My friends are beacons, and I am a boat
Para Seba, Ali, Ale, y Aranza
​
I was expecting something bombastic when I was told the Voladores will jump of the top of the 100feet pole— I was ready to cheer and clap, to be a loud & obnoxious American, filling up my role as an ignorant tourist.
I was proven wrong. The jump was quiet, and to this day I can’t fathom how solemn the movement was. I feel the time stopped, my breath taken away, as if the sounds played from the top of the pole have taken me to the time where the present is the past, and the lives of indigenous people wasn’t destroyed by what we call civilization.
Without realizing it, I shed a tear, just as if my eyes were the edge of pole, with the four Voladores falling surely and slowly like a rainfall onto my skin.
Jose, the maestro, told me that they indeed represented north, west, south, and east. It also represents the rain, fertility, and the descend of the water to the soil of the earth. The tune that he's playing: a prayer for a successful fall onto the soil— a seed for the earth, the womb, that hopefully will sprouts life down the line.
At a Chinampas built by the Aztecas in the 1500s, I learned that Mexico City was built on a lake. 500 years later (now), I tasted my very first fresh Cilantro, directly from the soil of the Xochimilco lake. It was an explosion of flavors, lingering in my mouth, a taste of Cilantro I never had before
I hope that you can taste a little bit of what I tasted there. These sounds wouldn’t have been memorized if it wasn’t for my friends, my beacons, as they are my guide in the midst of the body of water we called life.
with gratitude,
Jimmy
all audio recorded in Mexico City, Mexico
all ocarinas played by Tchin, at Power Station NYC
recording engineer: Omisha Chaitanya