I’m starting a new section of the newsletter!
I love music, and I love sharing music. Some of my best friendships were formed over mp3 file sharing. Music is an energy transmission. It makes sense that it can spark friendships because it is a shared resonance.
ANGÉLICA GARCIA
I got shuffled Angélica’s KEXP performance of Juanita on Youtube, and I clicked because she kind of looks like my sister. It is amazing, and her voice is beautiful. Juanita and Paloma are some of my favorite songs I’ve heard in the past year, and I bought the vinyl. What is so cool to me, it doesn’t matter what language someone is singing in — the lyrical resonance is there. You can understand what they’re about. I write music from a spiritual and intuitive place, and it’s my favorite type of music to listen to. I had no idea what she was singing about initially, but I loved it!!!! And it is about her ancestors, doves, and spirituality.
What really moved me and changed me — I didn’t realize she first wrote songs in English and that it was a big deal for her to try writing lyrics in Spanish. I am also not a fluent Spanish speaker. My Puerto Rican grandparents kept Spanish as their secret language, so my mom and her siblings do not speak it fully fluently (except for one aunt who grew up in South America). When I sing songs in Spanish and Portuguese, I feel a deep connection to my ancestors, but I never considered I could try writing a poem or lyric in Spanish. I didn’t think my Spanish was good enough.
Hearing Angélica’s songs inspired me to write my first poem in Spanish, and I cried after I did. It wasn’t mind blowing poetry, but the way the poem came to me genuinely surprised me. Not only could I rhyme, but more wildly, I heard the word hermosa come up from my mind, but I thought I was saying hermana (sister), and by mistakenly saying hermosa (beauty) for hermana, it made the poem more interesting to me.
Gemelo on repeat!!!