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11. Así Son: Constructing Woman
- Wesleyan University Press
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c h a p t e r e l e v e n Así Son Constructing Woman The male-centered discourse of the song “Así son” originates from the conjunction of two musical traditions: the bolero and the salsa. As in the bolero, in many salsa songs the woman’s absence functions as the pretext for the expression of man’s desire.1 El Gran Combo’s song, “Así son,” clearly fits within this discursive tradition: Tintineo de copas, chocar de besos humo de cigarrillos en el salón El Gran Combo que toca sus melodías y gente que se embriaga con whisky y ron. Yo que me desvelo por tu cariño Tú que me desprecias, ay, sin compasión. Andas como una loca por las cantinas Brindando a todo el mundo tu corazón. Coro: Así son, así son las mujeres Así son, así son cuando se quieren. Tú me dejaste a mí Pero pensando que yo era pobre Y te pasas por ahí pero cambiando oro por cobre. Coro: Así son, así son las mujeres Así son, así son cuando se quieren. Alcé mi copa de vino Para brindar por tu ausencia Sé que nunca me quisiste y ya que el amor, ya no tiene esencia. Coro: Así son, así son las mujeres Así son, así son cuando se quieren. Pero eso mira yo no creo más en quereres por eso mira no te quiero que mira María Mercedes, no no no Pero cuando se quiere de veras, señor, Constructing Woman / 191 Mira yo quiero quererte, pero que ahora a mi manera Pero que mira, pero que a mí me pasa lo mismo que a usted Pero que mira cómo son, que mira cómo son. . . . Coro: Así son, así son las mujeres Así son, así son cuando se quieren. [Cups clinking and the sounds of kissing cigarrette smoke inside the room El Gran Combo playing its songs and people getting drunk on whisky and rum. I am sleepless for your love You reject me, mercilessly You go around the bars like a fool Offering your love to all. (Chorus): That’s the way, that’s the way women are that’s the way they are when we love them. You abandoned me thinking that I was poor and now you go around exchanging gold for copper; (Chorus) I raised my cup of wine to toast to your absence I know you never loved me since love has no essence (Chorus) That is why, look, I don’t believe anymore in loves that is why, look, I don’t love you, look, Maria Mercedes, no no no, For when one really loves, Look, I want to love you, but my way now But look, I’m going through the same as you But look at the way they are, look at the way they are. . . . (Chorus)] The song’s opening references to drinking, music, and sexuality occur within the male locus of a bar or nightclub, a space in which the male singer/subject can cathartically enunciate his accusations against “his” woman, who has left him and is acting loca (crazy), offering her love to others. Moreover, the metatextual allusion in the first stanza to El Gran Combo itself “playing their songs” underlines the masculinity of the singing space as well as of the song’s lyrics and voice. The space of the nightclub is framed by a marginal hypersensuality in which women can participate only as “prostitutes,” “offering [their] love to all.” Not coincidentally , this is the same figuration accorded by the male singer to his exlover . Thus, the man’s first characterization of the woman he loves is a negative one; she is a traitor to his love, whereas he is her victim. The syntactic a s í s o m o s , a s í s o n / 192 [54.172.169.199] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:34 GMT) contiguity between the reference to drinking and the male singer’s suffering after having been abandoned signals, again, the multiple cathartic functions of the various textual spaces evoked: the nightclub, the acts of drinking and singing, and the song itself. The first stanza implicitly refers its listeners to the figure of the bandolera. The economics of love once more become the male rationale for female abandonment. In the eyes of the male singer it is obvious that she left him “thinking that [he] was poor,” but ironically, she has gone...