Xelajú (under ten mountains) or it short Xela are other names given to the city of Quetzaltenango.
The song Luna de Xelajú is considered by many Guatemalans, from Xela or not, as the second national anthem. The waltz composed by Paco Perez in 1944 is often played in patriotic events, parties and concerts.
In 1997ish we were at Placido Domingo's concert and the stadium bursted when he sang this song, the same is constantly done by many artists national and international who know they can pull the crowd in when they sing Luna de Xelajú.
Luna de Xelajú can now be found in all rhythms and genres. Below a very traditional one (all pictres in the slide show are from Xela). To see the lyrics in English and Spanish click here.
8 comments:
Cinthya, ¿tienes familia en Quetzaltenango? Mi padre es de allá y dicen que ha cambiado mucho. Yo tengo como cuatro años de no ir y has removido la nostalgia. Conozco un gran fotógrafo de Xela, le pediré que me autorice enviarte algunas de sus fotos.
No, pero vamos relativamente seguido por trabajo. Si esta mucho mas desarrollado cada vez asi que tendras que hacer tiempo para ir.
Gracias de antemano por lo de las fotos.
Guauu! No sabía que Plácido Domingo había cantado alguna vez Luna de Xelajú.
A mi me gustaría oír a Vicente Fernández cantar Soy de Zacapa. De repente lo hace. Aunque claro, no hay comparación!
Lo chistoso es que tambien canto Soy de Zacapa y sinceramente se la dejo a Vicente como que no le iba a Placido Domingo.
THank you for finding my blog!!
I will definitly put you on my favorites!!
Yes, we homeschool-using several different things. I thought about using COVA, but I found a few things I thought might be a better fit for us.
We are thinking about putting our daughter in one of the great parttime charter schools in Colorado Springs next year.
How old are your kids?
I have 3, the older one is 19 and the younger ones are 9 and 7. We looked into a charter school in Longmont that has the Core Knowledge that COVA has but I don't think we can make it in until 2011.
This has allows us to go back and forth US-GUATE.
and being with my kids and seeing them flourish has been priceless.
We live in Longmont but hold some ties to Colorado Springs, my husband graduated from the Academy and my brother in law lives in Monument.
Recently we had a fundraiser concert for some feeding centers in Chiquimula. Our daughter (adopted from Guatemala) and a friend played "Luna de Xeluju" (piano and violin) for their contribution to the concert. It was so sweet.
They plan to play it this Spring in some concerts they will be doing at nursing homes around Austin,TX.
Thanks for the additional information about "Luna."
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