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The Ballad of Suaqui

from We'll Tell Stories by Mary Lou Fulton

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about

Since I was a little girl, I’ve been hearing the story of Suaqui (pronounced SWAH-kee), the Mexican village where my mother was born. For 400 years, generations of my family lived in Suaqui in harmony with the land and community. Then the Mexican government decided to build a dam and flooded Suaqui and two other villages now at the bottom of a lake that has become a popular bass fishing destination. When I first shared this song with my aunts and uncles, they started crying halfway through and I did, too. They’ve lost not only their home, but their way of life. This tragedy took place almost 60 years ago, but this same story is happening today as people continue to be displaced to make way for dams, freeways, factories and gentrification.

lyrics

THE BALLAD OF SUAQUI
Lyrics by Mary Lou Fulton & Maria Ruiz Fulton
Music by Mary Lou Fulton

I sing the corrido de Suaqui
Place of my mother’s birth
In a valley carved by rivers
That fed the sacred earth
The men raised crops and cattle
Each family had some land
The women raised the children
And made all the tortillas by hand

Suaquenos loved tradition
Parades on streets of dirt
Dancing all night in the plaza
Girls in flowered skirts
Feasts to honor la Virgen
Mass in the church of stone
Tardeadas y cumpleanos
In the only place they’d ever known

Suaqui querido
Tu naciste del rio
Viviendo la gloria y el brillo
Suaqui querido

All was well til the mayor
Delivered a decree
Mexico was building a dam
For electricity
The rivers would flood the valley
Progress comes with a price
After 400 years
Suaqui would be sacrificed

The rivers started rising
The graveyard went first
Water flooded the plaza
And covered the floor of the church
There was time for one last mass
The people prayed and cried
Hoping for salvation
Watching Suaqui die

Suaqui querido
Por el cruel destino
Fuiste desaparecido
Suaqui querido

The dam formed Lake Novillo
Sometimes the water goes down
And the old church tower rises
A ghost of my family’s town
But I will keep telling this story
Because as my nana told me
To remember is to live
Recordar es vivir

Suaqui querido
Yo nunca te olvido
En mis sueños sigues vivo
Suaqui querido

credits

from We'll Tell Stories, released October 15, 2021

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Mary Lou Fulton Long Beach, California

Award-winning songwriter Mary Lou Fulton is back with a new single, the hard-grooving Many More of Us about the majority of Americans who want women to have the freedom to decide about having children. This track builds on the success of her debut album reached the Top 15 on the national folk music charts. ... more

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