A brand new album from a Mexican singer-songwriter offers voice to the tales of actual girls who have been incarcerated for killing their abusive companions.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In Mexico, the vast majority of murders go unpunished – by some estimates, 90%. However when a girl kills an abusive associate, many are convicted of, quote, “extreme use of official power.” NPR’s Mexico Metropolis correspondent, Eyder Peralta, met a musician who’s telling the tales of these girls on her new album. And a warning – this story does comprise descriptions of violence.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Vivir Quintana says the concept for her newest album got here 15 years in the past when a school good friend was murdered.
VIVIR QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was a high-profile homicide, so she says the images of her good friend’s physique have been plastered everywhere in the newspapers.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I felt this horrible rage.”
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I turned obsessive about this concept of what would have occurred if she had killed him.”
Quintana researched instances of ladies who did kill their abusers.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “And I came upon my good friend 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 instances. She went to prisons to speak to girls who had killed their companions. Mexico does not maintain statistics on what number of girls are jailed for killing their abusers, nevertheless it’s widespread sufficient that human rights teams have denounced the observe. Quintana got here out of these jails with 10 first-person narratives. In a type of songs, “Extra Free Than At House,” a girl sings, “he beat me day and evening. I killed him as a result of I might now 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 draw back from violence. They’re visceral. They discuss girls 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 house.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: Quintana says, in jail, she discovered girls who have been by no means visited by anybody. She discovered girls who have been ignored by authorities once they filed police studies. Quintana says, in Mexico, they attempt to promote this concept of a beautiful nation, the place when one thing unhealthy 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 ultimately suffocated him with a plastic bag. Mexicans weren’t shocked at what she had endured. They have been shocked as a result of she smiled as she advised her story. They have 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 foul man,” the lady mentioned, “and I went to the police many instances, and nobody did something.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Mexicans have been shocked that the lady did not really feel guilt. They have been shocked {that a} lady knew the right way to defend herself.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, “ERA EL O ERA YO”)
PERALTA: Within the music “It Was Both Him Or Me,” Quintana sings concerning the stacks of instances of ladies who escaped demise with power. “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. Plenty of fashionable 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 lady overwhelmed by her navy 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 overlook I like them, even when I am without end locked up.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MI COBIJA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
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