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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

SONGS FOR THE SEASON OF EL CHUPACABRA, EL CUCUY, AND LA LLORONA

Late October – soon we'll be hearing them everywhere: Christmas songs! It's way too early, but how are they supposed to get the economy restarted it they don't perform all the rituals to get the sacred consumer orgy started? If that fails, there's always human sacrifice . . .

Still, there're other kinds of songs I'd rather hear as the desert starts to cool down, the sage turns purple, and the bats feed on the cactus flowers in the moonlight. And after all, it's damnear Halloween.




Or should that be Jalogüín? Let's put an Aztláni spin on it for in honor of los Días de los Muertos. . .




They've announced that science has solved the mystery of El Chupacabra, or at least the strange canine corpses that have been showing up in Texas lately. Funny, those mangy “wild dogs” don't look much like the original small flying creature first reported in Puerto Rico about twenty years ago. It's a safe bet that our newfangled, new media-amplified global folklore has a few more transformations in store for El Chup. Meanwhile, he has lively song:

And we can't forget El Cucuy (and not the morning disc jockey). Parents, remember to tell your children that when the sun goes down, he's out there, and if they go out wandering in the dark, he'll get them. We can't let a generation of children grow up without him! Or else he'll just have to sing this song:



We also need to remind kids that La Llorona is also out there crying into the night sky in the tradition of the Aztec disease spirits, and deified ghosts of women who died in childbirth. She's never looked or sounded so good as she does here:



This music video does great by itself, but it's part of a slightly longer film by René Castillo that gloriously celebrates the Mexican ways of love and death. Nightmare Before Christmas, move over. Here comes another classic.

So, until next time, remember, we're all skeletons under the skin!

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