Song of the Day: 'Tit Galop Pour Mamou

Lyrics:

'Tit galop, 'tit galop pour Mamou!

J'ai vendu mon 'tit mulet pour quinze sous.
J'ai acheté du candi rouge pour les 'tits, du sucre et du café pour les vieux.

'Tit galop, 'tit galop pour Mamou!

J'ai vendu mon 'tit wagon pour quinze sous.
J'ai acheté du candi rouge pour les 'tits, une yard de ruban pour la vieille.

Canter, canter to Mamou!

I sold my little mule for fifteen cents.
I bought some red candy for the kids, some sugar and coffee for the old folks..

Canter, canter to Mamou!

I sold my little wagon for fifteen cents.
I bought some red candy for the kids, and a yard of ribbon for my wife.



(my sardonic lay lyrical exegegis: mamou = mammon.. whadya think of that reading? )




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La Cara Guatemalteca, Antigua Guatemala, the First Week of May, 2012

I couldn't choose between them. I like them too much not to post both. Maybe my two favorite of all the images I've taken here so far.

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Note the delicious parody here of the all seeing eye. Magazines, third girl. Absolutely love it.

Take her gaze to heart..

I'd like to also point out that the older girl on the left is the same as the one in the picture I posted below on April 13th. Note too that she is wearing the very same green dress in both images. These kids often come by selling candy when I'm at my school being tutored in Spanish in the afternoon. I find the idigenous people here - they're apparently mostly K'iche' - to be fascinating, and beautiful. Inexplicably moving, actually..

 

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 



 

Carlos, The Shoeshine Kid. Antigua Guatemala: Friday, May 4, 2012

 

The sandals are Tevas, and are not meant to be waxed. But it doesn't matter. I have Carlos shine them for me nearly every day, anyway. Shiny Tevas, I've decided I like the result actually. It looks like they've been dipped in tallow, and they are definitely more waterproof than they were.. Not that my feet don't get wet in them, anyhow.. But whatever, you know?

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

 

Vanguard of the Mayan Horde.. Of Street Vendors. Plaza Mayor, Antigua Guatemala, May 2, 2012

 

The deal is always that if I buy something, I get to take a picture. This is no zero sum game, you see. You are witnessing comparative advantage in action. Paradox of exchange, exponential increase in value achieved. Viva la Revolución Americana..

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 




 

Song of the Day: Tres Veces Mojado - A Wetback Three Times Over

Lyrics, with my translation:


Cuando me vine de mi tierra El Salvador

(When I came from my country El Salvador)

Con la intención de llegar a Estados Unidos

(With the intention of going to the United States)

Sabía que necesitaría más que valor

(I knew that I would need more than courage)

Sabía que a lo mejor quedaba en el camino

(I knew some of the best fall along the way)

Tres fronteras las que tuve que cruzar

([There are] three borders I had to cross)

Por tres países anduve indocumentado

(Through three countries I walked undocumented)

Tres veces tuve yo la vida que arriesgar

(Three times I took my life into my hands)

Por eso dicen que soy tres veces mojado

(Because of this they say that I am a wetback three times over)



En Guatemala y México cuando cruce

(In Guatemala and Mexico when I crossed)

Dos veces me salve me hicieran prisonero

(Twice I was saved, they took me prisoner)

El mismo idioma y el color les reflectioné

(I have the same language and color as they do)

Como es posible que me llamen extranjero

(How can they call me a foreigner?)



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Spoken:

En Centroamérica dado su situación

(In Central America there exists a situation)

Tanto política como económicamente

(As much plitical as economic)

Ya para muchos no hay otra solución

(There are many who have no other option)

Que abandonar su patria tal vez para .

(But to leave their countries, sometimes forever.)

El mexicano da 2 pasos y ahí esta

(A Mexican takes two steps, and there they are)

Hoy lo echan y al siguiente día está de regreso.

(Today they expell him, and the next day he's back..)

Es un lujo que no me puedo dar

(That's a luxury I do not have)

Sin que me maten o que me lleven preso...

(Without being killed or taken prisoner..)

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Es lindo México pero cuanto sufrí

(Mexico is beautifiul, but how much have I suffered)

Atravesarlo sin papeles es muy duro

(To cross it withhout papers is very hard)

Los 5 mil kilómetros que recorrí

(5 thousand kilometers I have crossed)

Puedo decir que los recuerdo uno por uno.

(I can say that I remember every single one.)

Por Arizona me dijeron cruzaras

(They told me to cross in Arizona)

Y que me aviente por el medio del desierto..

(And then they abandoned me in the middle of the desert..)

Por suerte un mexicano al que llamaban Juan

(Luckily a Mexican named Juan)

Me dio la mano que si no estuviera muerto.

(Gave me a hand, so I am not dead.)

Ahora que al fin logre la legalización

(Now at last I seek legal status)

Lo que sufrí lo he recuperado con creces..

(I have recovered from all that I suffered in my crossings..)

A los mojados les dedico mi canción

(To all the wetbacks dedicate my song)

Y los que igual que yo son mojados tres veces..

(To those who like me are betbacks three times over..)


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Song of the Day: Jaded Lover, Chuck Pyle..

This one's of course for Annie Paradis.. As it shall always be for me.

 

Lyrics (variation off the version above, this being the way I sing it):

Now, it won't be but a week or two,
You'll be wantin' someone new lovin' you.
It's somethin' you've done a hundred times before.
Can't see you I been spreadin' myself thin too (in two)?
It's a lonely phase we've been goin' through..
Don't get up, I'll find my own way to the door.

Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.

You may have thirty lovers behind you,
An' I may feel you but sure can't find you..
Seems you'd have found your own self by now.
But some nights those old lovers' tears come back,
Faces in your dreams, fingers in your back..
Echoes of the memories for cryin' out loud.

Ah, I see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.

Ah, what a beautiful sight you are in your sleep,
I'll be leaving 'cause believing gets me in too deep.
That's easy enough for a man to say..
But we'd never agree if we talked all night..
Things get so heavy, I'm traveling light..

Goodbye my jaded lover, my undercover queen for a day.

Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go..


Think about it darlin'..


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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala




 

Tony. Antigua Guatemala, Friday, April 20, 2012

 

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

 

Missionaries of Charity, Antigua Guatemala, April, 2012

 

This is not that great of an image. Those nuns are amazingly spry and move extremely quickly, and my paltry skills in the moment failed me. The fact that I saw them at all (about a dozen of them all together, I really dropped the ball capturing that moment) nevertheless pleases me, and so I share his image with you.


The lack of recent posts is a breach of my commitment, here. I've meant to post daily. But I've been wrapped up in Spanish and not bringing my camera along as I ought these past four or five days, and too distracted by other things to write much. This wretched scandalous failure I heretofore vow to redress, my public. I recommence with this here blog tomorrow, with renewed vigor..

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

 

Waifs from the Street: Antigua Guatemala, April 13th, 2012

 

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

Daily Mass, Parocchia de San Francisco, Antigua Guatemala, April 12th, 2012

 

 

 

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

 

 

 

Mujer Indígena: Antigua Guatemala, April 10th, 2012

 

 

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Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala

 

Further Thoughts on Humility & Knowledge

 

But let the Spirit of all lies with works of dazzling magic blind you. Then absolutely mine, I'll have and bind you.

- The Devil, Goethe's Faust

 

Gnosticism is the predominate heresy of our age. Gnosticism is belief in salvation by knowledge, belief in the (eventual) supremacy of the intellect over all. Essentially, belief in salvation through power. "Knowledge is power."

Gnosis is derived from the Greek for knowledge, just as science is derived from the Latin for the same. The conciet of the gnostic is that the spiritual (as with everything else) can be reduced to a science, that by understanding one can control things spiritual. Just as one can control the material, the physical through knowledge, one can also control the metaphysical by way of knowledge. Astrology births astronomy, alchemy births chemistry, both birth physics. Technology is as magic. We can be become like gods through knowledge. This is the Fall.

Christianity, in contrast is in this sense a practical agnosticism. We know nothing that can save us. Reality is ultimately mysterious, infinite when we are finite. We can never completely control it, which is to say never control reality's Creator, he who is the source of all that is. He is utterly ineffable, beyond all human power to control or even ultimately understand. The universe gives a hint of his transcendence, enough to inspire awe.

Thus just as we did not and cannot create ourselves, we cannot sustain or save ourselves. It is embrace of this abject need for the Other that saves. Salvation is love of him, and therefore love is the only thing we ultimately need. Again, salvation is through love and the humility and trust (faith) that love engenders. It is in our dependence, weakness, and ignorance that we are saved. It is not in pride, but humility that we are gathered in. "For God is love." Thanks be God forever.

Therefore, it is not knowledge as power that saves, but realtionship in the Divine Trinity, whose energies are grace born of love. And while love is animated by certain knowledge, understanding, it is not of the intellect. Rather, it is of the heart.

So it is then that the smallest shattered, diseased retard with a heart consumed with love is infinitely greater than the futile pride of all hell unbound.

My friend Dale is far greater than satan.

I.H.S.V.

A.M.D.G.

 

 

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