YOALI'S SONGS

Yoali is a composer and singer, what in Spanish is called a canto-autora. Early during her stay with her family in El Norte, she meets Lucy, a protestant minister who invites her to join her church choir.

Yoali learned to sing as a child in Quesería where she sang in the choir at the convent where she was educated.  But joining Lucy's choir is an important next step. A fellow singer teaches her to play the guitar. She soon begins composing her own songs. When she moves out of her relatives' home in El Norte, and to a neighboring town in her search for her son, Elisito, she finds work as a singer at a small restaurant. There, she soon gets a large following of fans who learn the story about the tragic disappearance of her child.

When Yoali sets off on the track of La Coyota, a trafficker who has fled with the child south of the border, her song telling the story of how he was kidnapped, is recorded by a local radio station. Soon, it´s being broadcast across the land, becoming a top hit. People are so moved by it, that it is a call to action.

The following is one of over 20 songs in the novel. This is a lullaby, which in Latin America goes by two words:  nana and the more literary canto de cuna.  In the middle of a storm, which Yoali thinks would scare her little son, she assures him that he should have no fear because she will do anything to protect him and that her love is so strong that nothing can harm him.

(c)

NO TEMAS MI ANGELITO

Canción de cuna

En la noche la luna se esconde

El viento arranca sus velos

Los pumas en los montes aúllan

Las estrellas están de duelo.

Las nubes corren nerviosas

Un rayo se escapa del cielo.

El viento nos estremece

 temblamos entre trueno y trueno.

Pero no llores mi angelito

que mis brazos aquí te acunan

Mi alma es la noche obscura

Mi corazón el tan feroz puma.

Los truenos y rayos temibles

son sueños de olvido y de bruma

Ay, mi niño, mi amor es más fuerte

que las mismas estrellas y luna.

 Estribillo

Arrorró, arroró mi hijito

Duerme arroró mi angelito

Que el sol ya viene cantando

Con toda su alegría

Y viene a anunciarnos

El albor de un nuevo día.