Mom vs. Dad

"It is the blood of the Lunas to be quiet, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary for planting- They are quiet like the moon- And it is the blood of the Márez to be wild, like the ocean from which they take their name, and the spaces of the llano that have become their home."

     I waited, then said. "Now we have come to live near the river, and yet near the llano.  I love them both, and yet I am of neither. I wonder which life I will choose?"

     "Ay, hijito," she chuckled, "do not trouble yourself with those thoughts.  You have plenty of time to find yourself-"

     "But I am growing," I said, "every day I grow older-"

     "True," she replied softly.  She understood that as I grew I would have to choose to be my mother's priest or my father's son.

(Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima, 41)

Latino or no, coming-of-age stories are not hard to find.  The example of Bless Me, Ultima has the added element of one parent versus the other.  Antonio feels that he must choose to become either like his mother's side of the family (calm, settled, religious farmers) or like his father's (rowdy, free-spirited, indifferent vaqueros).  The idea of parental polarization goes way back:

(source)

"Y crecieron los niños, y Esaú fue diestro en la caza, hobre del campo; pero Jacob era hombre quieto, que habitaba en tiendas.  Y amó Isaac a Esaú, porque comía de su caza; mas Rebeca amaba a Jacob."  Génesis 25:27-28

We see similar parallels from the Old Testament:  the outdoorsy hunter is loved by the father while the quiet son is loved by the mother.  Another very similar example can be found in the character Jack from the movie The Tree of Life:

The premise of this movie is virtually the same as Bless Me, Ultima, just set in a small, 1950s American town.  A quote from this trailer says, "There are two ways through life - the way of nature and the way of grace.  You have to choose which one you'll follow."

Jack's father teaches him the way of nature - survival of the fittest.  To succeed, one must be strong and willing to fight, no matter the cost.  "It takes fierce will to get ahead in this world," says the father.  On the other hand, his mother teaches him the way of grace.  She teaches love, faith, and an appreciation for the world.  "Unless you love, your life will flash by."

I think Antonio Márez's feelings can be summed up perfectly in the quote from the trailer, "Father, Mother - always you wrestle inside me.  Always you will."  (Remember Jacob's coming-of-age wrestling match?)  It seems that Antonio and Jack think that they only have two choices, that they can either become like their mother or their father.  Are those the only choices - is there no happy medium?  Or can these two philosophies somehow be reconciled?

Do unto others...

"...there was a limitless affront in being beaten by a Negro as black as oneself... as low-born; perhaps branded, too.  It was as though, in the same family, the children were to beat the parents, the grandson to the grandmother, the daughters-in-law the mother who cooked for them.  Besides, in other days, the colonists... had been careful not to kill their slaves, for dead slaves were money out of their pockets.  Whereas here the death of a slave was no drain on the public funds."
(Alejo Carpentier, The Kingdom of this World, 116-117)

source

This is a hard concept to deal with - black slave owners treated black slaves worse than the white owners did.  How could this happen, when just a few years previous they were all slaves? What made them think that it was okay to treat each other like that, committing the same atrocities that they themselves endured?  A scripture comes to mind:

We have learned by sad experience

that it is the nature and disposition of

almost all men, as soon as they get a

little authority, as they suppose, they

will immediately begin to exercise

unrighteous dominion.

~D&C 121:39

I can think of two (infamous) scientific studies that proved the idea mentioned above.  The Milgram Experiment is a classic textbook example of deceitful and unethical research.  Considering the horrific acts committed by Nazi soldiers led Stanley Milgram (a Jew) to design this study to test obedience to authority figures.  He found that 65% of test subjects would administer huge electric shocks to other people (it was fake, but they didn't know that).

The Stanford Prison Experiment was another demonstration of how brutal people can be when given power.  Twenty-four males were randomly selected to act as either prison guards or prisoners in a mock prison situation.  The purpose was to study the psychological effects assuming these roles in such a scenario.  All participants were normal, healthy students with no criminal or psychological history.  Very rapidly, the "guards" were using cruel punishments and psychological abuse.  Many of the "prisoners" had mental breakdowns.  For the safety of the subjects of the study, it had to be ended after only 6 days.  To me, the sad thing about this experiment was that they all knew (initially) that it was fake, and that they'd been randomly assigned the positions.

Comments from the designer and participants of the study.

I think there's more of a dark side to ourselves than maybe we realize.  Let's always remember to take a second and consider how we treat others... you can't go wrong with the Golden Rule.

Con ton y son

The internet radio station Pandora has several pre-made genre stations to choose from.  A couple weeks ago I discovered the Cuban music station... and my life was forever changed.  Latin American music is AWESOME.

I think that non-Latin musicians like doing Latin music every now and then - it just grooves better than lots of other genres do.  For example, take the song Save the Last Dance for Me performed by the Drifters:

You can hear a very straight rhythm, especially coming from the drum set.  Now consider Michael Bublé's cover of the song:

It's obviously Latin music from the beginning - salsa, to be exact.  The clave rhythm (on claves) starts in the second verse, and you can hear the tumbao (on the conga) later on:

Even the inflection and rhythm of his singing is more syncopated, giving it a nice Latin groove.

What about Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton?

Just your good ol' fashioned rock ballad.  But Michael Bublé strikes again!  Here's his cover of this song:

He's turned it into a slow Brazilian bossa nova, even singing a verse or two in Portuguese.  The basic bossa nova rhythm is easily felt throughout:

For a final example, let's listen to the original version of Stand by Me by Ben E. King:

There's a little bit of a Latin vibe going on in there, but Prince Royce takes it to a whole new level:

The song is now a full-blown bachata, a style of music that originated in the Dominican Republic.  The characteristic bongos and güira are prominently heard.  A good portion of the lyrics have also been translated into Spanish.

But there aren't just Latin covers of non-Latin songs; artists cover songs that were Latin in the first place, as well as writing their own original music in different Latin styles.  Latin American music has subtly crept into the tastes of Anglo-America.  You can't help but tap your foot or bounce your head or move some part of your body while listening to it (at least I can't).  Is Latin music prevalent because of our proximity to its birthplace, or is it just great stuff?  Honestly I don't care - I'm just glad it's here.