Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Recordar es Volver (Remembering is Returning)

“Recordar es Volver” Translated Script

The sound of the radio fades in. The station changes. At last, it falls onto a Pedro Infante song, “Amor de los Dos.” We listen for a bit. Then, the song fades down and under the following.

Megan: How do you feel when you listen to, to this music? Como do you feel?

Maria Lara Reyes: I feel like I’m back in time, in the time when those songs were born…back in my youth. You know, to remember is to return…to return.

The music fades up and then down and under.

MEET MARÍA LARA REYES. SHE SAYS THAT LISTENING TO YESTERDAY’S SONGS HELPS HER REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE BACK THEN.

MLR: We grew up more simply, poor, more, we would say, then now. Now it’s different. Before everything was simple, you know. Before it was a simple little life. You’d walk around without shoes, nothing more.

MEET HER HUSBAND, FELIPE MORALES ORTIZ.

Megan: What were you like?

Felipe Morales Ortiz: The same, like this. Like how I am now, but more, more…Well, I had black hair. My clothes were simpler. Pants, little sandals, sandals, right? That’s how I grew up.

The music fades down to silence.

LET’S GET TO KNOW THE MORALES LARA FAMILY OF TEPOSCOLULA, OAXACA A BIT MORE UP CLOSE.

We hear the sound of someone slapping corn dough between her hands, the sound of the fire nearby. It fades down and under the following…

MLR: Well, first you prepare the nixtamal (the mixture of water and corn). Later, around 6 in the morning, I head to the grinder’s. I bring back the dough, and later, I set up a fire to make the tortillas.

The sound of tortilla making fades up and then under.

MLR: So, this is called a metate. You wash the metate, wash your hands. You turn the corn dough over and over. Then you make the tortillas on top of that. And then, when you see that it has these, these bubbles, you flip it over. It’ll lay on one side and later, you flip it to the other side, so it’ll rest there.

Ambi fades up and then under.

Megan: And who taught you how to do this?

MLR: From the time I was a little thing in my home, while I was growing at my mother’s side. It was then, then that I started mixing the massa dough. When I came to live here, that was when I began to make tortillas for sale. Sometimes I make 100, 150. It depends in how many enlist me to make them.

The ambi fades up and under.

MLR: I would make the tortillas then, but it embarrassed me to sell them. I guess, I guess because I didn’t know how to do it, to sell. Well then, later the people began to get to know me, and we started up, I mean, my clients began to look for me. And then, much later, I forgot about feeling embarrassed. I found clients, and I began, that way. And now, well it’s easy! For me, now, it’s very easy.

The ambi fades up and under.

MLR: In my time it was our job, all of the housewives, you know. There were lots of us that made tortillas. And now the custom is being lost because now the youth don’t like to grind from scratch. They have their careers, and that’s all.

Ambi fades up and under.

Felipe de Jesus: Speaking of that, it’s more like we see it as a custom. As a second point it can be a necessity—for those who dedicate themselves to this profession.

LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO ONE OF MARÍA AND FELIPE’S KIDS. HIS NAME IS FELIPE DE JESUS MORALES LARA.

FdJ: So, for that reason, or better, that the moment will come when it is lost, or better, that we will lose it. It’s known that lost of people, um, at times, on the weekends, they share this costum, they make them amongst their family, or better, they continue making tortillas. But it’s more of a recreation of the family custom on weekends, you know? For example, for my part, I enjoy freshly made tortillas with a little bit of salt. I’m here at the table, enjoying a meal. I ask it of my “little boss” (mom), and I am---ur, I am accustomed to enjoying freshly made tortillas with a bit of salt—that are truly much more delicious that all the others. For my part, they are the best.

Ambi fades up and under.

FS: My wife is from a ranch. She was born a quarter of a mile from here. At 15 or 16 we met there.

MLR: I married him when I was 16 years old. He was 30.

FS: Our wedding was beautiful. It wasn’t a civil wedding. It was, um, it was in the church. Yes? My wife wore white.

MLR: I didn’t want to get married. I wanted to go up to Mexico City, or somewhere else. I didn’t want to marry. But my father told me, “No, no. You are going to marry. I want to see you married. You’re not going to leave us.” And I said to my dad, “Whatever you say.” Because that’s how we were—we did what our parents said. (pause) So I stayed. (pause) I got myself married, and later…I came here to start my life with him.

Ambi fades up and under.

FS: Well, I’m a farmer. I worked on a farm—cultivating corn. Yep, yep. With a team of oxen I ploughed the fields. Uh huh.

Ambi fades up and under.

FS: I did that from9 in the morning, and stopped around 6. It took all day, pretty much. Now I do what I can, no more. Because now, well, I worked when I was a young man, I’ve worked. But now, well, now I’m heading downhill, now.

MLR: When you arrive at a certain age you need your children. They support us, the help us, you know.

FS: Now they help us, you know.

Ambi rised and fades under.

THE RADIO IN THE REGION PLAYS A ROLE IN THE DAILY LIVES OF THIS FAMILY.

The sound of the radio rises again. We’re looking for a station. Finally it stops on XETLA. The music fades under the following…

MLR: When I set off to the Grinder, I turn the radio off because I’m headed off to the store, you know to make the dough, so I shut it off. But when I return to make breakfast, I turn it on again.

Megan: And you, sir? When do you listen to the station?

FS: Like now, as we’re sitting around the table eating breakfast, I’m listening…

FdJ: My” little boss” (dad) likes this station a lot. It’s more, it’s more from his time. I feel like he’s very fond of this type of music—the string music…

MLR: …the violin music, the band music, mmmhmmm—when we hear the songs of, the music from before.

FS: This older music was so beautiful.

The music fades up and then under.

MLR: This kind of radio was so important. But now, what with television, and all that, the radio has lost something. And now, much of the signal is blocked—because now lots of the stations don’t reach us here. I remember that before the main station in Mexico got to us. The one in Mexico, what was it? XEGEQ. The one from Oaxaca City. We loved those station because they had great programming. We heard radio serials…everything…

FdJ:…history pieces, stories…

MLR: We’ve really lost a lot in terms of communication. Now the stations don’t reach very far. For example, the station in Oaxaca City, it’s difficult to find anyone out here who gets that station. They just don’t have the reach like before.

The sound of the radio fades up again, looking for a station. There’s a montage of different program IDs.

MLR: My name is María Lara Reyes.

FS: My name? Felipe Morales Ortiz.

FdJ: Mi name is Felipe de Jesus Morales Lara. I am originally from here, in Teposcolula, on account of my “little bosses” (parents) also being from here, you know?

We hear the sound of the radio again.

WELL, MARÍA, LISTEN UP. BECAUSE THIS SONG, THIS SONG IS DEDICATED TO YOU. ENJOY!

The song “Por Si No Te Vuelvo a Ver” by Vicente Fernández fades up, and plays for a spell. It eventually fades down and out to silence.

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