Martin Fierro

While in Cordoba I was pretty freakin tired and a bit sick so I picked up the ultimate gaucho book: Martin Fierro. Here are some phrases I liked:

Aquí me pongo a cantar
al compás de la viguela,
que al hombre que lo desvela
una pena estrordinaria,
como la ave solitaria
con el cantar se consuela.

Famous opening phrase. Its true, music me consuela.

Con la guitarra en la mano
ni las moscas se me arriman;
naides me pone el pie encima,
y, cuando el pecho se entona,
hago gemir a la prima
y llorar a la bordona.

...

(I also started circleing words that I didn't understand but then got lazy. Reading gauchesco spanish is a bit rough.)

Tuve en mi pago en un tiempo
hijos, hacienda y mujer,
pero empecé a padecer,
me echaron a la frontera,
¡y qué iba a hallar al volver!
tan sólo hallé la tapera.
...

Mi gala en las pulperías
era, cuando había más gente,
ponerme medio caliente,
pues cuando puntiao (borracho) me encuentro
me salen coplas de adentro
como agua de la virtiente.
...

Y la pobre mi mujer,
¡Dios sabve cuánto sufrío!
Me dicen que se voló
con no sé qué gavilán:
sin duda a buscar el pan
que no podía darle yo.
...

Yo he sido manso primero,
y seré gaucho matrero,
en mi triste circunstancia,
aunque es mi mal tan projundo;
nací y me he criao en estancia,
pero ya conozco el mundo.
...

"A los blancos hizo Dios,
a los mulatos San Pedro,
a los negro hizo el diablo
para tizón del infierno."
(some harsh racisim there)
...

No hay cosa como el peligro
pa refrescar un mamao;
hasta la vista se aclara
por mucho que haiga chupao.
(That's what people tell me about driving drunk and seeing a policeman pass by)
...

Y al campo me iba solito,
más matrero que el venao,
como perro abandonao
a buscar una tapera,
o en alguna bizcachera
pasar la noche tirao.

Sin punto ni rumbo fijo
en aquella inmensidá,
entre tanta escuridá
anda el gaucho como duende;
allí jamás lo sorpriende
dormido, la autoridá.

Su esperanza es el coraje,
su guarida es la precaución,
su pingo es la salvación,
y pasa uno en su desvelo,
sin más amparo que el cielo
ni otro amigo que el facón.
(how I felt traveling alone)
...

Yo me voy le dije, amigo,
donde la suerte me lleve,
y si es que alguno se atreve,
a ponerse en mi camino,
yo seguiré mi destino,
que el hombre hace lo que debe.
...

Es triste a no poder más
el hombre en su padecer,
si no tiene una mujer
que lo ampare y lo consuele:
mas pa que otro se la pele
lo mejor es no tener.
...

Las mujeres, dende entonces,
conocí a todas en una.
Ya no he de probar fortuna
con carta tan conocida:
mujer y perra parida,
no se me acerca ninguna.
...

Y son tantas las miserias
en que me he sabido ver,
que con tanto padecer
y sufrir tanta aflición,
malicio que he de tener
un callo en el corazón.
...

Tampoco a la sé le temo,
yo la aguanto muy contento;
busco agua olfatiando el viento,
y dende que no soy manco,
ande hay duraznillo blanco
cavo y la saco al momento.
...

Chapin

Now that I've been traveling so much I feel it payed off to watch Where in the World is Carmen San Diego, lol.

Also, reading my fellow Watson Fellow, Marlon's blog (http://marloniousthunk.blogspot.com/) I got inspired to be more descriptive.

Well, I've made it to the last country of my crazy trip; Guatemala. I'm so glad I have my friend Puli to help me out here. What would have taken me at least a week to find a place and set meetings with musicians/luthiers, she and her friends had already done before I even got to the airport.

I got to see the city as I landed. It reminded me of Bolivia with ravines and houses clinging to the hillsides. Landing through the clouds I saw that at the end of the runway was a steep cliff!!! No wonder people told me that this airport was hard to reach.

There was no time to unpack because we were off to party in Antigua that same night. I got to meet Puli's friends. Luis "Kalimba" with whom I'm staying. Ferro "El Turko" and Ishma. Btw, I have to say that I am Issac "El Mex." Another aside is that I'm growing a slight panic at the sight of mosquitos because of a recent dengue outbreak. Also, man am I happy to be back in the land of tortillas and tacos!!! Guatemala food is different but at least those two things are the same. Ishma feels my pain because she is also from Mexico so we both miss our chile and tortas. There's choripan (bread and sausage) here in Guate which is good but completely different fromt he argentine choripan. Oh, there's also tamarindo and did I already mention tortillas. I didn't know I would be so homesick for food.

Antigua was way chill, and as colonial as everyone says. The story goes that there was the founding city of Guatemala beneath the volcano Aguas which held water in its crater. One side of the crater broke and covered the city. Thus the city moved further to what is now Antigua. And its called Antigua Guatemala because after I think an earthquake, the capital was moved to its current location. I should really just have looked this up on wikipedia, but the story was told to me yesterday as I was coming back from Lake Atitlán.
The place was crazy hard to reach and yet there were swarms of tourists at the city of Pana and on the other side San Pedro. SP is where Puli has uncles who are artesans by day and musicians by night. Luckily I got to meet them and when they brought out the pastel (cake) I busted out my mate. Hurray for mixture of cultures! On our way to their house we took a Tru Tru taxi which is just a moto with a carriage. The streets are so narrow, hilly and there are secret alleywas to different bars and hotels. We talked music with one uncle and then Charlie Chaplin with another...good times. San Pedro has a very chill, free attitude.

Then I found myself at a Reggae festival on a dock behind Casa Elena. Unfortunately it was raining so there was only DJ music. We were about to leave when a live cd of Daft Punk came on and then the dancing in the rain began (I'm still waiting to see when I get sick because of gettting drenched). The other reason for coming to the lake was to see her uncles play latin music at Buddah bar. They only had a guitar and percussion but dang did they get people dancing. Then at intermission when it stopped raining we went back to check out the performance and chilled on the dock while listening to some Guatemalan reggae.

I feel loved

Shout outs go to team Bethany (including bride to be Stacy).

I was traveling through northern argentina the last three weeks having some pretty amazing experiences, but I found that there is something comforting about returning to something you're familiar with. The girls really warmed my heart as I read their letters. In addition, there was a t-shirt...gotta tell them that even thought the UCLA t-shirt Jennie gave me used to fit, my shoulders have grown a bit since then, but its all good...I'll just look even more fit, jaja.


Sad to miss my stand partner's wedding, but such are the sacrifices of being a Watson Fellow.

If anything these letters have told me that even thought I may not have a job or school waiting for me when i get back, at least I'll have friends waiting for me.

Tranquilo

Here's a song I wrote in the Chacarera style:

Valle tan lindo, valle re-tranqui
Al paso del queso corren aquí.

Ratón de ciudad, ratón del campo
Se mezclan acá un poco tiempo.

El avión ha sido mi caballo
A ver si esta vez no me caigo.

Ando pa’ merecer mis hebillas
Espero no terminar en silla.

Mate 2

Yo aprendí a tomarlo
sin nada de azúcar,
para acompañar toda
la amargura de mi vida.

Pero esta yerba se
convirtió en mi mejor amiga.
Anda siempre conmigo
y me llena de energía.

Otro beneficio que
l'hace mejor que una chica,
después de sacarle el sabor
se saca y se tira!

Mate

I've started writing lyrics!!!

Droga que nunca tomaba
yerba de mil verdes colores.
Que antes se encontraba
afuera de mis tentaciones.

Esta costumbre de otros
ahora del joven viajero.
Lo tiene adicto como
cualquier fulano callejero.

Mamá, no se preocupe
de que yo tome esta droga.
Como la coca no es polvo
que yerba mate no es mota.

Contramano

It's raining in Jujuy...suckagawea :(

Instead of going to the Quebrada de Huamahuaca (Patrimonio de la Humanidad) I had breakfast at San Martin Park (granola, bread and dulce de leche). To pass the time I played some cueca on my charango and then went to a video arcade. Now that the internet place is open I'll spend the rest of my afternoon here.

This next music video comes to mind whenever I read the "wrong way" red and white street signs. Its also pretty cool video and makes me want to get tight white shorts. Sometimes I do feel like i'm going contramano (seeing as how I'll be unemployed pretty soon) but at "least I know who I am."

Kapanga - Contramano


Muy temprano a la mañana
Se levantan y trabajan
Yo en ese momento me arrastro a mi cama
Para llegar y dormir

Me sentí un poco perdido
Y agarre por un desvió
Sabia muy bien para donde iban todos
Pero yo no quise ir

Al revés del mundo, yo sigo mi rumbo
Buscando mi propia salida
Yo sigo el camino que nadie camina
No hay huellas por donde yo voy

Siempre voy a contramano
Si todos vienen yo voy
Siempre voy a contramano
Pero sabiendo quien soy

Si doblan a la derecha
Yo giro para la izquierda
Si es muy importante, me importa una mierda
Yo se donde tengo que ir

Ellos rezan oraciones
Yo prefiero mis canciones
No le creo a nadie, ni al representante
De alguien que llaman señor

El Gaucho Viajero

Yesterday I had the most intense traveling day.

I had breakfast in Tafi del Valle. (tortillas tucumanas and mate cocido).
I had lunch in a plaza in Cafayate. (cheese and bread I had bought back in Tafi, plus mate).
I had dinner at plaza Belgrano in Jujuy. (empanadas de queso, choclo y pollo)
Then a folklore show by Maestro Ramos at the old Teatro Mitre.

Deserving my belt buckles

As a norteño (from northern mexico) I grew to like those big cowboy belt buckles. The funny part is that my family moved out of their ranch before I was born. I had only rode a horse when I was 5 and we were on vacation.

When I was little I watched the Disney movie where donald went to South America. Well, I already acomplished the part of going to Lake Titicaca. In another part Goofy goes to Argentina and trys to be a Gaucho. Well, I just went to Tucuman at the Valley of Tafi where I too was Gaucho for a day.Its been two days and my whole body is still sore from the cabalgata. The ride up was slow and steady, slow to the point where I wanted to go faster but didn't know how. Come to think of it, the real Gaucho, Amaiso, didn't really give me any instructions just told me to get on and follow him.

We rode up to an ecological farm at the top of a nearby serro (hill). Roberto, the owner, came out to give me the tour. I was thirsty so I started getting my mate ready. Things kicked off good when I was offered some regional wine called Patero. Roberto's mission is to turn back the damage that man has done to Pachamama (mother earth). The little ranch has various livestock, bee hives, herb garden (took down notes on the medicinal ones for Cindy) and is all run with natural compost. After the awesome Andean Captain Planet tour which included me hand feeding corn to a dozen llamas, it was time to go. But before that, Amaiso shared more of the wine and Roberto had me try other type of wines he makes. There was also a licor made from nuts that was similar to Baileys but more delicious. It is fermented with aguardiente. Before heading out we toasted with shots of aguardiente. You can imagine how the ride down went...I was flying with the speed of aguardiente! One time as I was bouncing up and down, my axis slowly tilted away from perpendicular and I felt close to falling off the horse. At a few parts we stopped, at first I thought it was to take a look at the amazing view, but really Amaiso and I took swigs of the Patero until the bottle was empty.

Back at home base he showed me how the bolas worked to take down a horse. I wanted to chat with the gaucho some more so I invited him to lunch. We ordered empanadas and when it came time for bebidas I just wanted some water or coca light at the most, but we ended up splitting another bottle of Patero. I ended my cabalgata experience with a well deserved siesta.


On a sidenote, I was having mate at the plaza in Tafi when I took out my charango and started playing around. I had found some chords that fit the Chacarera style. To my surprise, a person walking by recognized the style and said "play me a chacarera, friend."

A dying breed

Traditional artesan instrument makers appear to be a dying breed. The music stores now stock instruments with the label "Made in China."

I went to Tucuman to visit the Folklore Museum which has a small collection of instruments. There was an old violin that I found interesting. My goal in traveling through northern argentina is to find regional violins. La Chacarera is the northern argentina musical style that I really like and includes violins. Unfortunately when I asked the curator if he knew anyone that still made those regional instruments. Apparently there used to be people that repaired instruments that came around the museum, but not anymore.