Bruce Dean Willis

is Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at The University of Tulsa. His research and publications focus on diverse aspects of poetry and performance, and expressions of Indigenous and African cultures, in Latin American literature, particularly Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.

TIME FOR CHOCOLATE is available for purchase through One Act Play Depot! A brief description:

An intoxicating evening of music, poetry, and chocolate... in pre-conquest Mexico!
Based on a fifteenth-century dialogue among nobles schooled in rhetoric and philosophy, the play pits father against son in a war of words over the power and beauty of artistic expression.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

One Mic, Two Tongues

KARAOKE, Japanese word for "sing your heart out"? I don't know the etymology, but I do know that I've been to six gatherings at four homes within the past few months where karaoke was the main event. And these have all been gatherings with a mix of Spanish-speakers, English-speakers, and bilinguals.

There are several karaoke products on the market, most of them made in Asia, that can plug into your TV. They all seem to provide alternating-line lyrics over random shots of landscapes, and they give you a "score" at the end ostensibly based on how well you matched the rhythm. Many of the products include several languages beyond English and Spanish, but they vary greatly in the number and variety of songs per language they offer.

So at homes of Colombian, Mexican, and Mexican-American families and friends recently, I've been swimming in 80s rock one moment and 90s norteña the next. Billy Joel and Luis Miguel. Pandora and Queen. The Eagles and the Beatles and the Trío Los Panchos. Boleros, rancheras and rock anthems. Something like this:

Sing us a song, you're the piano mony mony el día que me quieras, vuelve que sin ti la vida ain't nothin' but a hound dog cryin' all the canta no llores who ya gonna call? Ghostbésame, bésame mucho I'm just a poor boy from a poor family probablemente ya de mí te has olvidado turn around every now and then I get a little caimán, se va el caimán, se va para Jack and Diane, two pencas nuevas que al maguey le brotan, vienen marcadas, con rock and roll, we built this city on una piedra en el camino, me enseñó que Billie Jean knockin' at my door, usted es la culpable, de todas mis angustias, que ya no como ni duermo, sigo pensando sólo en tu uptown girl, she's been livin' in her whitebread world, solamente una vez, amé en la vida, eres tú como el agua de mi dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, hey Jude, don't let me down, you have found Penelope, con su bolso de piel marrón, sacó sus pistolas, tiró dos balazos, y me dijo: KARAOKE!

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