A brand new album from a Mexican singer-songwriter provides voice to the tales of actual ladies who have been incarcerated for killing their abusive companions.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In Mexico, nearly all of murders go unpunished – by some estimates, 90%. However when a lady kills an abusive accomplice, many are convicted of, quote, “extreme use of reputable pressure.” NPR’s Mexico Metropolis correspondent, Eyder Peralta, met a musician who’s telling the tales of these ladies on her new album. And a warning – this story does comprise descriptions of violence.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Vivir Quintana says the thought for her newest album got here 15 years in the past when a school buddy was murdered.
VIVIR QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was a high-profile homicide, so she says the images of her buddy’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 grew to become 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 discovered my buddy would have seemingly 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 ladies who had killed their companions. Mexico does not hold statistics on what number of ladies are jailed for killing their abusers, but it surely’s frequent sufficient that human rights teams have denounced the apply. Quintana got here out of these jails with 10 first-person narratives. In a type of songs, “Extra Free Than At Residence,” a lady sings, “he beat me day and night time. I killed him as a result of I might 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 shrink back from violence. They’re visceral. They speak about ladies 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 residence.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: Quintana says, in jail, she discovered ladies who have been by no means visited by anybody. She discovered ladies who have been ignored by authorities once they filed police stories. Quintana says, in Mexico, they attempt to promote this concept of an exquisite nation, the place when one thing dangerous occurs, everybody runs to assist.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: “However the fact is, when horrible issues occur,” she says, “there may be 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 he or she finally 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 informed 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 nasty man,” the lady mentioned, “and I went to the police many occasions, and nobody did something.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Mexicans have been stunned that the lady did not really feel guilt. They have been stunned {that a} girl knew defend herself.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, “ERA EL O ERA YO”)
PERALTA: Within the music “It Was Both Him Or Me,” Quintana sings in regards to the stacks of instances of ladies who escaped dying with pressure. “Justice killed our luck,” she sings, “and now I am left right here on the lookout 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 he or she’s writing corridos, which have historically been utilized in Mexico to inform the tales of bandits. Extra not too long ago, 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. A whole lot of trendy 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 girl overwhelmed by her army commander accomplice. “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 youngsters forgive me,” she sings, “that they not overlook I really like them, even when I am eternally locked up.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MI COBIJA”)
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
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