WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 I want to start today with a linguistic puzzle. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:04.820 It's really a test of tone, more than anything. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:06.440 Okay, I'm intrigued. I'm going to give you two 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:09.279 phrases in Spanish. Now, to a non -native speaker, 00:00:09.500 --> 00:00:12.820 or even a casual speaker, they might sound like 00:00:12.820 --> 00:00:14.560 they're getting at the exact same sentiment. 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:16.839 Same root words, that kind of thing. Exactly. 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:18.800 They use the same root words, they seem to point 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:22.239 in the same direction. So, okay, phrase number 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:26.620 one. Que viva la música. Right, que viva la música. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.800 So, long live music. Or maybe let music live. 00:00:31.879 --> 00:00:34.280 It feels like a cheer. It's a cheer. That's the 00:00:34.280 --> 00:00:36.179 perfect word for it. Yeah, it's what you shout 00:00:36.179 --> 00:00:37.880 at a festival, you know, when the band comes 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:41.119 back for an encore. It's exuberant. Exactly. 00:00:41.119 --> 00:00:43.539 And it's external, isn't it? It's about the music 00:00:43.539 --> 00:00:46.539 itself. You're celebrating it. Absolutely. Okay, 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:51.939 now phrase number two. Quiero vivir. Ah, see 00:00:51.939 --> 00:00:55.299 that? That is significantly different. I want 00:00:55.299 --> 00:00:57.640 to live. Totally different feeling. It's completely 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.200 different. That's internal. It's about the self. 00:01:00.299 --> 00:01:02.979 It could be a plea or it could be like a demand, 00:01:03.179 --> 00:01:07.239 a declaration. And that distinction between cheering 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:10.840 for the art versus demanding survival for the 00:01:10.840 --> 00:01:13.700 self. That is the cliff edge we are walking on 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:15.939 today because we have two artifacts that use 00:01:15.939 --> 00:01:19.099 these titles. One is a defining literary masterpiece 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:22.439 of the 1970s, a book that completely changed 00:01:22.439 --> 00:01:24.659 the landscape of Colombian literature forever. 00:01:24.859 --> 00:01:27.900 A landmark piece of work. And the other, well, 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:30.280 the other is a pop album produced by a professional 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:33.379 wrestling federation in 2007. I love this comparison 00:01:33.379 --> 00:01:36.859 because on paper, it looks absolutely absurd. 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.359 I mean, you couldn't invent a stranger pairing. 00:01:39.540 --> 00:01:42.269 Right. You've got... Andres Caicedo, this tormented 00:01:42.269 --> 00:01:44.510 genius, a key figure in the Macondo movement 00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:47.170 in Latin America. And then you have Lillian Garcia, 00:01:47.530 --> 00:01:50.189 the ring announcer for WWE's Monday Night Raw. 00:01:50.390 --> 00:01:52.390 It feels like a glitch in the Matrix that we're 00:01:52.390 --> 00:01:54.450 even talking about them in the same breath. It 00:01:54.450 --> 00:01:56.109 really does. But I think that's the point of 00:01:56.109 --> 00:01:58.870 this deep dive, isn't it? It is. That's the mission 00:01:58.870 --> 00:02:00.980 today. We aren't just comparing a book and a 00:02:00.980 --> 00:02:03.379 CD. We're looking at two completely opposite, 00:02:03.540 --> 00:02:05.920 almost warring universes that somehow arrived 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:08.520 at the same intersection. We're exploring how 00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:10.960 these two artifacts grapple with the sheer intensity 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:13.639 of existence, and they both use music to do it. 00:02:13.699 --> 00:02:15.099 And I think what we're going to find is that 00:02:15.099 --> 00:02:17.860 while they both use music as the vehicle, the 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:20.719 destination is just. It's radically different. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:23.460 How so? Well, in the novel, music is this party 00:02:23.460 --> 00:02:25.500 without end that might just kill you. It's a 00:02:25.500 --> 00:02:27.539 dangerous consuming force. But in the album, 00:02:27.659 --> 00:02:31.240 music is this structured, ambitious, life -affirming 00:02:31.240 --> 00:02:35.219 ladder to success. It's the clash between a suicide 00:02:35.219 --> 00:02:38.439 on publication day. and a musical career launched 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:41.219 by a billionaire CEO in a boardroom. That is 00:02:41.219 --> 00:02:43.340 the stark reality we're dealing with. It's the 00:02:43.340 --> 00:02:45.879 difference between art as a sacrifice and art 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:48.099 as a strategy. So let's jump right into the deep 00:02:48.099 --> 00:02:49.699 end. We have to start with the novel. We have 00:02:49.699 --> 00:02:51.939 to start with Que Viva La Musica. Right. And 00:02:51.939 --> 00:02:54.039 to understand this book, you really, really have 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:56.520 to understand the mythos of the man who wrote 00:02:56.520 --> 00:02:59.599 it, Andres Caicedo. This isn't just an author. 00:02:59.659 --> 00:03:02.039 He's a cultural icon in Colombia, a figure of 00:03:02.039 --> 00:03:05.360 tragedy and genius. But the story of how this 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:09.719 specific book came to be, it's strange. It starts 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:11.900 in a place you would never expect for a masterpiece 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.419 of Colombian literature. It starts in Los Angeles. 00:03:14.659 --> 00:03:17.479 In L .A., of all places. It does. And this context 00:03:17.479 --> 00:03:21.419 is so vital. It's the early 1970s. Caicedo, this 00:03:21.419 --> 00:03:24.400 young guy, travels to the United States. But 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:26.280 he's not there for a holiday. He's not there 00:03:26.280 --> 00:03:29.300 to see Disneyland or soak up the sun. No. He 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:31.960 is on a very specific... And you get the sense, 00:03:32.060 --> 00:03:34.860 a somewhat desperate mission. He is trying to 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:37.020 get in touch with Roger Corman. Okay, we need 00:03:37.020 --> 00:03:38.819 to pause on that name. For those who might not 00:03:38.819 --> 00:03:41.099 be film buffs, who was Roger Corman? Why him? 00:03:41.479 --> 00:03:44.039 Roger Corman is, simply put, the king of the 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:46.500 B -movies. He's the guy who made low -budget 00:03:46.500 --> 00:03:49.039 horror, exploitation films, quick and dirty cinema 00:03:49.039 --> 00:03:51.539 that was incredibly popular. The ultimate indie 00:03:51.539 --> 00:03:53.719 filmmaker before that was even really a term. 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:56.479 Absolutely. He gave starts to people like Francis 00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:59.180 Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson. 00:03:59.300 --> 00:04:01.919 But his brand was cheap, effective, populist 00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:04.449 entertainment. He was a machine. So Caicedo, 00:04:04.629 --> 00:04:07.310 this brilliant young literary mind from Colombia, 00:04:07.530 --> 00:04:11.090 isn't trying to meet the high art European directors. 00:04:11.610 --> 00:04:14.789 He's not chasing Fellini. He's chasing the King 00:04:14.789 --> 00:04:17.889 of B movies. Exactly. And that tells you everything 00:04:17.889 --> 00:04:20.970 you need to know about Caicedo's aesthetic. He 00:04:20.970 --> 00:04:23.509 was obsessed with what we might call trash culture 00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:26.569 or pop culture. Yeah. He loves horror movies, 00:04:26.850 --> 00:04:30.639 rock and roll. the Rolling Stones. He saw no 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:33.079 division between high and low art. He wanted 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.980 to bridge that gap between high intellect and 00:04:35.980 --> 00:04:39.000 the visceral, bloody thrill of a B -movie. And 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:41.079 he had something to sell them. He did. He had 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:43.680 written four play scripts, and he was absolutely 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:45.800 convinced that he could sell them to Roger Corman. 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:47.879 He thought they were a perfect fit. So he's looking 00:04:47.879 --> 00:04:50.160 at the United States not as, you know, the great 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:52.180 political enemy, but as this massive factory 00:04:52.180 --> 00:04:54.439 of dreams and nightmares. Right. And he wants 00:04:54.439 --> 00:04:56.319 in. He wants to be part of the machine. But the 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:58.949 machine doesn't want him? No. The sources are 00:04:58.949 --> 00:05:01.170 very polite about it, saying he was not welcomed. 00:05:01.310 --> 00:05:03.410 But you can read between the lines. The door 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:05.850 was slammed in his face. He's an outsider. Totally. 00:05:05.970 --> 00:05:09.050 He's a young Latin American man in 1970s Hollywood. 00:05:09.829 --> 00:05:12.029 He's trying to pitch scripts in English, which 00:05:12.029 --> 00:05:13.889 isn't his first language. It's a complete disaster. 00:05:14.149 --> 00:05:16.649 He never even gets close. So just picture this 00:05:16.649 --> 00:05:19.550 for a second. Yeah. You're young. You are brilliant. 00:05:19.649 --> 00:05:21.670 You're full of ideas. You're in Los Angeles. 00:05:22.290 --> 00:05:25.449 And your big dream has just been utterly crushed. 00:05:26.269 --> 00:05:29.490 You are completely alienated what you do. You 00:05:29.490 --> 00:05:32.649 consume. You absorb. He spends his time in the 00:05:32.649 --> 00:05:34.990 U .S. just watching everything. He's in movie 00:05:34.990 --> 00:05:37.050 theaters constantly. He's studying the blues. 00:05:37.189 --> 00:05:40.029 He's dissecting rock music. He becomes this incredible 00:05:40.029 --> 00:05:42.290 sponge for the very culture that just rejected 00:05:42.290 --> 00:05:44.769 him. And in the middle of all that, he starts 00:05:44.769 --> 00:05:47.209 writing. And that writing becomes Que Viva La 00:05:47.209 --> 00:05:50.129 Musica. Yes. The novel is born directly out of 00:05:50.129 --> 00:05:52.149 that frustration, that displacement, that anger. 00:05:52.250 --> 00:05:54.449 He takes all that American rock energy, all that 00:05:54.449 --> 00:05:56.389 cinematic pacing from the movies he was watching, 00:05:56.509 --> 00:05:59.050 and he decides to transplant it back to his home 00:05:59.050 --> 00:06:01.949 turf. To Cali, Colombia. To Cali. It's just fascinating 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:05.389 that a novel so deeply Colombian. considered 00:06:05.389 --> 00:06:07.529 by some to be the catcher in the rye of Columbia, 00:06:07.790 --> 00:06:11.009 this masterpiece of urban literature, was actually 00:06:11.009 --> 00:06:13.670 forged in the fires of a Hollywood rejection. 00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:16.550 It speaks to that cross -pollination. He's taking 00:06:16.550 --> 00:06:18.990 the first world pop culture, the Rolling Stones, 00:06:19.389 --> 00:06:21.550 the rebellious attitude, and he's going to inject 00:06:21.550 --> 00:06:24.889 it directly into the veins of the third world 00:06:24.889 --> 00:06:28.329 reality of his city. It's a collision. A deliberate 00:06:28.329 --> 00:06:32.360 collision. For sure. Now we... We have to address 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:34.699 the elephant in the room. The title is Live Forever, 00:06:34.860 --> 00:06:37.120 the English translation of Que Viva La Musica. 00:06:37.220 --> 00:06:39.560 It sounds so optimistic. It sounds like it's 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:42.480 about legacy. But the publication history is, 00:06:42.519 --> 00:06:46.079 well, it's one of the defining tragedies of Latin 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:48.459 American literature. It is the shadow that hangs 00:06:48.459 --> 00:06:50.899 over every single page of the book. You can't 00:06:50.899 --> 00:06:52.240 read it without knowing this. Let's just walk 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:54.560 through the timeline. March 4th, 1977. March 00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.759 4th, 1977. Andres Caicedo is back in Cali. The 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:00.060 very first printed copy of his novel is delivered 00:07:00.060 --> 00:07:01.980 to him. This is the moment every writer dreams 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:04.160 of, right? Absolutely. Holding the physical thing 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:06.139 in your hands. The manifestation of all your 00:07:06.139 --> 00:07:08.819 work. He receives the book in the afternoon. 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.079 In the afternoon. And on that exact same afternoon, 00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:14.339 he commits suicide. He takes 60 pills a second. 00:07:14.360 --> 00:07:16.339 It gives me chills every time I hear it. It's 00:07:16.339 --> 00:07:20.139 so precise. It's so... theatrical in a way. It's 00:07:20.139 --> 00:07:21.980 not like he waited a week to see the reviews 00:07:21.980 --> 00:07:24.139 or a month to see how it's sold. It's immediate. 00:07:24.500 --> 00:07:26.300 It changes everything about how you interpret 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:29.639 the title, doesn't it? Non la musica. Long live 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:31.980 the music. It implies a transfer of energy. Yes. 00:07:32.160 --> 00:07:35.220 The author dies so the music can live. It's like 00:07:35.220 --> 00:07:37.740 he saw the book as the final act. It's the concept 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:39.800 of the vessel, right? He poured himself into 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:42.939 it. Exactly. It's as if he decided, I have put 00:07:42.939 --> 00:07:45.920 everything I am, all my life force, into this 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:48.720 object. The vessel is now empty. The vessel is 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:52.060 broken, but the contents, the music will spill 00:07:52.060 --> 00:07:54.839 out and live forever. It's a final act, a drop 00:07:54.839 --> 00:07:57.819 of the mic that just echoes for 50 years. And 00:07:57.819 --> 00:08:00.620 despite this incredibly dark beginning, or maybe 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:03.019 because of it, the book doesn't disappear. Far 00:08:03.019 --> 00:08:05.279 from it. It becomes this massive cult classic. 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:08.459 It's strange because Caicedo himself, in a letter, 00:08:08.600 --> 00:08:11.560 called the book the result of an ephemeral curiosity. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:14.220 He almost downplayed it before he did it. But 00:08:14.220 --> 00:08:17.579 the readers, the young people, they latched onto 00:08:17.579 --> 00:08:20.519 it. It became the Bible for disaffected youth 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:23.759 in Colombia and across Latin America. It's viewed 00:08:23.759 --> 00:08:25.899 as one of the most important novels of the second 00:08:25.899 --> 00:08:28.360 half of the 20th century because it captured 00:08:28.360 --> 00:08:31.319 a specific kind of urban despair that, frankly, 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:33.700 no one else was writing about. So we have the 00:08:33.700 --> 00:08:36.100 author's tragic exit. Now we need to look at 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:38.360 the world he left behind in those pages. Because 00:08:38.360 --> 00:08:40.419 the setting, it's not just a backdrop, it's an 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:43.379 ecosystem. We are in Cali, Colombia. Yes, the 00:08:43.379 --> 00:08:46.340 world capital of salsa. But in the 1970s, it's 00:08:46.340 --> 00:08:48.759 a city in major transition, a city at war with 00:08:48.759 --> 00:08:51.379 itself. The novel maps the city out for you. 00:08:51.659 --> 00:08:54.059 And it's not a regular map, it's a class map. 00:08:54.200 --> 00:08:56.799 It's a hierarchy of concrete and greenery, of 00:08:56.799 --> 00:08:59.220 rich and poor. That's a great way to put it. 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:01.600 The source material highlights how Caicedo treats 00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:04.529 the city like a living anatomy. You have the 00:09:04.529 --> 00:09:06.830 north and you have the south. And, you know, 00:09:06.830 --> 00:09:08.610 the rule is that never the twain shall meet. 00:09:08.710 --> 00:09:10.789 Until our protagonist decides to break all the 00:09:10.789 --> 00:09:13.210 rules. So let's break down that geography. Let's 00:09:13.210 --> 00:09:15.909 start where she starts, in the north. Okay, so 00:09:15.909 --> 00:09:19.450 the privileged north. This is La Sexta Sixth 00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:22.169 Avenue. This is Parque Versailles. The source 00:09:22.169 --> 00:09:26.090 describes these as magical places. Magical. Magical 00:09:26.090 --> 00:09:28.149 in a very specific way. This is where the money 00:09:28.149 --> 00:09:30.649 is. This is where the American influence is strongest. 00:09:30.909 --> 00:09:33.710 It's orderly. It's clean. It's manicured. It's 00:09:33.710 --> 00:09:35.929 where the good families live. It's a bubble. 00:09:36.090 --> 00:09:38.929 But the book doesn't stay there. It moves. It 00:09:38.929 --> 00:09:41.889 descends. It moves south. Into the heat. Into 00:09:41.889 --> 00:09:44.889 the ghetto. We see places like the Caseta Panamericana. 00:09:45.129 --> 00:09:47.269 Which is an interesting landmark, right? That 00:09:47.269 --> 00:09:50.049 was built for the 1971 Pan American Games. Right. 00:09:50.149 --> 00:09:52.750 And that context is crucial. The Pan American 00:09:52.750 --> 00:09:55.190 Games were this moment where Cali tried to present 00:09:55.190 --> 00:09:56.990 itself to the world as this modern international 00:09:56.990 --> 00:10:00.750 city. They built these massive, almost brutalist, 00:10:00.769 --> 00:10:03.570 concrete sports complexes. And a projection of 00:10:03.570 --> 00:10:06.350 progress. A projection, exactly. But for the 00:10:06.350 --> 00:10:08.490 people in the novel, these structures are almost 00:10:08.490 --> 00:10:11.000 alien. They represent a promise of modernity 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:12.980 that never actually reached the poor people living 00:10:12.980 --> 00:10:14.919 right next to them. So you have this infrastructure 00:10:14.919 --> 00:10:17.419 of international sports sitting right there in 00:10:17.419 --> 00:10:20.879 the south next to the Pants River. And then you 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:23.899 have what the book calls the hideouts. The final 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:27.549 stretches of 15th Street. And what goes on in 00:10:27.549 --> 00:10:29.429 La Quince? Everything the North is terrified 00:10:29.429 --> 00:10:33.850 of. Sex, salsa, drugs, violence. This is the 00:10:33.850 --> 00:10:35.809 underbelly. This is where the real party happens. 00:10:35.889 --> 00:10:39.330 It's chaotic, it's dangerous, and it's pulsating 00:10:39.330 --> 00:10:42.250 with life. So the city is stratified. You have 00:10:42.250 --> 00:10:45.450 the magical, privileged, almost air -conditioned 00:10:45.450 --> 00:10:48.250 North and the raw, rhythmic, dangerous South. 00:10:49.309 --> 00:10:51.330 And the protagonist, she's our guide through 00:10:51.330 --> 00:10:53.610 this landscape. Yes. Maria del Carmen Huerta. 00:10:53.809 --> 00:10:55.710 Let's talk about her because she isn't from the 00:10:55.710 --> 00:10:57.889 ghetto. She's a tourist in her own city, at least 00:10:57.889 --> 00:11:00.549 at first. Oh, absolutely. She is the archetype 00:11:00.549 --> 00:11:03.529 of the Niña Bien, the good girl. She's blonde 00:11:03.529 --> 00:11:05.710 from a very wealthy family, daughter of a high 00:11:05.710 --> 00:11:07.870 society photographer. She has everything that 00:11:07.870 --> 00:11:10.350 society says she should want. The clothes, the 00:11:10.350 --> 00:11:12.789 parties, the future. So what drives her? Why 00:11:12.789 --> 00:11:15.090 does she leave the magic of Sixth Avenue to go 00:11:15.090 --> 00:11:18.269 hang out in the slums? Boredom. pure existential 00:11:18.269 --> 00:11:21.210 soul -crushing boredom. It's that simple. It's 00:11:21.210 --> 00:11:24.149 that profound. Living in the high class has become 00:11:24.149 --> 00:11:27.250 stale for her. It's sterile. It's predictable. 00:11:27.629 --> 00:11:30.370 She looks at her life and she sees a script written 00:11:30.370 --> 00:11:32.309 by someone else and she just wants to tear it 00:11:32.309 --> 00:11:34.470 up. She decides she needs to explore the streets 00:11:34.470 --> 00:11:37.730 to feel something, anything real. The source 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:39.809 material makes a really interesting and frankly 00:11:39.809 --> 00:11:43.289 a very bold comparison here. It compares her 00:11:43.289 --> 00:11:46.299 journey to Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. Which is 00:11:46.299 --> 00:11:48.399 a heavy comparison. It's not one you make lightly. 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:51.600 Siddhartha is about this epic spiritual journey, 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:54.019 moving from teacher to teacher, from experience 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.460 to experience, all in the search for enlightenment. 00:11:56.700 --> 00:11:58.879 Maria del Carmen is doing the exact same thing. 00:11:58.940 --> 00:12:01.419 She's on a quest. But instead of ascetics and 00:12:01.419 --> 00:12:03.759 river ferrymen, she's moving through the subcultures 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:07.259 of 1970s Cali. She is seeking enlightenment through 00:12:07.259 --> 00:12:11.059 sin. Through degradation, through music. And 00:12:11.059 --> 00:12:13.940 there are three very distinct stages to her descent 00:12:13.940 --> 00:12:16.159 or her enlightenment, depending on how you look 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:18.120 at it. Yes. Let's walk through them because each 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:20.240 one represents a different musical and cultural 00:12:20.240 --> 00:12:24.240 force at play in the city. Stage one, the Marxists. 00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:26.759 Right. And we need to place this in its time. 00:12:27.899 --> 00:12:31.149 1970s Latin America. Marxism isn't just a theory 00:12:31.149 --> 00:12:33.450 you read in a political science class. It's the 00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:36.289 dominant cultural gravity for young intellectuals. 00:12:36.289 --> 00:12:38.830 If you were young, smart, and at a university 00:12:38.830 --> 00:12:41.690 in 1970s Columbia, you were basically expected 00:12:41.690 --> 00:12:43.909 to be a Marxist. It was the uniform. Exactly. 00:12:44.070 --> 00:12:47.169 It was the correct way to rebel. You grow your 00:12:47.169 --> 00:12:49.549 hair out, you put on a backpack, you carry the 00:12:49.549 --> 00:12:51.330 right books, and you talk about the revolution. 00:12:51.710 --> 00:12:55.169 But Caicedo... He paints a very specific, almost 00:12:55.169 --> 00:12:58.409 mocking picture of them in the book. He satirizes 00:12:58.409 --> 00:13:01.049 them mercilessly. He describes them as the ones 00:13:01.049 --> 00:13:03.289 with the backpacks. It's so dismissive. And what 00:13:03.289 --> 00:13:05.190 do they do? They walk around the streets reading 00:13:05.190 --> 00:13:08.090 Das Kapital aloud. Reading it to who? To anyone. 00:13:08.230 --> 00:13:10.590 To the air. It's completely performative. They're 00:13:10.590 --> 00:13:12.889 described not as revolutionaries, but as preachers. 00:13:13.110 --> 00:13:16.850 That's such a damning word. Preachers. It implies 00:13:16.850 --> 00:13:19.470 they aren't dangerous subversives. They're just 00:13:19.470 --> 00:13:21.629 a new kind of church with a new kind of dogma. 00:13:22.090 --> 00:13:25.340 Precisely. To Maria, the young Marxist revolutionary 00:13:25.340 --> 00:13:28.580 isn't a dangerous guerrilla fighter. He's just 00:13:28.580 --> 00:13:30.960 another version of a Catholic priest telling 00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:33.500 her what she should do, what she should think. 00:13:33.870 --> 00:13:36.169 Don't listen to American rock. It's imperialist. 00:13:36.450 --> 00:13:38.850 Don't dance to salsa. It's the opiate of the 00:13:38.850 --> 00:13:41.669 masses. Read this book. It's all homework. It's 00:13:41.669 --> 00:13:45.190 intellectual. It's dry. It's the eat your vegetables 00:13:45.190 --> 00:13:48.590 version of rebellion. Exactly. And Maria, who 00:13:48.590 --> 00:13:51.470 is driven by this raw hunger for sensation, not 00:13:51.470 --> 00:13:54.190 for theory, she looks at the scene and just says, 00:13:54.289 --> 00:13:56.799 this is boring. The book says she wants more 00:13:56.799 --> 00:13:59.279 pure emotions. She doesn't want to analyze the 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:01.340 struggle of the proletariat. She wants to feel 00:14:01.340 --> 00:14:03.440 the pavement under her feet and the base in her 00:14:03.440 --> 00:14:07.039 chest. So she ditches the Marxists and their 00:14:07.039 --> 00:14:10.120 heavy books. This leads her to stage two, The 00:14:10.120 --> 00:14:12.549 Rockers. Now we're getting into what some critics 00:14:12.549 --> 00:14:14.750 call the tropical gothic element of the book. 00:14:14.830 --> 00:14:16.809 This is where the American influence really kicks 00:14:16.809 --> 00:14:19.169 in hard. These aren't just any local kids. Yeah, 00:14:19.190 --> 00:14:20.870 these are the children of the elite, the children 00:14:20.870 --> 00:14:22.710 of parents who studied in the United States and 00:14:22.710 --> 00:14:24.850 then returned to Cali, bringing a piece of America 00:14:24.850 --> 00:14:28.149 back with them. The Coca -Cola kids. Right. They 00:14:28.149 --> 00:14:30.330 are bringing back that counterculture aesthetic 00:14:30.330 --> 00:14:32.830 they saw or heard about in the U .S. They're 00:14:32.830 --> 00:14:35.409 wearing gang clothes. They're adopting the posture 00:14:35.409 --> 00:14:37.850 of the rebellious American teenager. And the 00:14:37.850 --> 00:14:39.610 soundtrack here is completely different. It's 00:14:39.610 --> 00:14:41.750 not theory. It's the Rolling Stones. It's the 00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:44.850 blues. Yeah. It's jagged, electric, dangerous 00:14:44.850 --> 00:14:48.169 sounding noise. And the main activity. Drugs. 00:14:48.450 --> 00:14:51.470 But again, it's very specific. Maria joins this 00:14:51.470 --> 00:14:54.490 gang with the explicit purpose of trying any 00:14:54.490 --> 00:14:57.190 kind of drugs she can find while listening to 00:14:57.190 --> 00:15:00.250 rock and roll. She wants to obliterate her consciousness 00:15:00.250 --> 00:15:02.710 to see where the music takes her when her mind 00:15:02.710 --> 00:15:05.409 is altered. It's a definite step up in intensity 00:15:05.409 --> 00:15:08.429 from the Marxists. You go from reading Das Kapital 00:15:08.429 --> 00:15:10.750 on a park bench to dropping acid with the Rolling 00:15:10.750 --> 00:15:12.990 Stones blasting. It is. It's a move from the 00:15:12.990 --> 00:15:16.029 mind to the body. But Casito subtly suggests 00:15:16.029 --> 00:15:20.210 that even this is. It's still a bit of a performance. 00:15:20.330 --> 00:15:23.070 It's an imported rebellion. It's not of the earth 00:15:23.070 --> 00:15:25.210 of Cali. It's still a bit of a costume, just 00:15:25.210 --> 00:15:26.970 a different one. So it's not the real thing yet. 00:15:27.009 --> 00:15:28.690 Where does she go when she wants the real thing? 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:31.070 She goes to the source. She goes deeper south. 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:35.629 Stage three, the salsa, the abyss. This is the 00:15:35.629 --> 00:15:38.330 ultimate destination. The novel describes this 00:15:38.330 --> 00:15:41.929 as a bottomless pit of debauchery. That's a direct 00:15:41.929 --> 00:15:44.110 quote. And the key thing here is that she relishes 00:15:44.110 --> 00:15:46.580 it. She doesn't fall into it accidentally. She 00:15:46.580 --> 00:15:49.519 dives in headfirst. She embraces it. She realizes 00:15:49.519 --> 00:15:51.980 that the rhythm of salsa, the sweat of the dantal, 00:15:52.139 --> 00:15:54.779 the casual violence of the street, that is where 00:15:54.779 --> 00:15:56.779 life is being lived at its most intense. And 00:15:56.779 --> 00:15:58.600 this is where the title Live Forever takes on 00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.879 that really dark, ironic edge we hinted at. Absolutely. 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:05.139 The source describes her final journey as a secret 00:16:05.139 --> 00:16:08.440 pact with death itself. It's not about temporary 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:10.860 escape anymore. It's a commitment. It's a commitment. 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:13.679 It involves an ever more frantic dance. The novel 00:16:13.679 --> 00:16:16.799 itself is seen as an invitation to a party without 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:19.480 end. A party without end? That sounds great on 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:23.159 a flyer for a club. But in reality, if the party 00:16:23.159 --> 00:16:25.039 never ends, you never go home. You never sleep. 00:16:25.159 --> 00:16:26.779 You never recover. You just keep going until 00:16:26.779 --> 00:16:29.759 you burn out. Until you disintegrate. Precisely. 00:16:29.899 --> 00:16:33.039 It's a celebration of music, yes, but music as 00:16:33.039 --> 00:16:36.559 a consuming force, a force that literally devours 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:39.299 the listener. Maria del Carmen dissolves into 00:16:39.299 --> 00:16:41.379 the music, she loses her identity, her class 00:16:41.379 --> 00:16:44.080 status, her future, and she becomes just another 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:48.259 body moving to the beat forever. So to sum up 00:16:48.259 --> 00:16:51.090 this half. We have a protagonist who rejects 00:16:51.090 --> 00:16:53.950 her high class origins, rejects the intellectualism 00:16:53.950 --> 00:16:56.529 of the Marxists, dabbles in the imported rebellion 00:16:56.529 --> 00:16:59.129 of the rockers, and finally loses herself completely 00:16:59.129 --> 00:17:01.769 in the local, visceral, all -consuming rhythm 00:17:01.769 --> 00:17:04.089 of salsa and sex in the ghetto. And the author 00:17:04.089 --> 00:17:06.210 kills himself the day the book is released. That's 00:17:06.210 --> 00:17:08.509 just heavy. It is a heavy, heavy artifact. It's 00:17:08.509 --> 00:17:10.789 a book that basically says the only way to truly 00:17:10.789 --> 00:17:13.410 live is to destroy yourself. That is the thesis 00:17:13.410 --> 00:17:16.250 of Que Viva La Musica. It's a beautiful, terrifying 00:17:16.250 --> 00:17:19.519 idea. Okay. Now. I want you to take a deep breath. 00:17:19.619 --> 00:17:21.079 We are going to pivot. And when I say pivot, 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:23.500 I mean we are going to snap our necks looking 00:17:23.500 --> 00:17:25.240 in the other direction. Let's do it. I'm ready 00:17:25.240 --> 00:17:28.480 for some whiplash. We are leaving 1977, Callie. 00:17:28.660 --> 00:17:31.559 We are leaving the suicide packs, the literary 00:17:31.559 --> 00:17:34.259 canon, the existential dread. We are traveling 00:17:34.259 --> 00:17:37.339 30 years into the future, to the mid -2000s, 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:41.599 to the glitzy, pyrotechnic, steroid -fueled world 00:17:41.599 --> 00:17:44.500 of the WWE. A different universe entirely. It's 00:17:44.500 --> 00:17:46.740 hard to imagine a more jarring transition. Enter 00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:49.910 source number two. The album Kiro Verveer. I 00:17:49.910 --> 00:17:52.849 want to live. Immediately, just in the title, 00:17:52.950 --> 00:17:55.269 we have a counter -argument. Not live forever 00:17:55.269 --> 00:17:58.069 in some ironic, death -defying, artistic way, 00:17:58.150 --> 00:18:01.069 but I want to live in a very literal, present 00:18:01.069 --> 00:18:03.630 tense, personal desire. It's an affirmation. 00:18:03.630 --> 00:18:05.849 It's a goal. It's the opposite of a suicide note. 00:18:06.029 --> 00:18:08.730 The artist here is Lillian Garcia. For those 00:18:08.730 --> 00:18:10.269 in our audience who might not watch wrestling, 00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:13.210 who is she? She was, for a very long time, the 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:16.210 voice of the WWE. She was the primary ring announcer 00:18:16.210 --> 00:18:18.789 for their flagship show, Monday Night Raw. She'd 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:20.410 stand in the center of the ring, dressed to the 00:18:20.410 --> 00:18:22.950 nines, and introduce the wrestlers with this 00:18:22.950 --> 00:18:25.609 incredible, powerful voice. But she wasn't a 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:27.950 wrestler herself. No, not at all. She was a singer. 00:18:28.029 --> 00:18:30.049 That was her background. And she has Spanish 00:18:30.049 --> 00:18:31.910 and Puerto Rican heritage, which is a key part 00:18:31.910 --> 00:18:34.369 of the story. And the origin story of this album 00:18:34.369 --> 00:18:37.569 is, well, it's one of those things that could 00:18:37.569 --> 00:18:40.269 only happen in the bizarre corporate machinery 00:18:40.269 --> 00:18:42.630 of professional wrestling. It's a corporate fairy 00:18:42.630 --> 00:18:45.170 tale, in a way. It starts at a pay -per -view 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:48.630 event called New Year's Revolution in 2005. Which, 00:18:48.670 --> 00:18:50.890 ironically, sounds like a Marxist event from 00:18:50.890 --> 00:18:53.210 the first half of our deep dive. Right, but it's 00:18:53.210 --> 00:18:55.369 actually just a bunch of guys in spandex hitting 00:18:55.369 --> 00:18:58.670 each other. And Lillian Garcia is there to perform 00:18:58.670 --> 00:19:01.170 the U .S. national anthem. A standard part of 00:19:01.170 --> 00:19:03.569 any major American sporting event. But she does 00:19:03.569 --> 00:19:05.890 something bold. She does it in Spanish. That 00:19:05.890 --> 00:19:08.849 is a very bold move, especially in 2005 America. 00:19:09.589 --> 00:19:12.009 That's a statement. It creates a buzz. It gets 00:19:12.009 --> 00:19:14.509 people talking. And it catches the ear of one 00:19:14.509 --> 00:19:18.230 very specific, very powerful person. The chairman 00:19:18.230 --> 00:19:21.230 of the WWE, Vince McMahon. The boss himself. 00:19:21.829 --> 00:19:25.470 The billionaire. The puppet mess. The boss. After 00:19:25.470 --> 00:19:27.650 hearing that performance, McMahon calls her into 00:19:27.650 --> 00:19:30.309 his office. And he suggests the concept of her 00:19:30.309 --> 00:19:32.880 recording a Spanish language album. Okay, let's 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:35.160 pause on the irony here for a second. Andres 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:37.680 Caicedo was brutally rejected by Roger Corman, 00:19:37.880 --> 00:19:40.700 the B -movie mogul he admired, and was forced 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.660 to write his masterpiece in isolation and frustration. 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:48.000 Lillian Garcia performs one song, and the mogul 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:51.079 Vince McMahon opens a door and says, let's make 00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:53.799 a product. It's the perfect illustration of the 00:19:53.799 --> 00:19:56.079 difference between an underground, counterculture 00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:59.339 work of art and a mainstream, corporate -backed 00:19:59.339 --> 00:20:02.380 production. This album wasn't born from angst 00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:04.920 in a lonely L .A. apartment. It was born from 00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:06.640 a strategy meeting in Stanford, Connecticut. 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:09.240 But let's be fair to the music. And this is where 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.319 the deep dive gets really interesting. Because 00:20:11.319 --> 00:20:13.200 usually when a wrestling company releases an 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:15.279 album, it's a gimmick. It's, you know, the wrestling 00:20:15.279 --> 00:20:18.019 boot band or something. It's a joke. Total kish. 00:20:18.220 --> 00:20:22.920 But Kiro Vivier. It isn't a joke. It's weirdly 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:25.019 competent. It's actually a very polished piece 00:20:25.019 --> 00:20:28.329 of Latin pop. It's hyper -competent. And that's 00:20:28.329 --> 00:20:31.130 because in 2007, WWE wasn't just a wrestling 00:20:31.130 --> 00:20:33.690 company anymore. They were aggressively trying 00:20:33.690 --> 00:20:36.430 to become a global media conglomerate. They were 00:20:36.430 --> 00:20:38.750 looking at the demographics. They saw the explosion 00:20:38.750 --> 00:20:41.089 of the Hispanic market in the U .S. So this wasn't 00:20:41.089 --> 00:20:43.609 just about Lillian has a nice voice. This was 00:20:43.609 --> 00:20:46.309 a strategic move. This was market penetration. 00:20:46.650 --> 00:20:51.289 100 percent. But Vince McMahon, who is famously 00:20:51.289 --> 00:20:53.809 a total. Control Freak did something very smart 00:20:53.809 --> 00:20:56.190 here. He realized he didn't know how to make 00:20:56.190 --> 00:20:59.009 authentic Latin pop music. So he went out and 00:20:59.009 --> 00:21:01.250 hired the people who did. The album was recorded 00:21:01.250 --> 00:21:03.690 in Miami with producers Tim Mitchell and George 00:21:03.690 --> 00:21:06.450 Noriega. And these aren't wrestling guys. These 00:21:06.450 --> 00:21:08.730 are the architects of the Latin explosion of 00:21:08.730 --> 00:21:11.609 the late 90s and early 2000s. These are the guys 00:21:11.609 --> 00:21:14.289 who built the sound for Shakira. They worked 00:21:14.289 --> 00:21:15.829 with Ricky Martin. They worked with Jennifer 00:21:15.829 --> 00:21:18.279 Lopez. They were the real deal. So Vince McMahon 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:20.839 basically wrote a blank check to buy authenticity 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:23.400 for his project. Exactly. He rented the credibility 00:21:23.400 --> 00:21:26.200 and they didn't stop there. For extra star power, 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:28.980 they brought in John Cicada. Latin Grammy winner 00:21:28.980 --> 00:21:31.440 John Cicada. The guy who sang Just Another Day. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:34.240 I mean, he's royalty in that world. A huge name. 00:21:34.380 --> 00:21:37.559 A huge name. And he collaborates on several tracks. 00:21:37.819 --> 00:21:42.180 They recorded two duets, Adande, and its English 00:21:42.180 --> 00:21:45.339 version, Where Did Love Go? And the source material 00:21:45.339 --> 00:21:47.119 mentions something interesting about how they 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:49.400 work, that it wasn't just phoned in. Yeah, that's 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:51.359 right. Initially, they recorded their parts separately, 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:53.180 which is pretty common in the industry, you know, 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:54.859 sending files back and forth. But they actually 00:21:54.859 --> 00:21:58.220 met up in the studio to finalize the tracks together, 00:21:58.319 --> 00:22:00.019 to get the blend right. So there was a genuine 00:22:00.019 --> 00:22:02.779 artistic collaboration there. Cicada was invested. 00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:05.420 And Lillian Garcia, she wasn't just a puppet 00:22:05.420 --> 00:22:07.440 here, was she? She wasn't just a voice for hire. 00:22:07.950 --> 00:22:09.809 Oh, and that's a really important thing to note. 00:22:09.910 --> 00:22:12.930 She co -wrote 11 of the 12 songs on the album. 00:22:13.069 --> 00:22:15.829 That's significant. That's a huge creative contribution. 00:22:16.190 --> 00:22:18.549 It is. It shows she had a voice, an authorial 00:22:18.549 --> 00:22:21.930 voice, in the project. Her family even contributed 00:22:21.930 --> 00:22:24.730 to the lyrics on some of the songs. So while 00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:27.009 the impetus for the album came from Vince McMahon, 00:22:27.190 --> 00:22:29.869 the strategy, the actual content was clearly 00:22:29.869 --> 00:22:32.789 very personal to her and her heritage. So the 00:22:32.789 --> 00:22:36.769 album drops October 9, 2007. It's released as 00:22:36.769 --> 00:22:39.930 a joint venture by WWE Music Group and Universal 00:22:39.930 --> 00:22:42.430 Music Latin Entertainment. A massive corporate 00:22:42.430 --> 00:22:44.950 partnership. This was a serious release. And 00:22:44.950 --> 00:22:47.450 the promotion machine kicks into high gear. She 00:22:47.450 --> 00:22:50.730 performs the title track live on WWE Raw the 00:22:50.730 --> 00:22:53.410 night before the release. Which is just massive 00:22:53.410 --> 00:22:56.230 exposure. We are talking about millions of viewers 00:22:56.230 --> 00:22:59.329 worldwide. It's a bigger audience in five minutes 00:22:59.329 --> 00:23:02.210 than Andres Caicedo had in... his entire lifetime. 00:23:02.369 --> 00:23:04.250 And she holds a launch event at the Knitting 00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:06.589 Factory in New York City. She's on TV. She's 00:23:06.589 --> 00:23:08.710 on the radio. She's everywhere. And the goal 00:23:08.710 --> 00:23:11.730 was explicitly stated by her in interviews. Garcia 00:23:11.730 --> 00:23:13.730 wanted to appeal to both Spanish -speaking and 00:23:13.730 --> 00:23:15.529 non -Spanish -speaking audiences. She wanted 00:23:15.529 --> 00:23:17.589 to cross over. This was an ambitious project. 00:23:17.910 --> 00:23:20.190 So let's pause and really look at the so what 00:23:20.190 --> 00:23:22.450 here. We've got the dark, suicidal, literary 00:23:22.450 --> 00:23:25.690 masterpiece from Callie and the polished, ambitious, 00:23:25.890 --> 00:23:29.190 corporate pop album from the WWE. Why are we 00:23:29.190 --> 00:23:31.289 really comparing them? Because when you lay them 00:23:31.289 --> 00:23:33.910 side by side, they create this incredible dialogue 00:23:33.910 --> 00:23:37.069 about what music does for us. And specifically, 00:23:37.210 --> 00:23:38.789 I think it highlights the difference between 00:23:38.789 --> 00:23:41.829 music as a kind of religion and music as a utility. 00:23:42.230 --> 00:23:44.849 Okay, let's unpack that. In Caicedo's novel, 00:23:45.009 --> 00:23:48.549 music is a religion. Yes. In the novel, music 00:23:48.549 --> 00:23:50.869 is a vehicle for descent into the divine or the 00:23:50.869 --> 00:23:53.250 profane, which for him is the same thing. So 00:23:53.250 --> 00:23:55.890 it's rock and blues moves to salsa, but it's 00:23:55.890 --> 00:23:58.250 always pulling Rhea down deeper into the raw 00:23:58.250 --> 00:24:00.569 experience of life. It's the soundtrack to the 00:24:00.569 --> 00:24:02.829 abyss. It is. It's linked to debauchery. It's 00:24:02.829 --> 00:24:05.230 linked to drugs. It's a complete rejection of 00:24:05.230 --> 00:24:08.329 societal norms. It's a party without end that 00:24:08.329 --> 00:24:11.049 leads directly to a pact with death. The music 00:24:11.049 --> 00:24:13.500 consumes the listener. You sacrifice yourself 00:24:13.500 --> 00:24:16.619 to the beat. And in Garcia's album, music is 00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:19.299 a utility. Music is a tool. It's a vehicle for 00:24:19.299 --> 00:24:21.099 ascent. It's a ladder. It's about professional 00:24:21.099 --> 00:24:23.180 ambition. It's about celebrating your heritage, 00:24:23.299 --> 00:24:25.819 yes, but in a way that is marketable and accessible. 00:24:26.140 --> 00:24:28.920 It's a structured, produced, corporate -backed 00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:32.400 affirmation of life. Quiero vivir. I want to 00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:35.420 live. It directly opposes the suicidal context 00:24:35.420 --> 00:24:38.960 of Caicedo's work. It's music as a career move, 00:24:39.160 --> 00:24:41.920 not music as a death wish. It's organic angst 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:44.240 versus synthesized passion. And the scary part, 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:47.039 the synthesized passion is actually really catchy. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:49.799 The production quality is top notch. It forces 00:24:49.799 --> 00:24:52.680 us to ask, does the origin of the art even matter 00:24:52.680 --> 00:24:55.819 if the hook is good? That is the ultimate question, 00:24:55.880 --> 00:24:57.759 isn't it? And it gets even spookier when you 00:24:57.759 --> 00:24:59.460 look at the album's track list. I want to treat 00:24:59.460 --> 00:25:02.000 Garcia's track list almost like a counter narrative 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:05.220 to Caicedo's novel. The coincidences are just... 00:25:05.450 --> 00:25:07.869 They're really weird. Okay, let's do that. All 00:25:07.869 --> 00:25:09.369 right, track two on the album is called Angel. 00:25:09.549 --> 00:25:13.009 Okay, so in the novel, Maria descends into the 00:25:13.009 --> 00:25:15.869 ghetto, into the hideouts of sex and salsa. She's 00:25:15.869 --> 00:25:17.930 the opposite of an angel, or maybe she's a fallen 00:25:17.930 --> 00:25:21.289 one. The song Angel suggests a purity or a guardian, 00:25:21.410 --> 00:25:24.349 a safety net, that is completely absent in Caicedo's 00:25:24.349 --> 00:25:26.589 Cali. Totally absent. Then we have track four, 00:25:26.769 --> 00:25:29.130 Descent of Murata. It means falling out of love. 00:25:29.549 --> 00:25:31.849 That's a perfect parallel. Maria falls out of 00:25:31.849 --> 00:25:33.930 love with her social class. She falls out of 00:25:33.930 --> 00:25:36.509 love with the preachy Marxists. She is constantly 00:25:36.509 --> 00:25:38.329 detaching herself from the structures around 00:25:38.329 --> 00:25:40.089 her. But in the pop song, it's about a breakup 00:25:40.089 --> 00:25:42.670 with a boy. In the novel, it's about a complete 00:25:42.670 --> 00:25:45.390 societal rupture. The personal versus the systemic. 00:25:45.569 --> 00:25:47.369 Exactly. And here's the one that really stopped 00:25:47.369 --> 00:25:50.710 me in my tracks. Track seven. The title is Estoy 00:25:50.710 --> 00:25:54.980 Androgada. I am drugged or I am hooked. Now, 00:25:55.059 --> 00:25:58.000 in the context of a 2007 Latin pop song, this 00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:00.279 is obviously a metaphor for love, right? I'm 00:26:00.279 --> 00:26:02.559 addicted to you. Your love is my drug. It's a 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:05.180 cliche. A total pop music cliche. But in the 00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:08.680 context of Que Viva La Musica, this is shockingly 00:26:08.680 --> 00:26:11.839 literal. It's unbelievable. Maria joins the rock 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:14.740 gang specifically to get high. She is androgada 00:26:14.740 --> 00:26:17.720 in the most visceral chemical sense of the word. 00:26:18.319 --> 00:26:21.220 It is an eerie, almost unsettling coincidence 00:26:21.220 --> 00:26:24.779 that the WWE album contains a track title that 00:26:24.779 --> 00:26:27.000 perfectly describes the protagonist's state in 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.460 the literary masterpiece. It's like the album 00:26:29.460 --> 00:26:32.380 is a funhouse mirror version of the book. It's 00:26:32.380 --> 00:26:35.480 reflecting the same words, the same themes, love. 00:26:36.089 --> 00:26:39.930 drugs, life, but they're all distorted and sanitized, 00:26:39.970 --> 00:26:42.430 scrubbed clean for mass consumption. They're 00:26:42.430 --> 00:26:44.750 safe versions of dangerous things. And maybe 00:26:44.750 --> 00:26:46.849 that's what pop music is, isn't it? It gives 00:26:46.849 --> 00:26:49.529 you the feeling of danger without any of the 00:26:49.529 --> 00:26:52.509 actual risk. Kaisido's book, on the other hand, 00:26:52.509 --> 00:26:54.210 gives you all the risk. Then you have other tracks 00:26:54.210 --> 00:26:58.210 like Under in Love and Kiseria. What would it 00:26:58.210 --> 00:27:00.829 be? These are just pure pop reflections on emotion. 00:27:00.990 --> 00:27:03.250 They represent those pure emotions Maria was 00:27:03.250 --> 00:27:05.630 searching for in the streets. But in the album, 00:27:05.670 --> 00:27:07.630 they're packaged. They're three -minute pop songs 00:27:07.630 --> 00:27:10.049 with a verse and a chorus. In the novel, those 00:27:10.049 --> 00:27:13.309 emotions are raw, dangerous, and they are endless. 00:27:13.410 --> 00:27:15.250 They don't have a neat structure. It's the difference 00:27:15.250 --> 00:27:17.549 between a roller coaster and jumping off a cliff. 00:27:17.809 --> 00:27:20.089 That is a brilliant analogy. The album is a roller 00:27:20.089 --> 00:27:22.950 coaster. It has thrilling highs and lows, but 00:27:22.950 --> 00:27:24.829 it's engineered to bring you back safely to the 00:27:24.829 --> 00:27:26.670 platform at the end. You get off and you buy 00:27:26.670 --> 00:27:29.089 a t -shirt. and the novel the novel is the jump 00:27:29.089 --> 00:27:31.190 you don't come back from it the same I want to 00:27:31.190 --> 00:27:33.150 touch on the cultural context again, because 00:27:33.150 --> 00:27:37.190 the years here matter so much. 1977 versus 2007, 00:27:37.450 --> 00:27:39.849 30 years apart. It's a different world. 1977, 00:27:40.410 --> 00:27:42.950 Colombia, you have this chaotic urban transformation. 00:27:43.309 --> 00:27:45.470 We mentioned the Pan American Games infrastructure, 00:27:45.690 --> 00:27:48.730 the Caseta Panamericana. It's a symbol of this 00:27:48.730 --> 00:27:51.349 fake modernity. A promise that wasn't kept. Right. 00:27:51.450 --> 00:27:53.849 And you had this violent clash of ideologies. 00:27:54.069 --> 00:27:56.890 Marxism is the dominant intellectual force. U 00:27:56.890 --> 00:27:59.680 .S. pop culture rock music is invading. via the 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:01.759 children of the wealthy. And then you have the 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:04.059 local identity salsa bubbling up from the streets, 00:28:04.079 --> 00:28:07.019 from the underclass. It's a chaotic, unstable 00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:11.079 mix that society is fracturing. And 2007 USA? 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:13.279 It's a different kind of transformation. It's 00:28:13.279 --> 00:28:15.440 the consolidation of Latin pop within the mainstream. 00:28:15.819 --> 00:28:18.039 It's not a culture war. It's a marketing plan. 00:28:18.420 --> 00:28:20.380 You have an American wrestling company realizing 00:28:20.380 --> 00:28:22.940 that the Hispanic market is huge and deciding 00:28:22.940 --> 00:28:25.160 to cater to it. It's the era of globalization 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:27.339 and corporate synergy. It's less about class 00:28:27.339 --> 00:28:30.480 war and more about market share. Cynical, but 00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:32.720 true. And yet both works are using the Spanish 00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:34.539 language to do it. Both are saying, look at me, 00:28:34.619 --> 00:28:36.920 hear me, just for vastly different reasons. So 00:28:36.920 --> 00:28:39.240 let's try to synthesize this. What does this 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:42.720 all mean? We have these two artifacts. One says, 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.720 live forever, and its author immediately dies. 00:28:46.059 --> 00:28:48.339 The other says, I want to live, and it's used 00:28:48.339 --> 00:28:51.000 to build a career. I think it comes down to the 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:54.279 nature of the party. Caicedo saw life and music 00:28:54.279 --> 00:28:57.930 as this intense burning flame. And his philosophy 00:28:57.930 --> 00:28:59.750 was that if you really live it, if you really 00:28:59.750 --> 00:29:02.109 give yourself over to the music, you burn out. 00:29:02.269 --> 00:29:05.089 You live forever by dying young, leaving a beautiful 00:29:05.089 --> 00:29:07.430 corpse and a masterpiece. The James Dean effect, 00:29:07.609 --> 00:29:09.809 the Kurt Cobain effect. Exactly. It's the ultimate 00:29:09.809 --> 00:29:13.569 romantic ideal. The artist must sacrifice themselves 00:29:13.569 --> 00:29:15.829 for the art. The art is more important than the 00:29:15.829 --> 00:29:19.109 artist. But Lillian Garcia's album presents the 00:29:19.109 --> 00:29:21.369 complete alternative to that. The album says 00:29:21.369 --> 00:29:23.849 you can engage with the music. You can have the 00:29:23.849 --> 00:29:26.549 passion. You can be. metaphorically androgata 00:29:26.549 --> 00:29:28.990 on love, but you do it to live. You do it to 00:29:28.990 --> 00:29:31.269 build something. You do it to succeed. You do 00:29:31.269 --> 00:29:33.529 it to sell records and build a brand. Survival 00:29:33.529 --> 00:29:36.369 versus sacrifice. That's it in a nutshell. Maria 00:29:36.369 --> 00:29:38.410 de Carmen sacrifices herself to the rhythm of 00:29:38.410 --> 00:29:41.289 Cali. Lillian Garcia uses the rhythm of Latin 00:29:41.289 --> 00:29:43.849 pop to survive and thrive in a ruthless corporate 00:29:43.849 --> 00:29:46.490 world. It is deeply ironic that the commercial 00:29:46.490 --> 00:29:49.609 product The one funded by a corporation is the 00:29:49.609 --> 00:29:52.250 one that champions life, while the pure artistic 00:29:52.250 --> 00:29:55.490 masterpiece champions death. It really challenges 00:29:55.490 --> 00:29:57.690 our assumptions about selling out, doesn't it? 00:29:57.769 --> 00:29:59.950 We often think of the starving artist as the 00:29:59.950 --> 00:30:03.190 noble one, the pure one. But Caicedo's path led 00:30:03.190 --> 00:30:06.430 to self -destruction. Garcia's path, the commercial 00:30:06.430 --> 00:30:10.329 path, led to creation. Eleven co -written songs. 00:30:11.029 --> 00:30:15.019 A voice. A platform. It makes you wonder if selling 00:30:15.019 --> 00:30:17.440 out is sometimes just another word for surviving. 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:19.779 That's a provocative thought and a really valid 00:30:19.779 --> 00:30:22.019 one. There's one more layer to the novel's title 00:30:22.019 --> 00:30:24.519 I want to explore before we wrap up. Que viva 00:30:24.519 --> 00:30:27.210 la musica. It's a cry. It's a cheer. It's in 00:30:27.210 --> 00:30:30.349 the same format as Que viva el rey. Long live 00:30:30.349 --> 00:30:32.269 the king. Right. It implies that the music is 00:30:32.269 --> 00:30:34.309 the monarch. It's more important than the individual 00:30:34.309 --> 00:30:36.690 citizen or the individual artist. Exactly. The 00:30:36.690 --> 00:30:38.710 music lives on. The person doesn't have to. The 00:30:38.710 --> 00:30:41.009 individual is just a vessel for the sound. Once 00:30:41.009 --> 00:30:43.369 the vessel is empty or broken, the music continues. 00:30:43.529 --> 00:30:46.390 The king is dead. Long live the king. The author 00:30:46.390 --> 00:30:49.369 is dead. Long live the music. Whereas Kiro Vivir 00:30:49.369 --> 00:30:52.450 puts the I front and center. I want to live. 00:30:53.210 --> 00:30:55.509 The self is the most important thing. It centers 00:30:55.509 --> 00:30:58.690 the individual's experience. My desires, my career, 00:30:58.890 --> 00:31:01.589 my life. The music serves the individual, not 00:31:01.589 --> 00:31:04.089 the other way around. It's the ultimate modernist 00:31:04.089 --> 00:31:07.000 versus postmodernist distinction. In a way, the 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.039 surrender of the self to the grand narrative 00:31:09.039 --> 00:31:11.819 of art versus the assertion of the self as its 00:31:11.819 --> 00:31:15.079 own independent project. Wow. Two similar titles, 00:31:15.200 --> 00:31:17.420 two completely different philosophies of existence 00:31:17.420 --> 00:31:20.400 separated by 30 years and thousands of miles, 00:31:20.440 --> 00:31:23.759 but connected by that one single impulse. to 00:31:23.759 --> 00:31:25.880 make noise and to use the spanish language to 00:31:25.880 --> 00:31:28.339 do it so as we wrap up this deep dive we are 00:31:28.339 --> 00:31:30.740 left with these two visions the live forever 00:31:30.740 --> 00:31:33.559 that ended in a tragic afternoon in cali and 00:31:33.559 --> 00:31:36.240 the i want to live that launched under the bright 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:39.349 artificial lights of monday night raw Both valid 00:31:39.349 --> 00:31:41.930 expressions, both powerful in their own context, 00:31:42.069 --> 00:31:44.710 both using Spanish and music to articulate that 00:31:44.710 --> 00:31:46.990 core human desire to feel something. Whether 00:31:46.990 --> 00:31:49.349 it's the thrill of the abyss. Or the joy of the 00:31:49.349 --> 00:31:51.750 stage. So here's a final provocative thought 00:31:51.750 --> 00:31:53.549 for you to take with you today. I'm listening. 00:31:53.769 --> 00:31:56.430 If music really is, as Andres Caicedo suggests, 00:31:56.829 --> 00:31:59.990 a party without end, what is your goal when you 00:31:59.990 --> 00:32:02.789 step onto the dance floor? Is the goal to survive 00:32:02.789 --> 00:32:06.539 the party? like Lillian Garcia, to dance until 00:32:06.539 --> 00:32:09.019 the lights come on, find your friends, grab your 00:32:09.019 --> 00:32:11.839 coat, and go home safe to your bed, to have the 00:32:11.839 --> 00:32:14.539 experience but remain intact. Or the examber 00:32:14.539 --> 00:32:17.460 is the goal to be consumed by it, to dance so 00:32:17.460 --> 00:32:19.579 hard that you disappear into the crowd, like 00:32:19.579 --> 00:32:21.980 Marie Del Carmen, to burn up in the atmosphere 00:32:21.980 --> 00:32:24.440 of the song, leaving nothing behind but the echo 00:32:24.440 --> 00:32:26.859 of your movement. That is the question. How deep 00:32:26.859 --> 00:32:28.880 into the music are you willing to go? Choose 00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:32.289 your party wisely. Indeed. Thanks for listening 00:32:32.289 --> 00:32:34.730 to this deep dive. Stay curious. And keep listening. 00:32:34.869 --> 00:32:35.609 We'll see you next time.