Natalia Lafourcade (Mexico City, 41 years old) stops in front of a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe made with nacar inlays and with that serene voice that is permeated in her movements she says: “What beauty. I am not Catholic and I love the Guadalupana, it is something that happens to many people. We have our faith, our belief in the divine, in the mystical of life in a very deep and energetic way. ” The piece came out a few weeks ago from the Capuchin Mothers Monastery of Castellón de la Plana and is part of the exhibition So far, so close. Guadalupe from Mexico in Spain of the Prado Museum, which this morning of July 23 the country travels with the artist, on the eve of her concert in Madrid this Friday.
The Virgin of Guadalupe and Lafourcade have in common that they are two pop icons. In the words of the artist: “She has its meaning, her role, it is an archetype, that is, it is a universal female force.” This Marian appearance gathers more than 10 million faithful every December that pilgrims to the outskirts of Mexico City, to Tepeyac, to venerate it. His stamp is reproduced almost mechanically since the 17th century not only in pieces considered strictly artistic – in Spain, for example, there are more than a thousand – but also on less noble materials such as shirts, keychains, notebooks … the artist has just published Songbookhis ninth studio album has made documentaries, published books (Of all flowersAguilar), holds the throne of the Latin artist with more Grammy awards (22 in total, 18 Latinos) and has been chosen among the 50 best Latin pop artists of all time by Billboard, among other titles.
The two have shared a house for a few years. Lafourcade has an altar for the Virgin. “It is the one who takes care of her, you have to put candles, flowers, she is spoken, she is asked. He has a lot of that idea of the miraculous, she is the one who meets us,” he explains during the tour. Guadalupe’s image came to his home almost while turning his career towards the culture of his country after returning to Mexico in 2002 from Canada, where at some point he thought he was going to stay forever.
“I was a girl when my mother separated from my father. When they found out in the church, they ran her. Years later, already settled again in Mexico, he connected with the Virgin of Guadalupe for many reasons, but he emphasizes one: “I did a work trip with which my husband is now. He already returned to Venezuela, his country, and I was already in love at that time. As I did not know if he was, I bought two images of the Virgin in the port of Acapulco. In that way I thought we were going to be connected forever”. And it was fulfilled.
That Virgin who joined them, next to another of mud, is still on the altar of the house of Lafourcade. Two popular versions of this figure that was revealed to an indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, and that serve as an example to understand that one of the successes of expansion and cult of Guadalupe was the ability to reproduce it. Many Mexican and Spanish artists copy it in different sizes and formats that collect the Prado exhibition.
In his repertoire there is also a linked song, in a fortuitous, or perhaps mystical, to the Virgin of Guadalupe. In 2017 it included Beautiful Mexican In your work Muses: A tribute to Latin American folklore in the hands of the macorinos.
“Why did a song dedicated to the Virgin?”
“Actually, she was not written for her.” I wanted to make a tribute to Latin American folklore and include a song for Mexico. I met with Gustavo Guerrero, one of the producers of the album, and little by little a letter was twisted that should be a tribute to women, to the indigenous people of the countryside, to the mothers who care, work, a devotion to life … and in the middle of the composition we told ourselves: ‘It seems that Guadalupana is manifesting in some way’.
Years later, the artist allows the song to continue resignifying in an organic or mystical way, as happened during its composition. During his recent American tour he was his audience, a large majority of Mexicans, who finished turning the issue into a hymn. “Just getting there and living what is happening with migrants is already very strong,” he says of his experience. “We came to think that no one would come to the concerts for the fear of leaving home, to take them. Not even us (in reference to her and her team) we had guarantees that they would not grab us and return,” he continues about the Donald Trump antimigrant crusade. “When it sounded Beautiful Mexicanthe verses Don’t get sad / just look at the sky. / If the night is covered with stars / we already spend the duel. Or when I sang Beautiful Mexican / Latin flagI realized that for them it meant something else, it was a mixture of anguish and courage. I would never have imagined it. ”
The artist is in full tour of Spain. Tonight plays at the Teatro Real in Madrid, with Songbook. are alter ego of a troubadour, with whom he has fulfilled his intention to return to the stage to sing alone with his guitar. “My desire was to share the intimacy that I live with my songs in my room, my personal universe, even my imagination, but now I am no longer alone,” he explains pointing out his five -month pregnancy gut. Another thing in common, Guadalupe is one of the few enclosed virgins.
This album is also a way to close a vital circle when he turned 40. “What happens at that time? We ask ourselves many questions, I want to be clear about where I come from and what happens later. That is why there are songs dedicated to my mother (Maricarmen Silva, pianist and musical pedagogue, creator of his own method with which he educated it) and my father (also a musician). A literal tribute towards my lineage,” says one of the great figures of the popular song in Spanish in this century.
At the end of the star -shaped tour, simulating the Mexican basilica plant that keeps the Virgin of Guadalupe, Lafourcade explains that, in some way, the barriers that, sometimes, impose the great museums between elites and popular classes, do not feel in these rooms. “This is a celebration of the Guadalupana and there are no divisions. Art can transcend the popular, to the social, to everyone,” he concludes about the capacity of “the patron saint of America” to cross borders.