With New Mexico’s abundance of sun, heat, and wind, and its scarcity of water, agriculture here challenges even the most experienced farmers. They need all the help they can get. With her single “Tlalok San Ysidro” (available here), songwriter Raquel Z Rivera (vocals) offers a musical incantation for rain, with help from Fidel González (stringed concha, percussion, and vocals) and Arnaldo Acosta (percussion). This weekend, the song will be sung at the annual San Ysidro Day celebration, which blesses the acequias and invokes the help of San Ysidro Labrador, the patron saint of farmers, and his wife, Maria de la Cabeza, and the saint’s Mexica/Aztec counterpart, Tlalok, the spiritual energy that brings rain, and his wife, Chalchiuhtlicue.

Raquel Z Rivera, Fidel González, and Arnaldo Acosta
“Tlalok San Ysidro” (indie)
A review
Raquel Z Rivera, a native of Puerto Rico, author, and visiting scholar at UNM, and Fidel González, a native of Mexico, dancer, and farmer in Albuquerque’s South Valley, have been participating in the annual procession on San Ysidro Day for 12 or 13 years. González is a member of the Aztec dance group Circulo Solar Ollin Xochipilli, which participates in the event’s procession, and he introduced Rivera to the celebration.

“It’s such a beautiful, heartfelt, and moving community event,” says Rivera. “I have a soft spot for saints and energies. They really call to me. So San Ysidro started calling to me.”

Rivera responded to the call by collaborating with González on the song several years ago. “Initially, my first little draft of the song, it was just about San Ysidro, and then, talking with Fidel later, I was like, Oh, no, this can’t be just San Ysidro,” says Rivera. Tlalok and San Ysidro, says González, are “the same energy, different name.”

The song remained unfinished until percussionist Arnaldo Acosta, a native of the Dominican Republic, joined in the collaboration. Although Rivera started composing the song in the Mexican alabanza musical tradition, she was inspired to blend the alabanza, Dominican salves, and Puerto Rican aguinaldo traditions, honoring the praise songs of all three collaborators.

“The way that I sing is heavily rooted in the jíbaro music of Puerto Rico,” says Rivera, “so I know that my delivery is always rooted in that. Whatever else I do, there is always that flavor.” She connected with the alabanza style of singing because of the parallels in the two styles. “Devotional music sung in a very nasal way. The women sing really high-pitched. I connected to that.” She notes that the song is strongly connected to the Caribbean style, with each line of the lyrics starting on the upbeat, whereas the alabanzas usually start on the downbeat.

The first half of the song is strongly in the alabanza style, and the second half—you’ll hear a change in the metrics and rhythm—is based on the Dominican salve tradition. In the first half, in addition to the stringed concha, González plays Mexica/Aztec percussion instruments, including the huehuetl, ayacaxtli, and teponaztli. In the second half, with González still on concha, Acosta takes on the percussion role, playing Dominican instruments—the balsié, mongó, panderos, and güira—and rhythms.

The simple, repeating melody, which has a curiously uplifting quality, and easily remembered lyrics encourage group participation, and it is hoped that the music coaxes a plentiful supply of “the nectar that falls from heaven,” as it is called in Mexica/Aztec lore (aka rain).

2022 San Ysidro Celebration
Sponsored by American Friends Service Committee AFSC New Mexico 
and
La Plazita Institute
Sunday, May 15, at 3:00 p.m.
Sanchez Farm Open Space
1108 Arenal Road SW, Albuquerque

Check out the limited-edition T-shirts and 
fridge magnets at the Musically Speaking store.
Your support is much appreciated.

Cover artwork by Fidel González.
* Image of Tlalok from The Codex Borgia. This image is public domain.
* Image of San Ysidro Labrador by H. Zell. Permission granted under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

© 2022 Mel Minter