A brand new album from a Mexican singer-songwriter provides voice to the tales of actual ladies who had been incarcerated for killing their abusive companions.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In Mexico, nearly all of murders go unpunished – by some estimates, 90%. However when a girl kills an abusive associate, many are convicted of, quote, “extreme use of reputable drive.” NPR’s Mexico Metropolis correspondent, Eyder Peralta, met a musician who’s telling the tales of these ladies on her new album. And a warning – this story does comprise descriptions of violence.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Vivir Quintana says the thought for her newest album got here 15 years in the past when a school buddy was murdered.
VIVIR QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was a high-profile homicide, so she says the photographs of her buddy’s physique had been plastered all around the newspapers.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I felt this horrible rage.”
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I grew to become obsessive about this concept of what would have occurred if she had killed him.”
Quintana researched circumstances of girls who did kill their abusers.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I discovered my buddy would have doubtless been in jail.”
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, “MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA”)
PERALTA: Quintana’s album was 10 years within the making. She scoured information articles for circumstances. She went to prisons to speak to ladies who had killed their companions. Mexico does not preserve statistics on what number of ladies are jailed for killing their abusers, nevertheless it’s widespread sufficient that human rights teams have denounced the follow. Quintana got here out of these jails with 10 first-person narratives. In a type of songs, “Extra Free Than At Dwelling,” a girl sings, “he beat me day and night time. I killed him as a result of I may not take his boots on my face.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: The songs do not shrink back from violence. They’re visceral. They speak about ladies cornered by horrible males, so that they discover peace by committing homicide. “Now I am locked up in jail,” she sings, “however I really feel extra free than at dwelling.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: Quintana says, in jail, she discovered ladies who had been by no means visited by anybody. She discovered ladies who had been ignored by authorities once they filed police experiences. Quintana says, in Mexico, they attempt to promote this concept of an exquisite nation, the place when one thing dangerous occurs, everybody runs to assist.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “However the fact is, when horrible issues occur,” she says, “there’s additionally a brutal silence.” The title of the album is “Issues That Shock The Viewers.” Vivir Quintana says it was impressed by a TV interview she noticed years in the past.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARISOL VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was Marisol Villafana telling journalists how she killed her abusive husband. She drugged him. She beat him with a hammer, and she or he finally suffocated him with a plastic bag. Mexicans weren’t shocked at what she had endured. They had been shocked as a result of she smiled as she advised her story. They had been shocked as a result of when journalists requested if she had regrets, she mentioned, no.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “He was a nasty man,” the girl mentioned, “and I went to the police many occasions, and nobody did something.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Mexicans had been stunned that the girl did not really feel guilt. They had been stunned {that a} girl knew how one can defend herself.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, “ERA EL O ERA YO”)
PERALTA: Within the track “It Was Both Him Or Me,” Quintana sings in regards to the stacks of circumstances of girls who escaped demise with drive. “Justice killed our luck,” she sings, “and now I am left right here searching for my freedom.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ERA EL O ERA YO”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: The ladies in Quintana’s songs are heroes, and she or he’s writing corridos, which have historically been utilized in Mexico to inform the tales of bandits. Extra just lately, artists have been criticized for glorifying violence. Quintana says this album could not be farther from that.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “That is unhappy and painful. Loads of trendy corridos,” she says, “are about how cool it’s to stroll round with a gun, how superior it’s being probably the most highly effective man.”
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And these songs are about, I had to do that.”
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “As a result of everybody deserted me.”
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “The system deserted me, and I used to be deserted even by you, the listener.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MI COBIJA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: In “My Blanket,” Quintana sings a couple of girl crushed by her army commander associate. “Now that he is useless, he does not deserve a prayer,” she sings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MI COBIJA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: After which, her solely remorse – “that my kids forgive me,” she sings, “that they not neglect I really like them, even when I am eternally locked up.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MI COBIJA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
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