18 Cumbia mexicana y norteña
By the 1940’s, Colombian cumbia became so popular in Mexico and the rest of Latin America that many non-Colombian artists started replicating this type of music either by producing covers or doing new songs. In Mexico, curiously, cumbia became especially popular in the border between the United States and Mexico.
The border or “frontera” with the United States is the North of Mexico, “Norte”, thus “norteño” means “Northern”. Norteña (=Northern) includes the region that is at the North of Mexico and Southwest of the United States. The region norteña comprises the Old Mexico Northern states including California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, as well as the Mexican states such as Baja California, Sonora, Chihuachua, Cohahuila, Nuevo León y Tamahulipas.
Földhegy, CC BY-SA
Here you can see a comparison between Mexican cumbia and Colombian cumbia:
| Mexican cumbia | Colombian cumbia |
| Faster | Slower |
| Some may be dominated by the binary compass from “corrido norteño” pun chis, pun chis pun chis | Dominated by the 3 and pause beat: chu cu chú, chu cu chú, chu cu chú |
| Modern instruments: electric guitar, metallic drums, keyboard | Traditional instruments: raspa, gaita, folkish drums, maracas, canuto de millo |
| Banda is the type of orquestra that performs norteño cumbia as well as corridos with a traditional instrument called bajo sesto | Traditional orquestra made up of male drummers and female singer |
| Dancing with norteño outfit: boots, jeans for men, small skirt or shorts and high heels for women | Dancing with traditional Colonial outfit: long red skirts and flowers for women, strappelss blouse; men wear white open shirt and folded pants as for fishing, hat, red handkerchief on the neck, mochila. Usually barefoot. |
| Dancing involves more physical contact and fast spins | Dancing involves little physical contact, complex choreography suggests rituals of fertility |
One important feature of Colombian cumbia is the movement of the cintura (=waistline). However, the social dancing of cumbia, more influenced by corrido, has stronger punto de foco en el pecho=chest rather than on caderas. Social dancing of Mexican cumbia has an intense spinning. Woman and man hold each other in a strategic hug: the man puts the right hand on woman’s waist while woman rests the hand on his shoulder. Man’s left hand entangles with woman’s right hand with the elbow with a 90 degree angle.
Watch the following video of social dancing of Mexican cumbia by Tiburcio:
Cumbia Basics (Paisa Danza) by Tiburcio.
Selena’s baila esta cumbia
One important and famous exponent of cumbia mexicana at the border is Selena. I present here her song entitled “Baila esta cumbia”.
Check the song with lyrics here:
Selena – Baila Esta Cumbia lyrics uploaded by selenaforever2008.
She starts by saying siento (=I feel) algo que me mueve. Mueve comes from mover=to move, but it’s algo=something that moves me. It’s like she lost her willingness on her body due to cumbia, un ritmo que me hace bailar=a rhythm that makes me dance. She uses the plural Latin American command tomen=from the infinitive tomar, to take, changing the vowel tomAr to tomEn) to make the command. And then she invites to enjoy, vamos a gozar=let’s go enjoy.
Then Selena starts commanding in singular to dance, like she’s picking people one by one: baila esta cumbia=you (alone) dance this cumbia and mueve la cintura=move the waistline. Then everybody or todos=all must start screaming as crazy while they have las manos en alto=the hands high. This involves the encompass between the individual and social enjoyment.
Expressions in Baila esta cumbia:
- Stem changing verbs: siento (=I feel, from sentir, to feel) E to IE, mueve (=moves, from mover, to move) O to UE, and also used as an informal command
- Plural commands: tomen (=you all take, from tomar=to take) and griten (=you all cream, from gritar to scream)
- Informal singular commands: baila and mueve
Siento algo que me mueve, un ritmo
I feel something that moves me, a rhytm
que me hace bailar
A rhythm that makes me dance
Tomen todos su parejas, todos
Take everybody your partners, all
vamos a gozar
we’re going to enjoy
Baila, baila esta cumbia
Dance, dance this cumbia
Mueve (=mover), mueve la cintura
Move, move the waistline
Todos, las manos en alto
All, the hands high
Y griten (=gritar), griten con locura
And scream, scream with madness
Songwriters: Pete Astudillo, A.b. Quintanilla. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from Musixmatch, powered Microsoft Bing.
Selena’s Como la flor
You may have heard it again and again, but hear it once again with lyrics.
selena como la flor lyrics by Manuel Rodrigo Gocobachi Figueroa
Ella canta to a lost amor (=love) that marchitó (=withered) as a flower. She accepts the defeat: Yo sé perder=I know to lose and decides to march out of the relationship, me marcho hoy=I depart today. Then comes the iconic chant ay ay ay cómo me duele=how it hurts me.
Expressions in Como la flor
- Como la flor: like the flower, as the flower, different from cómo me duele!!! (with accent mark) as an exclamation: how it hurts!!!
- Me duele=hurts me
- Sin embargo=however
- Yo sé que=I know that, from verb saber=to know that. Verb saber refers to knowing information or an idea. That’s why there’s usually que=that introducing the thing known. Also no sé si=I don’t know if
- Verbs in the present indicative: te deseo (=I wish you), te llevas (=you take yourself), me marcho (=I put myself on a march, idiom. I depart)
- Tu adios: your goodbye, your departure, your farewell
- Subjunctive: no sé si pueda=I don’t know if I can where poder O to UE then pueda
- Preterit: encontraste=you found, marchitó=it withered, referring to la flor
Yo sé que tienes un nuevo amor
I know that you-have a new love
Sin embargo, te deseo lo mejor
However, I wish you the best
Si en mí encontraste felicidad
If in me you found happiness
Tal vez alguien más te la dará
Maybe someone else will give it to you
Como la flor con tanto amor
As the flower, with so much love
Me diste tú, se marchitó
You gave me, it withered
Me marcho hoy, yo sé perder
I march (=depart) today, I know to lose
Pero ah-ah-ay, cómo me duele
But uh ay ay how hurts (to) me
Ah-ah-ay, cómo me duele
uh ay ay how hurts (to) me
Si vieras cómo duele perder tu amor
If you would see how it hurts to lose your love
con tu adiós, te llevas mi corazón.
With your Good-bye, you take away my heart.
No sé si pueda volver a amar
I don’t know if I can love again
porque te di todo el amor que pude dar
because I gave you all the love I was able to give.
Songwriters: Manuel Rodrigo Gocobachi Figueroa. For non-commercial use only. Adapted from Musixmatch, powered Microsoft Bing.
