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• 1 2019-11-26T17:37:28-05:00 "La Golondrina" by Mariachi Vargas, contributed by Zavier Chavez (2019) 3 plain 2021-04-25T12:02:16-04:00

  For my contribution, I have chosen "La Golondrina." This song is a traditional Mexican folk song sung in different occasions. It was originally written by Narciso Serradell Sevilla in the 1860s after being exiled from Mexico due to invasion from the French. Many of his fellow exiled Mexicans unified through this song, and it became a song of solidarity amongst the people. My family often plays this song at funerals as well, but I cannot say if that's a universal thing or just my family. Regardless, it exists as an important folk song in Mexican culture that has been recorded many times in many different styles. I have chosen the version by Mariachi Vargas simply because it is most familiar to me.

  The song uses the image of a migrated swallow that must leave its home as a parallel to the Mexicans who had to leave their motherland. In the funeral setting, the patria idolatrada can refer to Earth, which the migration referring to the passing into heaven. As for the actual lyrics, here they are along with a rough translation:
   

  Spanish:
  
  A donde irá
  veloz y fatigada
  la golondrina
  que de aquí se va
  por si en el viento
  se hallara extraviada
  buscando abrigo
  y no lo encontrara.
  
  Junto a mi lecho
  le pondré su nido
  en donde pueda
  la estación pasar
  también yo estoy
  en la región perdido
  O Cielo Santo!
  y sin poder volar.
  
  Deje también
  mi patria idolatrada
  esa mansión
  que me miró nacer
  mi vida es hoy
  errante y angustida
  y ya no puedo
  a mi mansión volver.
  
  Ave querida
  amada peregrina
  mi corazón
  al tuyo acercare
  voy recordando
  tierna golondrina
  recordare
  my patria y llorare.
   

  English:
  
  Where can it go
  rushed and fatigued
  the swallow
  passing by
  tossed by the wind
  looking so lost
  with nowhere to hide.
  
  By my bed
  I'll put your nest
  until the season passes.
  I too, O heaven!
  am lost in this place
  unable to fly.
  
  Leave, too
  my beloved homeland,
  that home
  that saw my birth.
  My life today
  is wandering, anguished.
  I cannot
  return home.
  
  Dearest bird
  beloved pilgrim,
  my heart
  nigh to yours;
  remember
  tender swallow,
  remember
  my homeland and cry.