I notice people whose lives have meaning: VIOLETA PARRA who wrote and MERCEDES SOSA who sang her song.

As you may have noticed I posted a few performances by Mercedes Sosa. I heard Violeta Parras beautiful Gracias a la Vida today while walking along the Boardwalk of Barcelona. Several wonderful pairs of dancers were practicing the Tango to their own Boom Box. I was enchanted. The first time I saw the Tango was at my wedding. My Dad insisted on dancing that beautiful dance with me at my wedding reception. I was enthralled. First, I had never seen my Dad dance in his life, and then to dance such a beautiful dance with me when I was surrounded by all of my family and my extended family and all of my husband's friends was beautiful. So many years ago and I still remember the poetry of the moment. Later my husband would sing the beautiful Italian Caro Mio Ben to me at a dinner party. It was all so elegant. I was surrounded by a beauty that I did not experience ever again in that marriage. But it was oh so beautiful at the time. And then again today, I saw the enchantment of that beautiful dance filled with moments suspended in space, across a magic interlude on some tile squares taking space on a boardwalk. All in a city filled with art and beauty in its architecture and insistence on uniqueness in a language and history that is breathtaking at times. Oh, and in this summer heat even more breathtaking, until you've enveloped yourself in the azure Mediterranean ocean. I am graced to share this space with my daughter and her beau, both of whom understand little of my enchantment with all things Latino, romantic, and careful in its presentation and uniqueness, like those pairs of dancers in the heat of a summer evening, slowly moving to a sensuous beat and rhythm for the sake of the art. The same group plays Violeta Parra's "Gracias a la Vida." It seems silly to them, perhaps even unsafe, or outrageous, to find delight in a spontaneous street expression.

Gracias a la Vida (a prayer for all of us)

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro
Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco
Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado
Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo.

Gracias a la vida que me had dado tanto
Me ha dado el oido, que en todo su ancho
Graba noche y dia, grillos y canarios
Martillos, turbinas, ladrillos y chubascos
Y la voz tan tierna de mi bien amado.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado el sonido y el abecedario
Con el las palabras que distingo y declaro
Madre amigo hermano y luz alumbrando
La ruta del alma del que estoy amando

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto

Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos,
Playas y desiertos montanas y llanos
Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me dio el corazon que agita su marco
Cuando miro el fruto del cerebro humano
Cuando mira al bueno tan lejos del malo,
Cuando mira al fondo de tus ojos claros.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la risa y me ha dado el llanto,
Asi yo distingo dicha de quebranto
Los dos materiales que forman mi canto
Y el canto de ustedes que es el mismo canto
Y el canto de todos que es mi proprio canto.

Gracias a la vida
Gracias a la vida
Gracias a la vida
Gracias a la vida.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It gave me two eyes and when I open them I can tell black from white, and in the heavens, covered with stars, and from the multitude, the man I love.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It gave me an ear with all its ability, records-day and night-crickets and canaries, hammers, turbines, bricks and storms. And the so tender voice of my beloved.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It gave me sound and letters and with that I think and declare: mother, friend and brother and the light that lights the way to the soul I am loving.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It gave me movement for my tired feet. With them I walked the cities and puddles, beaches and deserts, mountains and plains. And your house, street and patio.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It gave me a heart, that causes me to shudder, when I see the fruit of the human brain. When I see good so far from bad. When I see the depth of the clarity of your eyes.

Thank you to life that has given me so much. It has given me laughter and tears. Thus I can tell the difference between happiness and grief, the two materials that create my song, and the song of all of you, which is the same song, and the song of everyone, which is my song.

Thank you to life.
Thank you to life.
Thank you to life.
Thank you to life.