Well, here we go! I guess we're gonna talk about the blues, playing the blues, singing the blues, the why, what for and the where for of the blues. This is a subject that's pretty wide and pretty long. And hopefully it all ends up in a song, but it never starts out very musical.
For example, just this week, here in Guatemala the blues decended on one part of my little Guatemalan family here. The second oldest brother, Antonio, of 9 children, has got three....at least....women, and word has it that there are a total of 11 kids. Well, I sat with the whole family gathering as they lectured this guy, fairly politely, using Cachiquel, the local tongue, with his first woman. and her 6 kids in various stages of nodding out, observing. The Spanish word that kept jumping out of the dialog was responsibilidad.....responsibility.
You see, the family, brothers and sisters and parents, accept his kids with his first woman.....there's six of them, but they really don't know, or probably have never even met or seen the other 5, although the distance between any of them and these mystery nieces or nephews (or grandchildren) can be measured in meters, not miles. No importa, they were here because word got out that the known and accepted six had had nothing to eat for three days last week, except huiskiel. Ok, what's that? Well it's a sort of potato crossed with a squash that grows abundantly on a big leaf vine. No beans, no tortillas, nada.
So they're pretty much getting on this guy's case for not being responsible for his kids, and maybe that is somewhat true, but my basic feeling is the bigger picture is that he over reproduced himself out of the ability to be responsible even if he wanted to. He, for his income potential, does no fall within the realm of getting that done.
So the kids have got the blues and the rest of the family, which is by no means well off, and under other stresses, have the inherited duty to help these kids up and running. And Antonio, gets to watch his lack of self control and localized power fantasies down spiral into embarrassment and loss of self esteem. More on this later.
