Arriba del Cielo

I have been going through all of my daughter's baby stuff to see if there's anything her little brother - who we are expecting in September - can inherit. Luckily, we didn't find out her sex, so most of the clothes we have for newborns and 0-3 months are not pink or purple. So, it looks like we're set for the first few months.

As I was rummaging through some baby toys and books, I came across a CD of lullabies that I was given as a gift from one of my mother's sister in Mexico. The CD is called Arriba del Cielo by Susana Harp. And I'm really not sure why it was in the box of baby books, although I guess my daughter stopped listening to lullabies a while back. Anyhow, I immediately decided to play it, and a bunch of memories came rushing back.

I used to play for my daughter, Vanessa, when she was a baby. That feels like a long time ago, and she is only 3. Although we didn't understand the majority of the lyrics - Harp sings in several of Mexico's indigenous tongues: Zapoteco, Maya, Mixteco and Náhualt - her beautiful voice is definitely soothing. Half of the songs are in Spanish and you can find translations of the lyrics, for the ones that are not, in the CD booklet.

Harp describes her CD, which she dedicated to her son Emiliano, as "arrullos, rondas, juegos, nanas...cantos de niños, murmullos del alma." ¿Qué lindo, no?

The other day, I played the track entitled La Boda del Sapo y la Rana, just to see Vanessa's reaction. She is totally into "cuentos," so she loved that this song tells the story of the wedding between the toad and the frog. She was able to pick up on a lot of words and then I just retold her the story in simpler words. And, we listened to it again!

The CD includes 15 songs in total. The last three are instrumental versions - great for putting a baby to sleep!

In researching a little bit more about Harp, I found out that the Mexican singer has dedicated her musical career to gathering information and rescuing the sounds of her country, in particular of her own state, Oaxaca. The songs on the CD go as far back as prehistoric Mayan times. In an interview, Harp explained that it took her over four years to research and gather all the songs she decided to include in Arriba del Cielo. Talk about a labor of love!

Anyhow, now that the CD has been rescued from the depths of the box full of baby toys, we will be once again listening to it - and I plan on definitely playing it for our baby boy. We'll see if it'll soothes him as much as it did Vanessa.