Review of MamaCoatl's New Record

Border Crossing Diosa
MamaCoatl

Border Crossing Diosa, Mamacoatl’s stunning debut, is an innovative fusion of diverse musical traditions. For those who demand comparison, she’s somewhere between Lila Downs, Ani DiFranco and Nina Simone, incorporating a fearless, feminine rearticulation of trova (Latin American protest song) and spoken word infused with jazz, funk and traditional Mexican sounds. MamaCoatl tells stories from both sides of the border in a time when the streets across America are filled with people using their voice to demand immigration reform.

MamaCoatl’s silky voice lures us into her world where culture, poetry and jazz live side by side and where there is room for articulated anger and the need for a just solution in a time of rabid globalization. It’s impossible to remain indifferent to MamacCoatl’s tribute to the women of Juarez or demands for social justice. Listening to “Testimonio Madres de Juarez en el D.F. 2004”, an excerpt of women describing the disappeared daughters of Juarez, is sobering.

The diversity of provocative soundscapes blend to form an amalgamated record. Listen closely to the darkly haunting “Predator” (“You can be my father, my lover, my teacher, my preacher, my employer, my elected official. Predator. Or are you this love that kills, this desperate need for an emotional fix?”) or the Native American music crossed with funk on “Hey, Macho”.

What a powerful 27 seconds on “Adicta” as MamaCoatl invokes the earth mother as she recites: “Holy Mothers of Mole, who beat and blend the flavors together. Your hands, your canas, you laughter, your fuerza, your daughters. Womanhood a fuego lento, simmering in great mud ollas.” From here she immediately launches into the jazzy “Holy Mothers”, attacking the Frankenfood prevalent on most plates in America: we’re eating poison thanks to transnational corporate greed. Food is indeed a weapon.

She creates a passionate postmodern son that laments violence against women (both economic and cultural) on the rhythms and English/Spanish poetry of “La Guerra de Ser Gacela”, while her plaintive cry of “perdóname” with Gothic chant on “Tu Santa Madre” is heartbreaking.

“I Need A Man” is one of the best songs ever written about the feminine need for an emotional, intellectual, carnal and economic relationship with a man. From seductress to revolutionary to Earth Mother, MamaCoatl’s music is a prism of a woman whose voice is so needed in these turbulent times where too many search for commercial solace in American Idol wannabes and blonds with Chihuahuas and not enough seek funk ranchero....

Anji Gaspar-Milanovic