In the spirit of holidays, É Arenas, the bass player for Chicano Batman releases a special cumbia navideña (an original Spanish Christmas carol) called “Buñuelos a Monton.” The song is inspired by the 70’s tropical cumbia sounds of Chico Che, Rigo Tovar, and classic cumbia navideña songs like “Mi Burrito Sabanero”. They are more than just songs; the music is embedded in the culture of family celebrations.
“Buñuelos a Monton” is about the traditional food prepared and eaten as a family during the Christmas holiday. For É Arenas the song is a way to help keep some of these food prep traditions alive. Just like different cultures have unique oral tradition and storytelling, each family has their own recipe and flavor and the taste of food holds massive nostalgic value that runs back generations. Arenas hopes his song “Buñuelos a Monton” reminds young listeners to get in the kitchen with their elders before it’s too late.
Says Arenas, “I feel that maybe two generations from now, lots of recipes will be lost. Young people will be scrambling over YouTube videos for any reincarnation of their family’s old-school recipes. However, they merely need to get in the kitchen and help parents and grandparents cook. Tradition comes from helping to cook not just coming over to eat. This is my personal reflection of those cooking parties, and putting it into a song memorializes the message forever, for me and anyone else that itches to keep the flavor lineage alive.”
With this foodie themed Latin Christmas cumbia É Arenas attempts to evolve the ‘cumbia navideña’ while keeping the classic aesthetic of the analog sound and melodies and with lyrics that Latinos, both young and old, can relate to. But of course the song is targeted to and will start with a young audience, perhaps Chicano Batman fans, and go from there.
“I wish for this track to bridge a generational gap meaning that grandma, mom, son and daughter will all take a piece of the song and relate. I wish for it to cause a resonating conversation inside of families or groups of friends about how we have more in common than we think,” Says Arenas.
Maybe with “Buñuelos a Monton” É Arenas can be the invisible pilot choreographing a nostalgic trip down memory lane to remind people how good things use to be while also inspiring them to make new memories. It’s never too late to make things good again.
Listen to “Buñuelos a Monton” below.
Follow
