Cantando, Bailando, y Llorando
Last Saturday night I danced the night away, packed into a tiny Mexican restaurant with dozens of ecstatic, sweaty people, gritando con gusto to the singer's inquiries, "Who's from Guatemala? ¿De México? Colombia? El Salvador?" She crooned karaoke style to Grupo Montez de Durango. Her partner did his best to imitate the inimitable Vicente Fernandez. We swayed to bachata, bumped to reggaeton, and bounced to duranguense. You won't find happier sounding music than duranguense, the sped-up polka is absolutely infectious. The mexicano stepping with me sang into my hair, a song by K-Paz de La Sierra. I thought, I love it that he's singing. When the song ended, I missed his uninhibited singing as much as I did the actual dancing.
As we were singing and dancing, none of us had any idea what was happening to the man who helped make our night so special.
As mis amigos were losing themselves in the music that made them feel like they were home again, the band K-Paz de La Sierra was performing for a similarly festive crowd far away in Morelia, Michoacan - the town some of my friends call Home.
By the time we fell exhausted into our beds at the end of our blissful evening, K-Paz singer Sergio Gomez was missing. As we slept with his music still ringing in our heads, he lay dying by the side of the road. Targeted by members of drug gangs who had warned him not to perform that night, he was tortured and murdered that night after his concert.
Hundreds of miles away in Matamoros, another singer, Zayda Peña, was executed in her hospital room, where she was recovering from a gunshot wound she suffered just a day earlier.
I remember the day John Lennon was killed, it will be twenty-seven years ago this coming Saturday. Waiting for the school bus, I could hear my mother crying in the kitchen. She told me he was just full of love. Why would anyone want to kill someone like him? she asked through her tears.
Last night when Jaime told me about Sergio Gomez, his eyes were full of tears, too.
Sergio Gomez's family has decided his final resting place will be in his adopted country, in the city of my birth. (Gracias a Tomás for that news.)
As we were singing and dancing, none of us had any idea what was happening to the man who helped make our night so special.
As mis amigos were losing themselves in the music that made them feel like they were home again, the band K-Paz de La Sierra was performing for a similarly festive crowd far away in Morelia, Michoacan - the town some of my friends call Home.
By the time we fell exhausted into our beds at the end of our blissful evening, K-Paz singer Sergio Gomez was missing. As we slept with his music still ringing in our heads, he lay dying by the side of the road. Targeted by members of drug gangs who had warned him not to perform that night, he was tortured and murdered that night after his concert.
Hundreds of miles away in Matamoros, another singer, Zayda Peña, was executed in her hospital room, where she was recovering from a gunshot wound she suffered just a day earlier.
Like Gomez, Pena had no known drug associations. While Gomez was famous for his up-tempo "Pasito Duranguense" rhythm and Pena wrote more in the ballad-like "grupero" style, both essentially sang songs whose themes went little beyond love.John Lennon did not even enter my mind until I read that.
- Associated Press
I remember the day John Lennon was killed, it will be twenty-seven years ago this coming Saturday. Waiting for the school bus, I could hear my mother crying in the kitchen. She told me he was just full of love. Why would anyone want to kill someone like him? she asked through her tears.
Last night when Jaime told me about Sergio Gomez, his eyes were full of tears, too.
Sergio Gomez's family has decided his final resting place will be in his adopted country, in the city of my birth. (Gracias a Tomás for that news.)
Labels: dance, Indianapolis, k-paz de la sierra, Mexico, music, sergio gomez
posted by janna | 11:14 PM
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