Reading: Gather the Fruit One by One: 50 Years of Amazing Peace Corps Stories, Vol II the Americas edited by Pat & Bernie Alter
I hereby dedicate this post to music. Specifically, music of the latino variety, or that is to say, music that I have become increasingly attached to while in Ecuador.
Basically, I’m feeling lazy and figured that instead of writing something lengthy I’m just going to leave you, my dear readers, with a list of songs that will forever be place holders in my mind for Ecuador. Like Don McLean’s American Pie is for summer trips to camp, the Darkness’ I Believe in a Thing Called Love is to high school, the Moldy Peaches’ Anyone Else But You is to college, and Lady Gaga’s Just Dance is to the campaign days, these songs are my quintessential Ecuador. Many may have reached that point through circumstance not allure, but alas, they are there to stay. Hopefully you will enjoy this small sampling as much as I have or if nothing else, enjoy the suspense of slowly loading each one on youtube.
It would only be fitting to open this list with a sampling of Ecuadorian national music. At first you think it sounds exotic. After months of listening to it blaring on scratchy bus sound systems, it becomes utterly loathsome. Then one day you reach a breaking point. Perhaps it’s the point that you catch yourself singing along to the lyrics. Perhaps it’s when you have the realization that you know all the lyrics. Or perhaps it’s the point when you find yourself wishing you had it on your ipod. Which ever it may be, I present you Maximo Escaleras’ Quiero Volver a Ser Soltero, with his compelling, lyrical commentary on why life is better if you’re single.
The next is my personal guilty pleasure, bachatas. All of them are fantastically cheesy and overly romantic. So to keep it short and simple, I give you the Kings of the Bachata, Aventura’s Dile al Amor.
To follow that, one cannot think of Latin America without thinking of salsa, which is particularly beloved in coastal Ecuador. This is Yo No Se Mañana by Luis Enrique.
Ecuador’s great musical contribution, in my opinion, to the world of music is a type of music called pasillos. I probably just like them because they’re folksy and create vision of leather skinned, greyed campesinos sitting in wooden doorways discussing football.
No list of songs in Ecuador (or, arguably, anywhere else in Latin America) could be complete without Michel Teló’s Ai Se Eu Te Pego. Even if it is in Portuguese and nobody understands the lyrics.
Then we have what all the cool kids are listening to, Calle 13 and Sie7e, depending on if you’re a badass or a bit more chill. No Hay Nadie Como Tu and Tengo Tu Love, respectively.
And just because this is what I actually listen to while living in Ecuador – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home by Josh Ritter. Here’s to ending on a good note, Idaho, artsy music videos, and singer-songwriters.
I hereby dedicate this post to music. Specifically, music of the latino variety, or that is to say, music that I have become increasingly attached to while in Ecuador.
Basically, I’m feeling lazy and figured that instead of writing something lengthy I’m just going to leave you, my dear readers, with a list of songs that will forever be place holders in my mind for Ecuador. Like Don McLean’s American Pie is for summer trips to camp, the Darkness’ I Believe in a Thing Called Love is to high school, the Moldy Peaches’ Anyone Else But You is to college, and Lady Gaga’s Just Dance is to the campaign days, these songs are my quintessential Ecuador. Many may have reached that point through circumstance not allure, but alas, they are there to stay. Hopefully you will enjoy this small sampling as much as I have or if nothing else, enjoy the suspense of slowly loading each one on youtube.
It would only be fitting to open this list with a sampling of Ecuadorian national music. At first you think it sounds exotic. After months of listening to it blaring on scratchy bus sound systems, it becomes utterly loathsome. Then one day you reach a breaking point. Perhaps it’s the point that you catch yourself singing along to the lyrics. Perhaps it’s when you have the realization that you know all the lyrics. Or perhaps it’s the point when you find yourself wishing you had it on your ipod. Which ever it may be, I present you Maximo Escaleras’ Quiero Volver a Ser Soltero, with his compelling, lyrical commentary on why life is better if you’re single.
The next is my personal guilty pleasure, bachatas. All of them are fantastically cheesy and overly romantic. So to keep it short and simple, I give you the Kings of the Bachata, Aventura’s Dile al Amor.
To follow that, one cannot think of Latin America without thinking of salsa, which is particularly beloved in coastal Ecuador. This is Yo No Se Mañana by Luis Enrique.
Ecuador’s great musical contribution, in my opinion, to the world of music is a type of music called pasillos. I probably just like them because they’re folksy and create vision of leather skinned, greyed campesinos sitting in wooden doorways discussing football.
No list of songs in Ecuador (or, arguably, anywhere else in Latin America) could be complete without Michel Teló’s Ai Se Eu Te Pego. Even if it is in Portuguese and nobody understands the lyrics.
Then we have what all the cool kids are listening to, Calle 13 and Sie7e, depending on if you’re a badass or a bit more chill. No Hay Nadie Como Tu and Tengo Tu Love, respectively.
And just because this is what I actually listen to while living in Ecuador – Love Is Making Its Way Back Home by Josh Ritter. Here’s to ending on a good note, Idaho, artsy music videos, and singer-songwriters.
Why is Ai Se Eu Te Pego so catchy, wwwwwhyyy?
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