The following notes deal with some of the more curious allusions in Caicedo’s novel. A list of the lyrics that run like a thread through the story, inflecting dialogue and suffusing María’s narrative, can be found in the ‘List of
Song Lyrics’ (p. 171), while a (more) complete list of the songs, together with the singers, can be found in the ‘List of Songs’ (p. 177).
1 Babalú: Babalú is the spirit of the earth and an Orisha, or god, in the Yoruba pantheon. Salsa lyrics routinely use Yoruba words relating to Santería, a system of beliefs combining the Yoruba religion with Roman Catholic and Native American traditions.
2 Jeanette MacDonald … Indian Love Call: Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy were the quintessential 1930s Hollywood musical couple, most famous for the song ‘Indian Love Call’, from the 1936 film of the musical Rose-Marie, which became their signature song.
3 John Gavin: Mexican-American actor (b. 1931) who played Sam Loomis in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
4 The Underdogs: Los de abajo, a novel by Mariano Azuela about the Mexican Revolution (1910–20). Published in 1915, it was translated into English as The Underdogs.
5 cover of a John Lennon album … bottom left corner: Probably a reference to the cloud on the cover of The Plastic Ono Band: Live Peace in Toronto 1969.
6 The People Next Door: A Canadian film made in 1970 about how a teenage girl descends from drug addiction to being committed to a mental ward. It was released in Colombia as Viaje hacia el delirio.
7 charanga: Salsa-style music played by a big brass band.
8 Cavorite: A fictional anti-gravity substance that would allow flight – ‘discovered’ by Mr Cavor in H. G. Wells’s novel The First Men in the Moon (1901).
9 “A Mile of Moonlight”: ‘Moonlight Mile’; the song title is deliberately mistranslated here to convey the awkwardness of Ricardo’s translation. For the sections from the song that follow, however, I have used the original lyrics, as – despite his protestations – Ricardo’s translation is entirely faithful.
10 The garden of Marienbad: Referring to the avant-garde 1961 French film L’Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year in Marienbad) with its geometrical château garden that provides a striking setting for certain scenes in the film.
11 Nadaístas: Literally, ‘Nothingists’, a 1960s literary movement in Colombia which verbally challenged/desecrated Colombian society.
12 House of Usher … Corpses walled up behind mirrors: The first of a number of references to the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, whose work influenced Caicedo. Here the reference is to the burying alive of Madeline in a vault in Poe’s short story ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ (1839).
13 Keith Richard: Richards spelled his name without the ‘s’ during the 1960s.
14 Bacillus: The first of many words (all beginning with ‘B’) that Caicedo uses to refer to a spliff. ‘Bacillus’, being a rod-shaped type of bacteria, resembles the shape of a joint.
15 La Pasionaria: Literally, ‘passionflower’, another nickname of Caicedo’s for marijuana.
16 guaguancó: A subgenre of Cuban rumba, a complex rhythmic music and dance style.
17 ‘Take It and Give Me’: Title in English of the song ‘Toma y dame’.
18 bembé: A feast in Yoruba mythology and hence, in salsa (which draws heavily on it – see note 1), a style of music. See also note 46.
19 butín, butero tabique y afuero: Lyrics from ‘Tin Marin’ roughly translatable as ‘eeny meeny miny moe’.
20 on the tips … of your toes: Lyrics from and a reference to the title in English of ‘Con la punta del pie, Teresa’.
21 López Tarso: Mexican film and stage actor Ignacio López Tarso (b. 1925).
22 ‘Get Sharp!’: Title in English of the song ‘Agúzate’.
23 ‘Changó, bestow … they gave me more drink’: Referring to the poem ‘Corta Changó, con tu espada’ (‘Cut, Changó, with Your Sword’) by Cuban poet Severo Sarduy (1937–93), which calls on Changó, the Yoruba god of fire, thunder and lightning.
24 King (Richie) Ray: Ricardo ‘Richie’ Ray (Richard Maldonado Morales – born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1945, of Puerto Rican parentage) is a virtuoso pianist, singer, music arranger and composer. He is most famous as one half of the duo Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz, considered to be the foremost exponents of salsa brava. Ray met Bobby Cruz (Roberto Cruz Feliciano – born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, in 1937) in 1957 and played bass in his band. Though he gained admission to the Julliard School of Music in 1963, Ray left after a year and he and Cruz formed a group. They signed to Fonseca Records and in 1964 released Ricardo Ray Arrives/Comején. The albums recorded for Fania Records, Agúzate (1970) and El bestial sonido de Richie Ray y Bobby Cruz (1971), which marked the transition between virtuoso boogaloo to freewheeling salsa, are considered landmarks. The duo were hugely successful in Colombia in the late 1960s and their sound greatly influenced Colombian salsa.
25 Ray Barretto: Born to Puerto Rican parents and raised in Spanish Harlem, New York, Ray Barretto (1929–2006) was a Grammy Award-winning Latin jazz percussionist. He played congas with Charlie Parker and later with Tito Puente, and his highly individual style made him a regular with jazz combos. He released his first solo record, El Watusi, in 1961 and joined the Fania record label in 1967. Aside from his successful solo career, Barretto played congas on albums by the Rolling Stones and the Bee Gees.
26 Larry Harlow: American producer and salsa pianist (b. 1939) who studied music in Cuba before the revolution. Harlow has played with many of the greats of salsa and recorded and produced dozens of albums in his own right for the Fania label.
27 Alirio and His Rhythm Boys: Alirio y sus Muchachos de Ritmo.
28 saoco: In salsa, saoco means to have rhythm in your blood.
29 Obatala, Obatala who owns all heads: According to the Yoruba people, Obatala is the creator of human bodies, and the owner of all ori or heads. See also note 1.
30 Monguito: Monguito ‘El Unico’, a Cuban salsa singer (d. 2006).
31 The Abakuá … waiting for the signal: Paraphrase of lyrics from ‘El Abakuá’ containing a recitation in the tribal dialect of the Efik. Abakuá is an Afro-Cuban fraternity or secret society.
32 Enkame: A chant whose precise meaning is known only to members of the Abakuá – see previous note.
33 Parque Panameriquenque: A nickname for the Parque Panamericano in Cali.
34 the key ritual: Part of the rite of Santería (see note 1) in which colours (green, in this instance) are invested with certain powers.
35 jala jala: Jala literally means to be drunk, or to be up for anything, but here it refers to a specific dance rhythm (jala jala) and the dance associated with it.
36 Like a whole bunch of peace: His name, ‘Paces’, sounds like the plural of peace (paz).
37 Miki Vimari, Mike Collazos [sic], Russell Farnsworth and Pancho Cristal: After their initial success with Fonseca, Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz signed to Alegre, where the famous Pancho Cristal was assigned to produce their new recordings. Among the musicians who worked on the seminal albums Jala jala y boogaloo, volumes 1 and 2 (1967 and 1968), and El bestial sonido de Ricardo Ray y Bobby Cruz (1971) were Miki Vimari (lead and backing vocals), Mike Collazo (timbales) and Russell ‘Skee’ Farnsworth (bass guitar).
38 Don Rufían: Rufían means a tough or a thug.
39 Guaguancó bizarro: Literally, ‘Bizarre guaguancó’, referring to a type of Cuban dance music related to salsa; in this case it also alludes to the song title ‘Guaguancó raro’.
40 El Viti: Santiago Martín (b. 1938), aka ‘El Viti’, a famous Spanish bullfighter.
41 El Cordobés: Manuel Benítez Pérez (b. 1936), aka ‘El Cordobés’, a Spanish toreador.
42 Marracachafa: Invented term for weed/marijuana.
43 mango biche: Literally, ‘green mango’, a powerful strain of Colombian marijuana.
44 punto rojo: Literally, ‘red dot’, another strong variety of Colombian marijiuana.
45 Red Birds: In Spanish, ‘seis de Secos’, referring to Seconal (barbiturates).
46 sacatión manantión … sacatión manantión mojé: Lyrics from ‘El Abakuá’ in Ñáñiga, one of the ritual languages of the Abakuá secret society (see note 31), thought to have originated from the religious worship of the Orishas (see note 1) during a bembé or celebration of the spirits.
47 ‘I Invite You to Get Down and Boogaloo’: Title in English of ‘Te invito a echar un pie’.
48 Hello, hello – okay – everybody happy: The address from the stage is all in English in the original text and is probably a paraphrase of what was said at the actual concert.
49 “El galiván pollero”: ‘The Chicken Hawk’, a terrible song by Pedro Infante whose lyrics run (in translation): ‘The chicken hawk took my chicken, / The chicken I love most. / Pour me another drink there, barkeep; / Without my chicken, I’ll be toast.’
50 Chow down on that piano, Richie: Words shouted just before the song ‘Viva Richie Ray!’ on the album Comején.
51 Yemayá: Also known as Yemanja, Yemayá is an Orisha (see note 1), a goddess of motherhood and the ocean.
52 Cándido: Cándido de Guerra Camero (b. 1921), Cuban-born percussionist credited with being one of the first musicians to use congas in jazz.
53 pass me the cauldron, Macoró: These are (deliberately?) misheard lyrics from the salsa ‘Agallú’: the actual refrain is ‘Give me the Ocha, my love’, the reference to ‘Ocha’ (‘La Regla Ocha’) being another term for ‘Santería’, initiation into which invokes the guidance of the Orishas – see note 1.
54 ‘Suffering is My Lot in Life’: Title in English of the song ‘Sufrir me tocó a mí en esta vida’.
55 pum catapum viva Changó: The spoken introduction to ‘Cabo E’.
56 the Christmas bomba: The title and lyrics in English from ‘Bomba en Navidad’. A bomba is a kind of dance.
57 Ala-lolé-lolé … lo altare la araché: A freeform salsa scat from ‘Lo atara la araché’, written by Hugo González in an Afro-Cuban dialect and consequently incomprehensible to Spanish speakers, leading Caicedo to mistranscribe the recurring lyric ‘lo altara la araché’ as ‘le coge la noche’ (‘night has taken him’).
58 Edgar Piedrahíta: Another allusion to Edgar Allan Poe – see note 12.
59 El Jordan … El Renegado: The names of local rivers: El Turbio, ‘Muddy’; El Estrellón, ‘Starry’; El Claro, ‘Clear/Limpid’; El Bueno, ‘Good’; El Zumbón, ‘Mocker’; El Cojecoje, ‘Gimp’; El Renegado, ‘Renegade’.
60 Changó ta vení. Changó is coming: An invocation of the Yoruba god Changó (see note 23), from the traditional song ‘Changó ta vení’: ‘Changó is coming / with a machete in his hand / and the earth will tremble.’ Famously performed by Justi Barreto.
61 Don Julián Acosta: According to his sister, Rosario, Caicedo is referring here to a real person who lived as a hermit on the Pico de Loro. Caicedo apparently visited the deserted house where he ‘borrowed’ the notes left by visitors and included some of them in the novel.
62 And on what did they walk, my bare feet: Possibly alluding to the last lines of Pasolini’s Theorem (1968), ‘Ah, my bare feet, walking on the desert sands …’; Caicedo was a cinephile and a great admirer of the work of the controversial Italian film director and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–75).
63 Human teeth, ivory-looking teeth: Referring to Edgar Allan Poe’s short horror story ‘Berenice’ (1835), in which the narrator is obsessed with ‘the white and glistening, and ghastly teeth of Berenice’, his ailing fiancée. On being told that she is dead and buried, he has a blackout and wakes to discover she has been found alive in the plundered grave; knocking over a box on his desk, what tumble out and roll across the floor are ‘thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances’, while he himself is covered in mud and blood.
64 Man of the West: A 1958 western starring Gary Cooper and Julie London, in which the heroine (London) is forced to strip while her protector is held at knife point.
65 itch mites: In Spanish, yaibíes; yabí is a Colombian term for a type of insect (Sarcoptes scabiei) that lives in the grass, causing an itch if you come in contact with it.
66 seven-phallused snail … coclí: Coclí is a common name peculiar to Colombia for the Buff-necked Ibis. For ‘seven-phallused snail’, see the next note.
67 Camilo José Cela … at the age of fifty: Camilo José Cela (1916–2002), a Spanish novelist and short-story writer associated with the Generation of ’36 movement (a group of writers working at the time of the Spanish Civil War); he’s mentioned here because at the age of fifty he published Oficio de tinieblas 5 (Tenebrae 5), a book written in a radically different style from his previous work: it explores themes of sexuality, including bestiality, and in fact mentions the ‘seven-phallused snail’ cited earlier – see previous note.
68 Barbáro’s skin … like the skin of Monsieur Valdemar: ‘Señor Valdemar’ in the original text; Caicedo is referring to a line in Edgar Allan Poe’s story ‘The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar’ (1845) describing Valdemar at the point of death: ‘the emaciation was so extreme that the skin had been broken through by the cheek-bones.’
69 8½: Referring to the film 8½ (1963) directed by Federico Fellini.
70 Juan Ladrillo: Juan Ladrillero (c.1490–1559), Spanish explorer and the founder of Buenaventura – what follows is a potted history of the city.
71 Hectór Piedrahíta Lovecraft: As with his mention of ‘Edgar Piedrahíta’ (Edgar Allan Poe) earlier (see note 58), Caicedo is referring to H. P. (Howard Philips) Lovecraft (1890–1937), pioneering American writer of horror and fantasy whose ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ story cycle was an early influence on Caicedo.
72 Mare Tenebrum: A reference to the mythical Mare Tenebrarum (Sea of Darkness), described by the mysterious Nubian geographer Ptolemy Hephaestion and frequently mentioned in the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
73 ‘the Spanish disease’: Syphilis was so called because congenital syphilis ran in the Spanish royal family.
74 Marquetalia Republic: One of the enclaves in rural Colombia which communist peasant guerrillas held during the aftermath of the decade-long period of civil war (approximately 1948–58) known as ‘La Violencia’.
75 Rain and snow … rain and snow: The title (and indeed the only lyrics) of ‘Lluvia con nieve’ (‘Rain and Snow’), a largely instrumental piece of salsa written and recorded in 1964 by Mon Rivera, nickname of Efraín Rivera Castillo (1925–78), band leader, singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist who pioneered the trombone front-line in Latin American music. The ‘snow’ in the title is cocaine.
76 ‘Corazón de melón’: Title of the song by Las Hermanas Benítez from the 1958 film Sube y baja (Get Up and Get Down).
77 Let no one … give you shelter: Caicedo is playing with the lyrics of ‘El día que nací yo’: ‘Let no one dry your tears / Let no one give you shelter’.
78 It’s so sleazy but it’s so good: Alluding to the epigraph to the novel (see p. vi) – lyrics from ‘Cabo E’.
79 LIVEFOREVER: In Spanish, ‘Siempreviva’, a succulent perennial from the genus Sempervivum whose common names include ‘pinwheel’ and ‘house leek’ as well as ‘liveforever’.
80 the black coachman with the brightly coloured saddle: Probably a reference to lyrics which appear both in the song ‘A Eleguá’ and in some versions of ‘Iqui con iqui’. Eleguá (also known as Eshu or Ès.ù) is an Orisha (see note 1) and one of the most well-known deities of the religion – the god of fortune and death and a protector of travellers.
81 rumba on till you’re rumba’d out: In Spanish, ‘enrumbaté y después derrúmbate’; enrumbarse means ‘to find the way’ and derrumbarse ‘to collapse, fall, crash’, while the inclusion of rumba in both verbs gives the sense of partying on until you’re partied out.
82 There’s a fire at number 23: Lyrics from and the title in English of the song ‘Hay fuego en el 23’ by Arsenio Rodríguez (known by the nickname El Ciego Maravilloso, ‘The Marvellous Blind Man’) and covered by the group La Sonora Ponceña. The lyrics refer to an actual fire when Arsenio was living at 23 East 110 Street, in Manhattan. The song was written on the pavement while watching the blaze, and the words ‘There’s a fire at number 23’ came to mean ‘pay attention, this is important’.
83 A.C.: Andrés Caicedo.
84 That the author … has made use of the following songs: This is not an exhaustive list of all the songs in the book; some do not appear here and the list given does not follow the narrative chronologically.
85 Rosario Wurlitzer: The name Rosario is a nod to Andrés’s sister Rosario Caicedo; Wurlitzer is a reference to the famous jukebox manufacturer.
86 Unidentified lyrics from unknown songs: The first two lines are lyrics from ‘Iqui con iqui’; for ‘Cómete ese piano, Richie’ (‘Chow down on that piano, Richie’), see note 50.