photo caption: 1) Poster from Trienal Poli/Grafica de San Juan 2012 : ENTE, a project in Casa de los Contrafuertes; 2) stencil print on cork board by Juan Ramon Gutierez, THE STENCIL NETWORK, "sin titulo", 2012.
SANTA OLAYA, PR
SUNDAY, 05-13-12 / 4:20AM
MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM MOTHER'S DAY TROUBADORS -- WHAT'S THAT NOISE!? ASKS LILLIAN-- UH, IT SOUNDS LIKE MUSIC.-- AT THIS HOUR?-- LET ME CHECK...
I stumble into my flipflops and go outside to see what I can find, or hear. Coming from across the mountain is the clear and distinctly amplified sound of musica tipica, the music of the jibaro, often heard here in the Mulero Valley. Two or three women are singing in harmony. Guitar, cuatro (a small high pitched 10-string guitar), flute and maracas provide the melody. My spanish is better these days, but I can really only make out the words MAMITA, FELIZ, COROZON, AMOR, FLORES, and QUIERO MUCHO. I have visions of a small flat-bed truck with a giant sound system (the music is quite loud, it woke Lillian) and a band of troubadors dressed in traditional costumes. The women in long red skirts and white puffy-sleeved blouses, the men in black pants and long or short sleeved white flat-fronted shirts guayaberas) and large straw hats. I grab the car keys and head for the top of a nearby hill, but as I drive east towards the village of Santa Olaya, the road is deserted. I turn around and head west to barrio Sabana. No cars, trucks, people, dogs. Nada. Everyone and everything seems to be asleep. I follow a few of the local roads, winding my way through the hills surrounding the Mulero Valley. No sign of the troubadors or their truck. After a 15 mile circuit covering regions to the east, west, north and south - I return to Casa Mulero. The sun casts a faint glow behind the nearby mountains...
-- WHAT DID YOU FIND? ASKS LILLIAN-- UH, NOTHING...-- NOTHING?!-- THE ROADS WERE EMPTY. NOTHING WAS OPEN - CHURCHES, GAS STATIONS, BODEGAS. NOTHING. NO SOUNDS EITHER, EXCEPT FOR THE COQUI AND AN OCCASIONAL ROOSTER.-- I CAN'T SLEEP, SHE SAYS.-- ME EITHER. WANT COFFEE?-- O.K. LET'S GO TO THE BEACH.-- O.K. I'LL GO PACK THE CAR.-- I'LL MAKE THE COFFEE.-- NO, LET ME. IT'S MOTHER'S DAY.
Jan Galligan
75Grand/Sur
Santa Olaya, PR
http://JANGuarte.posterous.com [art blog]
http://cinefestsanjuan.posterous.com [cine blog]
http://about.me/JanGalligan [about me]