About the song "La Peregrinación"

Check out this PDF about the history of this song (also called "la voz del campesino"). It fits great for our era, and I thought it would be helpful to know what it is tied to as well in the 50s and 60s...

http://www.farmworkermovement.us/ufwarchives/elmalcriado/1966/April%2010,%201966.pdf

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

Talk about capturing the spirit of Dia de los muertos!
One great song," lyrics by Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson (1931)

People are queer, they're always crowing, scrambling and rushing about;
Why don't they stop someday, address themselves this way?
Why are we here? Where are we going? It's time that we found out.
We're not here to stay; we're on a short holiday.
Life is just a bowl of cherries.
Don't take it serious; it's too mysterious.
You work, you save, you worry so,
But you can't take your dough when you go, go, go.
So keep repeating it's the berries,
The strongest oak must fall,
The sweet things in life, to you were just loaned
So how can you lose what you've never owned?
Life is just a bowl of cherries,
So live and laugh at it all.
Life is just a bowl of cherries.
Don't take it serious; it's too mysterious.
At eight each morning I have got a date,
To take my plunge 'round the Empire State.
You'll admit it's not the berries,
In a building that's so tall;
There's a guy in the show, the girls love to kiss;
Get thousands a week just for crooning like this:
Life is just a bowl of . . . aw, nuts!
So live and laugh at it all!

The Legend

Hey guys, Thanks for a great meeting. I think this production has real potential.

Here is the quote that I came across during our meeting today. I found it really resonated with what Olga said about the obligation of Family and our duties as the survivors.

"In our tradition, people die three deaths. The first death is when our bodies cease to function; when our hearts no longer beat of their own accord, when our gaze no longer has depth or weight, when the space we occupy slowly loses its meaning.

The second death comes when the body is lowered into the ground, returned to mother earth, out of sight.

The third death, the most definitive death, is when there is no one left alive to remember us."

Mae Catrina (West)

What if our Catrina is a Mae West kind of gal, glamorous, whip-smart, and dead?

Among our band of itinerants is a young girl who wants to be a movie star more than anything else in the world. She dreams of the riches that fame will bring, she'll never be hungry or dress in tattered clothing again. As a child of the Great Depression, she's known poverty most of her life.

Mae tells her the score...

Artcard rough drafts

Here are some rough concept sketches for the "Muertos" Artcard. Your thoughts? More "dancing girls"? Feedback is appreciated! Warm regards, analee

La Chorina

Tremendous story, Rebecca! I am particularly inspired by the stories I heard of children who've been forced out on their own at an age we would now consider far too young. And yet, these children found their way ~ the resiliance of the human spirit! Would love to have a young performer in the show!

I'd been thinking that our chorine Catrina should be a figure from "the other side" but now I'm wondering if she isn't a young star-struck actress who's in love with the picture shows and dreams of Hollywood...

A local story from the 30's

I have a friend that today told me a story about her grandmother. When her grandmother was young, the family moved from California to Oregon. The family, of Mexican/Spanish descent, were rodeo riders. All the girls in the family were trick riders, and would travel the rodeo circuits with their parents once they reached a certain age. The grandmother, at the time, was determined to be too young to travel with the family to perform in a rodeo in California. She was left behind in Oregon. Disagreeing with this decision, she decided to leave and hitchhiked all the way to California and performed anyway. (She was born around 1910 and was a teenager when this took place.)

I found this interesting, another aspect of life of Latinos in Oregon.