Spanish (there's one more verse in the lyrics than in the version I posted above). I'm not actually 100% sure of the translation, but there are some nice lines.

The refrain means "Bethlehem, bells of Bethlehem, which the angels ring, what news do you bring us?"

The first verse says "Little shepherd, herding your flock, where are you going?" And the response is "I'm going to bring cheese, butter, and wine (to Jesus)." The closing verse (rough translation) says "walking at midnight the path that the little shepherd walked to bring [gifts] to the child, just like I bring my heart to God." The original is more poetic, but you get the idea.

So, it's lovely in content and not only in style, it turns out. Hooray for new Christmas songs.

Todo Cambia

This past week we traveled to Costa Rica to renew our visas; this coming week my sister is coming to visit and then we're traveling again. So much to do, so little time to blog! In lieu of words and pictures, I'll just post this song -- "Todo Cambia" -- by the late Argentine singer Mercedes Sosa. I first heard it at a presentation about the impacts of climate change in Nicaragua (such a good idea to include music in technical presentations!), and I thought it was lovely. Enjoy!


Cambia lo superficial, cambia también lo profundo,
cambia el modo de pensar, cambia todo en este mundo;
cambia el clima con los años, cambia el pastor, su rebaño
y así como todo cambia que yo cambie no es extraño.

Cambia el más fino brillante de mano en mano su brillo.
Cambia el nido, el pajarillo. Cambia el sentir un amante.
Cambia el rumbo el caminante, aunque esto le cause daño.
Y así como todo cambia, que yo cambie no es extraño.

Cambia, todo cambia, cambia, todo cambia.

Cambia el sol en su carrera, cuando la noche subsiste,
Cambia la planta y se viste de verde en la primavera.
Cambia el pelaje la fiera. Cambia el cabello del anciano.
y así como todo cambia, que yo cambie no es extraño.

Pero no cambia mi amor por más lejos que me encuentre.
Ni el recuerdo, ni el dolor, de mi pueblo, de mi gente.
Y lo que cambió ayer tendrá que cambiar mañana,
así como cambio yo en esta tierra lejana.

---

The superficial changes, and also the profound changes.
The way of thinking changes, everything in this world changes.
The climate changes with the years, the pastor changes and her flock.
And as everything changes, it is not strange that I change.

The finest diamond changes its brightness from hand to hand.
The nest changes, the bird. A lover changes his feelings.
The walker changes direction, even if it causes her harm.
And as everything changes, it is not strange that I change.

Change, everything changes. Change, everything changes.

The sun in its course changes, when the night remains.
The plant changes and wears green in the springtime.
The wild beast changes its fur. The old one changes his hair.
And as everything changes, it is not strange that I change.

But my love doesn't change no matter how far away I am.
Nor the memory nor the pain, of my village, of my people.
And what changed yesterday will have to change tomorrow
As I change in this far off land.

Nicaraguita

I've been trying to learn some Nica music for guitar, and this is where people tell me to start. This song is called "Nicaragua, Nicaraguita," which someone described to me as Nicaragua's Second National Anthem.

He estado tratando de aprender algo musica Nica para guitarra, y aqui es donde la gente me dice para comenzar. Esta canción se llama "Nicaragua, Nicaraguita" que alguien me describió como el segundo Himno Nacional de Nicaragua.


The singer/songwriter is Carlos Mejía Godoy, who is similarly one of the most famous and beloved of Nicaragua's musicians. His music is often associated with the 1979 revolution and the Sandinista government of the 1980s, and indeed this 1983 performance is from the middle of the Contra war.

El cantante y compositor es Carlos Mejía Godoy, que es igualmente uno de los más famosos y queridos de los músicos de Nicaragua. A menudo, su música es asociada con la revolución de 1979 y el gobierno de las sandinistas de los 80s, y de hecho este rendimiento de 1983 es de la mitad de la guerra de las Contras.

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaraguita,
la flor mas linda de mi querer,
abonada con la bendita,
Nicaraguita, sangre de Diriangén.

Ay Nicaragua sos mas dulcita,
que la mielita de Tamagas,
pero ahora que ya sos libre,
Nicaraguita, yo te quiero mucho mas.
pero ahora que ya sos libre,
Nicaraguita, yo te quiero mucho mas.

---

Ay Nicaragua, Nicaraguita
the most beautiful flower of my love
fertilized with the blessed blood of Diriangén.

Ay Nicaragua, you are sweeter than the honey of Tamagas,
but now that you are free, Nicaraguita, I love you even more,
but now that you are free, Nicaraguita, I love you even more.