Arturo Mocino "The Soundtrack of My Life"

When my Dad and my Mom fell in love, the population in Mexico was 50 million people. I didn’t exist yet, and Fidel Castro, sipping his rum and puffing his cigars, enjoyed power in Cuba. It was 1968, and the world was crazy. People shouted and cried with The Beatles and the Olympic Games, but, in the streets in Paris, Prague, and in my beloved Mexico City, students protested for many changes in the society and the world. In the middle the turmoil, my parents, just married, were traveling and enjoying their honeymoon in El Bajio, a zone in the north west of Mexico between the states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.

I'd like to think I was conceived when they visited Chapala’s Lake. Mom always told me she remembered this beautiful and quiet site. When she was pregnant with me, the soundtrack of my life began. All times, when I listened to “El son de la negra” (Negra’s son) I imagined my father and my mother kissing and enjoying themselves with this song as a background, in the personal movie in my life. Then, when I was a kid and was learning the first letters, they put all songs of Francisco Gabilondo Soler, a famous songwriter in Mexico: “El chorrito” (Little water), “La patita” (Little duck girl), “La marcha de las letras” (Letter’s parade) and my favorite: “El rat’on vaquero” (Cowboy mouse).

My father always sang Javier Solis’s songs, and his favorite song was “Sombras nada m’as” (Shadows…). My mother prefered Consuelito Velazquez. When she cooked or when she was happy she sang “Besame mucho” (Kiss me much). Of course, these songs are part of my personal sound track because I missed my parents when I listened to these songs.

I consider some songs are stronger than others. Every time in your life has a particular music. When you fall in love, when you are happy, when you are young, when you have a new job, some song always exists as a background.

My first girl friend had a song: “De musica ligera” by Soda Stereo. My last job was “Desaparecido” by Manu Chao. San Francisco is “I Only Happy When It Rains” by Garbage, for the many and cruel rainy days in the season. Robinson’s class is “Viva la vida” by Cold Play for the thesaurus of language. Mexico city is “Chilanga banda” by Caf’e Tacuba and Mexico is, and forever and ever, “Mexico lindo y querido” by Jorge Negrete.

This is my personal sound track because, sometimes, the life is like a movie and, always, the music is the best company for the bad or good times.

Now, Obama is president of US, Fidel Castro continues to enjoy the honey of power in Cuba with his brother Raul, and i pod is the king, and many people walk involved in a musical world. But I ask myself: What kind of music are they listening to? What is their personal sound track? Is it short, is it long? What about you?