"El estuche" by Aterciopelados

Buenas tardes, ¿Cómo están?

Today I'm going to share with you a very interesting song.

Aterciopelados is a group that has been one of the most important in the alternative rock movement in Latin America. The band is formed by Andrea Echeverry and Héctor Buitrago. She is a singer/songwriter with a degree in Fine Arts and he is a bassist/producer/composer with a degree in Engineering.

They had been a very successful band since 1992, combining the sounds of rock, funk, and ska with traditional rhythms from the folkloric music of Colombia, like cumbia, vallenato, bambuco, and pasillo, and some other Latin American Rhythms like salsa, bolero, bosanova, etc.  Aterciopelados has been nominated to the Grammy awards for best Latin Alternative Rock Album, a has won two Latin Grammy Awards among many others. They have been considered the first band to make Colombian rock well known internationally.

In 2006 Time magazine named them the 3rd best band in the world. It was the only Latin band included in their top 10. Andrea's voice is considered one of the best in Ibero America.

Andrea and Héctor are activists on behalf or Amnesty International promoting peace and the respect of human rights around the world. Their music is considered "protest music", a genre that has been present in Latin America since the middle of the last century to speak out against injustice and serve as a way of getting people to think about social issues. The music of this band has a high content of social criticism, they express their opinions about imperialism, consumerism, pollution, war, injustice, global warming, and other problems that affect society nowadays, capturing adepts around the world.

The song I am sharing is "El estuche". It was included in the soundtrack of the movie "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights". Many of the students were familiar with it when I played it.

The lyrics of the song have a very positive message that talks about looking at the essence of a person not their outward appearance. "El estuche" refers to only the carrying case that is the physical make-up of a person. The jewel is inside.

The format of the video is based on that of the old black and white movies and it provides an interesting way of presenting the concepts. It has simple images highlighting the main ideas, i.e., avoiding superficiality and looking for each person's intrinsic value.

The students really like the message of this song and are really surprised at the style of music ans its presence in the Hispanic World. They love to give me their feedback about it all. : )

There you go. I hope you find out this information useful and enjoy the song.

Gracias,

Paola

"Torre de Babel" by David Bisbal featuring Wisin & Yandel

¡Hola y feliz semana!

Today is "reggaeton" time. Yes, you read correctly, reggaeton. Surprised? Yes, I was too!

I had a really hard time accepting reggaeton. I already had my preferences like everybody else, and when I started to get familiar with it I thought it was horrible. The rhythm was repetitive and boring, the lyrics vulgar and ordinary, and the singers, to me,  were trying to imitate rap singers, and the result was very bad.

But still, I was struggling with my conscience telling myself I should find something that I could share with the students, because as an "Expression of culture" it was valid.

I struggle and struggle looking for something I could share. It was hard. I'm not going to lie. The main problem was not only the lyrics, but also the videos. In order to be able to show them to the students they had to be appropriate.

Oh well. Then... after hours... it appeared. David Bisbal from Spain featuring Wisin and Yandel from Puerto Rico. They were singing a song with a strong message. It was shocking. But it didn't end there. I liked it! I couldn't believe it.

"Torre de Babel" is a collaboration that has elements from the reggaeton style and the flamenco pop style. It was a nice combination. The video was very interesting. It kept the spirit of "social criticism" of the beginning of rap music, and added the magic of Hispanic History and good vocals. Also it brings so many opportunities to talk about culture.

You can talk about the music, raggeeton being born from the influences of African American music and puerto rican rhythms like "bomba" and "plena". The mix is made by the puerto rican immigrants in New York who adopted the African American music when they came because of their common roots. The African heritage. These same puerto ricans influence their country back and the songs become really popular making the movement of reggaeton explode about 10 years ago. I moved to the United States about that time, so I never experience reggaeton in Colombia. It hit me when I got here. 

The video of the song shows medieval Spain, castles, and difficult times. War, bad people taking advantage of good people, suffering. It mixes words from different languages. You can talk about the seven hundred years of the Moors ruling in Spain, the "Reconquista", and also compare this situation with difficult times people face in different places nowadays.

Video

The message of the song could be summarized in the last spoken part by Wisin.

Lyrics


Besides the reggaeton influences, the lyrics, the history portrayed, you can also see in the video the flamenco style. In the middle of the song David Bisbal dedicates sometime to presenting traditional flamenco singing, and there is also a traditional flamenco guitar solo.

All those different rhythms are mixed with Arabic music as well. The music of the video shows the Hispanic world is very complex and all connected: Puerto Rico and Latin America to the history of Spain, which includes the Arabs, and their long presence and profound influence in the culture of southern Spain.

Lately some of the reggaeton musicians have been making their compositions broader and more diverse, they realized that if they wanted the style to last and be more popular they had to attract more people to it. Now there is reggaeton for many different tastes, including mine.

This song has open my mind to a new style of music and I am working on preparing more reggaeton songs to be shared in forthcoming posts.

I hope you find this music interesting. And I recommend you watch the PBS show "When the Moors ruled in Spain", it is a great documentary that will give you and insight into this very interesting time in the history of Europe.

Thank you!

Paola

"Torero" by Chayanne

¡Buenas tardes a todos!

Today, I have decided to talk about one of the most well-known singers in Latin America and among Latino population in the United States.

His name is Elmer Figueroa Arce... better known as Chayanne. He was born in Puerto Rico and he has had one of the most successful careers in show business for more than 25 years. Chayanne is an award nominated and winner of many recognitions including the Latin Grammy Awards. His music is a mix of romantic pop rhythms, tropical, and dance rhythms.

In recent years along with his music he has been working as a soap opera's actor in Argentina. He is very popular there and has a huge fan base. While in Buenos Aires he decided to film the video of the song "Torero". This is a love song like much of his music and is danceable too.

The video is very useful to show the beautiful Buenos Aires, it starts in the widest avenue in the world, the 9th of July or Independence Avenue. 9 of July of 1816 is the day of the Independence in Argentina. It has 7 lanes South to North and 7 North to South with two streets on each side with additional 4 lanes. It is about 1 km long and it has in the middle the monument to the independence "El Obelisco" main point of reference in Buenos Aires.

You can talk about how big Buenos Aires is  (12 million people) and the fact that the city is the principal port of the country on the Atlantic coast. It was the entrance to all the immigrants who made up 97% of the population in Argentina. In the video you can see images of the down town with its European style of Architecture. Many cities in Latin America have an English, Spanish, and sometimes French style neighborhood.

There is a scene in which a man is seen selling bread in a basket riding a bike. You could talk about the importance of fresh bread and bakeries in the Latin American culture. Why they would never see anything like that in the U.S. People eat fresh bread made daily for breakfast, lunch and/or dinner. The bakeries start working very early in the morning around 3:00 am sometimes to have the bread ready to sell for breakfast. If you go to a bakery late in the evening, around 9:00 or so, you will not find much bread, only the pastries would be left. Supermarket bread in plastic bags is sold mostly for sandwiches. This could lead to a future discussion about meals, snacks, coffee, hot chocolate, and many other aspects of the "food culture" of Latin America.

"Torero" serves also as a good introduction to the bullfighting issue. You can explore how deep in the heart of Hispanic culture bullfighting is; and how now there are many movements,  inspired by animal rights and led mainly by young Hispanics, proponents of putting and end to the tradition of so  many years that some people consider an Art form. Bullfighting has been prohibited in Catalunya, for example.

Almost every main city in Latin America, has a bullfighting arena and a bullfighting season "Temporada de toros" that, as part of regional festivities and celebrations. attracts a large segment of the population.

The music and the rhythms Chayanne dances and performs to are also a surprise for most of the students who have preconceived ideas about Hispanic or Latin music in general. Pop and Dance music is actually very popular in Latin America.

Here it's the video and lyrics of the song. And also Chayanne's web site.

I hope you can incorporate this song into your classes and the culture discussion results interesting and beneficial for you and your students.

Thank you! ¡Nos leemos luego!

Paola

"Color Esperanza" by Diego Torres

Hello Everyone!

Today I want to share with you a song from one of my favorite Argentine singers. His name is Diego Torres.

Diego has been singing very successfully for more than 20 years. He is also a songwriter, producer and an actor. His music is always very positive. Some of his colleagues call it the happiness pill everyone needs everyday. Diego is a classic example of a typical Argentine. He is from Italian and Spanish background and he is fluent in several languages including Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.

His music is a combination of Latin American rhythms. He mixes pop with some other rhythms that are popular in several Hispanic countries, reggae, samba, rumba, and sometimes even including rumba flamenca.

"Color Esperanza" or "The color of hope" is a very inspiring and catchy song. It has been his biggest hit and he has had the opportunity of singing it in different languages like Italian, Portuguese and Spanish while traveling around the world to share his music and support causes that help children in need.

Diego was invited to sing this song to Pope John Paul the 2nd in Spain at the World Youth Convention in 2003. Color Esperanza became in Argentine schools a message of hope for the families and the second hymn played in all national historic holidays.

The video I share with my students is the unplugged version of the song. Diego's MTV unplugged was done in Buenos Aires in 2004 and it became a huge success selling the album and DVD and multiple sold out tours from Mexico to Argentina. In the video he does an acoustic performance of the song and also invites a group of children from "La Chilinguita" music group to perform with him. These children play the drums in the Brazilian urban percussion style, very popular in the neighborhoods surrounding Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. He also sings the chorus of the song in Portuguese on the video.

Diego, inviting them to play with him, supports the efforts of "La Chilinga" music school to help children in Buenos Aires develop their talents and appreciate their traditional music. Some of these children can't attend school because they need to work to help support their families, the music school allows them to have a space to enrich their education bringing music to their neighborhoods and communities, making it more accessible.

This song presents a wonderful opportunity to discuss the following:
-The influence of the different Latin American rhythms in countries other than  those in which they originate.
-The strong ties between Argentina and its neighbor Brazil.
-How different Argentina is from other Latin American countries because of the fact that 97% of the population is fully European with only 3% having any native (indigenous) Latin American background. That makes them have the influence of European languages and culture in their own. Someone said once that Argentines are "Europeans born in Latin America who speak Spanish with an Italian accent" =)
-You can also talk about the situation of many children in the Hispanic world who can't attend school and need to work, many times on the streets selling candy or other goods, to help their families make ends meet.

The song with its message gives us the opportunity to encourage our students to be positive and believe in themselves.

Here the video and lyrics.

This is the first song of Diego Torres that I am discussing but it will not be the last. I love his music!!!

You can access his web site here.

Thanks for your time and "Hasta la próxima"