Maravilloso
Milena Warthon sings Maravilloso, a song I play for my Spanish students. She transmits a love for her Andean roots while showing us why they matter.
Maravilloso- The translation is “wonderful” in its original sense, full of wonder.
The song begins with her ethereal voice and some heavenly echoes seemingly from a space suspended in time.
This is how Milena begins to tell us about her birthplace and all its exciting and sanctifying qualities.
Hay un lugar…
cerca a las nubes
donde se escucha el viento
y no pasa el tiempo
There is a place
near the clouds
Where the wind is heard and
time stands still.
ese lugar
donde mi cuerpo
se envuelve en un cuento
y fluye sin tormento
tan maravilloso
That place is where my heart
is enveloped in a story
And flows without disturbance.
Her song is like an ode to the place of ancestors and her current home.
Here’s the chorus:
tan maravilloso
ya no sales de mi mente
tan unico…
She sings about its uniqueness and
how it never leaves her mind.
Me llevas al cielo que casi ya puedo sentir
She is taken to heaven and almost can feel-
Bum, bum, bum.
I interpret this as a heartbeat, but it is without a name, just words that form the sound of what it would feel like.
Some of my high school freshmen and sophomores taking Spanish 2 thought it was a little funny when it got to that part. They are used to singing along to a chorus, but this one was different. “Sentir el bum, bum, bum”. They were embarrassed to say it.
But that could be their disconnection with their own place of birth or their emotional connection to the earth. Whatever the case, it was lost in translation to most, though I can never be sure it doesn’t reach someone in the class. That’s why I play it.
Continuing her song, Milena purposefully interlaces Andean instruments to emphasis the ascent to Macchu Picchu, an ancient Inca village high in the Andes, which most people have heard of.
Vimos el amanecer
con tanta placer
ver el Sol nacer
cantando esta canción
que a todo el sur unido hace crecer
where we saw the dawn,
with so much pleasure seeing the sunrise
Singing this song which makes
the whole south grow.
Todo el sur unido is literally “all the united south”, which roughly translates to “all together”.
She continues her focus on her identity as a Latina with orgullo-pride
and with her pop andino style
its a pleasure to bring you (listener)
to the cima del Sol- the sun’s peak.
Further on her journey,
she internalizes her connection to this place.
La sangre que corre por mi cuerpo
La llevo en las venas del recuerdo
She carries the blood of memory in her veins.
Tengo tatuado en la piel colores
que llevo orgullosa y sin temores.
I wear a tattoo of colors proudly and without fear.
Vengo de los Andes, voy despacio
A paso seguro y sin descanso
I come from the Andes going slowly,
sure-footed and without stopping.
Yo canto para volver poder verte renacer.
I sing in order to be able to see you reborn again.
She loves this place high in the Andes
because it makes her feel- connection, peace, life, heaven, the cycle of the Sun…
Me llevas al cielo que casi ya puedo sentir el
Bum, bum, bum.
Do we feel her connection to her place, where the Sun lives
and is reborn every morning?
I do.
Here is her music video:
In her video there are masked individuals at night in the ancient buildings and one colorful cat-person lives in the forest during the day. I would love to do a deep dive into who and what these characters are called and the role they play in her Andean heritage of storytelling. I’m sure there is a spiritual significance.
Milena shows you her friends and family at work and at play in their home environment, the altiplano (high plain). We see them engaged in their herding and agricultural community with llamas and corn wearing colorful fabrics and designs.
I’d love to research the different regalia and their cultural meanings, whether for certain celebrations or seasons. Whether they are familial designs or used to distinguish locations through the varied patterns. This is how the huipil patterns of Guatemala and the Yucatan work. Each town has a pattern so that those who wear it on their outer clothing are recognized as being from -. The Scottish highland clans wear their tartans to show belonging and loyalty.
Patterns have often been created with the main purpose of communication between people. Think Amish quilts, cornrow braids, henna tattoos. Symbolic art is profoundly human and animal as well. However, much of our American experience only recognizes symbols as apps and logos while we are illiterate in ancestral symbols. Capitalism has adopted our native language of symbols. It knows that we cannot help our natural inclinations.
In her video, Milena is proud of her heritage, her past and present and claims all of it as a part of her.
This is her wisdom which she shares freely.