No menu items!

COSTA RICA'S LEADING ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

HomeArchiveEspinoza’s Lyrics Draw Attention

Espinoza’s Lyrics Draw Attention

OSCAR

Espinoza’s songs have wriggled into that Twilight Zone of music where the roles of lyrics and instruments are reversed. In the world of modern music, where instruments compensate for what the lyrics lack in meaning, his songs are musical vehicles, almost sidebars, for his lyrical message.

The effect is exaggerated in the Costa Rican’s solo album, “Apuntes Vitales” (Vital Notes), which predominantly showcases just his voice, guitar and thoughtful poetry.

With those tools he has bored shafts all over the landscape of topics that harmonize with the acoustic guitar, mining themes of the natural world and the city, of birth, fear, rain and others and even those that do not belong to him – the struggle of the indigenous Maleku.

THE plight of the Maleku was the impetus for “Espiritus de Tonjibe” (Spirits of  Tonjibe), named for a Maleku village, San Rafael de Guatuso in the Northern Zone. Men in grass loincloths dart along wooded paths in the video that accompanies that song, also included in his CD.

The song is overlaid with the voice of Marvin Elizondo uttering mysterious phrases in bass tones, and it laments the loss of that culture’s traditions to the indifference of the young generation.

As an example, one of the verses is a testament as vivid as any of his lyrics to Espinoza’s transcendence of the dullness that mires the messages of other artists.

Spirits of Tonjibe

Forged of copper and mud

With fermented corn

With the machete and grain Legends of heroes and gods

By your paths of stone

Your memory will hopefully return

Spirits of the earth.

Mauricio González produced the video through his company Afta Films and is also filming a documentary of those from Tonjibe. Though Maleku land has been protected since 1974, he said, estate owners on the borders of their reservation have scooted their property lines into the reserve and have cut large chunks of the primary forest.

Now the Maleku are looking to ecotourism to ease their transition from dependence on their dwindling trees. For the last year they have performed rituals and dances for visitors and shared with them their way of life. Afta and the video decry the loss of those traditions and hope to publicize the predicament of the communities there.

THOUGH the company has not yet made a profit from the video, González said “we want to share the proceeds from the sale of the video with the people there, so future generations of Maleku and others can know of their traditions.”

Wilson Monera, a Maleku, has taken charge of the eco-tourism project and can be reached at 464-0443.

The hype from the video, however, should not eclipse the clout of the album’s other songs. The majority are the reflections of a man with his guitar, but he slips in a few harmonica riffs and, through the miracle of track mixing, he accompanies himself on the congas.

In concert the harmonica stand around his neck lends the impression of a Latin version of Bob Dylan. Mauricio Vargas bongs out his own invented rhythms on the congas and others that underlie the Latin-flavored music of the isthmus.

ESPINOZA says of his music: “they are songs from the soul, from experience, from someone expressing himself out of necessity.”

Espinoza will play at the Jazz Café in San Pedro on March 30. His disc is on sale online at www.suscompras.com. It and his first album “Semillas de Hermanidad” (Seeds of Brotherhood) with the group Abraxas are available at Servicios Digitales in Alajuela. For more info, contact Espinoza at 443-1685, e-mail oscarer66@hotmail.com, or see www.geocities.com/oscarcantautor/abraxas.html.

For info on the video or the upcoming documentary, contact Afta Films at 443-3443 or e-mail aftafilms@yahoo.com.

 

Trending Now

Cosby Show Star Malcolm-Jamal Warner Dies in Costa Rica Drowning Accident

Malcolm-Jamal Warner passed away at 54 from an accidental drowning. He gained fame as Theo Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," playing the son in...

Venezuelan Migrants Describe Torture After Deportation to El Salvador

“You’re going to rot in here. You’ll spend 300 years in prison.” That’s what Maikel Olivera says guards repeatedly told him during his four-month...

Costa Rica Celebrates 201st Annexation Anniversary With New Nicoya Park

Nearly 200 people joined the Municipality of Nicoya this Sunday to inaugurate a new park at the Annexation Monument, an initiative that blends recreation,...

UN Denounces Guatemala Over ‘Inhuman’ Indigenous Evictions

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, called on the Guatemalan government on Friday to halt the “inhuman”...

Panama Farmer Receives Land Title After 60-Year Wait at Age 109

A 109-year-old Panamanian farmer has received the land title for the property where he lives and works—six decades after first requesting it from the...

El Salvador at Center of Controversial U.S.-Venezuela Detainee Exchange

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele received the 10 Americans exchanged on Friday between Washington and Caracas for 252 Venezuelans who had spent four months in...
Avatar
spot_img
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Coffee Maker Chorreador
Costa Rica Travel Insurance
Costa Rica Rocking Chait
Costa Rica Travel

Latest News from Costa Rica