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| Morrissey and Mexico fit together like hand in glove. Is that really so strange? | Morrissey and Mexico fit together like hand in glove. Is that really so strange? |
| (6 months later) | |
| Of all the incongruous links between music and peoples, one of the strangest appears to be that between Steven Patrick Morrissey, the former lead singer of the Smiths, and Mexicans. Specifically, Mexicans in southern California. Notably, he’s not popular south of the border. Of all the potential singers you’d imagine a culture steeped in masculinity and machismo could choose, why would they embrace this son of northern England? | Of all the incongruous links between music and peoples, one of the strangest appears to be that between Steven Patrick Morrissey, the former lead singer of the Smiths, and Mexicans. Specifically, Mexicans in southern California. Notably, he’s not popular south of the border. Of all the potential singers you’d imagine a culture steeped in masculinity and machismo could choose, why would they embrace this son of northern England? |
| The question has reared its head again after the release of the Spanish-language Morrissey cover band Mexrrissey’s first album, No Manchester. But it’s actually not that mysterious. Morrissey’s melancholic ballads provide the best starting point. The sense of estrangement and longing that exists in all his songs is also something that’s present in traditional northern Mexican music genres such as rancheras. Drawing on rural traditional folk music, it began as a symbol of national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. | The question has reared its head again after the release of the Spanish-language Morrissey cover band Mexrrissey’s first album, No Manchester. But it’s actually not that mysterious. Morrissey’s melancholic ballads provide the best starting point. The sense of estrangement and longing that exists in all his songs is also something that’s present in traditional northern Mexican music genres such as rancheras. Drawing on rural traditional folk music, it began as a symbol of national consciousness at the beginning of the 20th century. |
| Traditionally, rancheras are about love, nature or patriotism. We don’t normally associate patriotism with Morrissey or his songs, but the nature of love? Absolutely. The longing for love? Most definitely. Morrissey’s most famous lament of unrequited love, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, resembles so many Mexican torch songs – for example Mi Destino Fue Quererte, written by Felipe Valdés Leal. Not just in theme, but almost thought for thought. | Traditionally, rancheras are about love, nature or patriotism. We don’t normally associate patriotism with Morrissey or his songs, but the nature of love? Absolutely. The longing for love? Most definitely. Morrissey’s most famous lament of unrequited love, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, resembles so many Mexican torch songs – for example Mi Destino Fue Quererte, written by Felipe Valdés Leal. Not just in theme, but almost thought for thought. |
| And yet the association between Mexican folk music and Morrissey is just the beginning. The real linkages lie with Mexican-Americans; with Chicanos. Although I’ve never been further south than Monterrey, my family has myriad tales of living in a golden Mexico during the 1940s and 1950s. Those stories helped foster a deep-seated melancholy within me about where I truly belong. Not quite American; not wholly Latino, living in all the spaces in between. Growing up in rural Ohio, these duelling identities caused me an incredible amount of angst, as I tried to traverse the space between home and school. | And yet the association between Mexican folk music and Morrissey is just the beginning. The real linkages lie with Mexican-Americans; with Chicanos. Although I’ve never been further south than Monterrey, my family has myriad tales of living in a golden Mexico during the 1940s and 1950s. Those stories helped foster a deep-seated melancholy within me about where I truly belong. Not quite American; not wholly Latino, living in all the spaces in between. Growing up in rural Ohio, these duelling identities caused me an incredible amount of angst, as I tried to traverse the space between home and school. |
| It’s easy to see where so many of Morrissey’s songs that deal with identity crisis, with a sense of alienation, of being an “other”, would appeal to people such as me. Feeling ostracised, not part of a homogeneous American culture – that’s enough to make anyone morose and woebegone. Small wonder that Morrissey’s lyrics, shot through with dolefulness, speak to so many of us. | It’s easy to see where so many of Morrissey’s songs that deal with identity crisis, with a sense of alienation, of being an “other”, would appeal to people such as me. Feeling ostracised, not part of a homogeneous American culture – that’s enough to make anyone morose and woebegone. Small wonder that Morrissey’s lyrics, shot through with dolefulness, speak to so many of us. |
| Over the past two decades, though, Morrissey has made that linkage explicit, both in song and sign. There was his 1999 ¡Oye, Estéban! tour. At a concert at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center, the singer lamented: “I wish I was born Mexican, but it’s too late for that now.” That’s the most famous recognition of the love his Latino fans bear for him, but there have been other, more subtle signs - wearing the football jersey of Chivas de Guadalajara, the 11-time Mexican champions who only have Mexicans on their roster, for example. Or rocking shirts adorned with Mexico’s patroness, the Virgin of Guadalajara. | Over the past two decades, though, Morrissey has made that linkage explicit, both in song and sign. There was his 1999 ¡Oye, Estéban! tour. At a concert at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center, the singer lamented: “I wish I was born Mexican, but it’s too late for that now.” That’s the most famous recognition of the love his Latino fans bear for him, but there have been other, more subtle signs - wearing the football jersey of Chivas de Guadalajara, the 11-time Mexican champions who only have Mexicans on their roster, for example. Or rocking shirts adorned with Mexico’s patroness, the Virgin of Guadalajara. |
| And then there’s Mexico, one of Morrissey’s newer songs. It could double as an anthem of Chicano love for the homeland: | And then there’s Mexico, one of Morrissey’s newer songs. It could double as an anthem of Chicano love for the homeland: |
| “In Mexico | “In Mexico |
| I went for a walk to inhale the tranquil cool lover’s air | I went for a walk to inhale the tranquil cool lover’s air |
| But I could taste a trace | But I could taste a trace |
| Of American chemical waste. | Of American chemical waste. |
| And the small voice said, ‘What can we do?’ | And the small voice said, ‘What can we do?’ |
| I lay on the grass | I lay on the grass |
| And I cried my heart out for want of my love.” | And I cried my heart out for want of my love.” |
| And for those of us who’ve never been, who rely on the tales of our relatives, there’s the condemnation of white privilege in that same song: | And for those of us who’ve never been, who rely on the tales of our relatives, there’s the condemnation of white privilege in that same song: |
| “It seems if you’re rich and you’re white you think you’re so right | “It seems if you’re rich and you’re white you think you’re so right |
| I just don’t see why this should be so.” | I just don’t see why this should be so.” |
| All of that combines to make Morrissey a magnetic figure to Latinos like me. Here’s a guy who really gets it. How can we resist that? His songs offer the chance to escape our bleak surroundings, transcend our existence, and leave behind the limits of our lives. Especially at a time when the presumptive nominee of one of America’s two major parties condemns my fellow Latinos as criminals and threatens to build a wall severing one America from the other. | All of that combines to make Morrissey a magnetic figure to Latinos like me. Here’s a guy who really gets it. How can we resist that? His songs offer the chance to escape our bleak surroundings, transcend our existence, and leave behind the limits of our lives. Especially at a time when the presumptive nominee of one of America’s two major parties condemns my fellow Latinos as criminals and threatens to build a wall severing one America from the other. |