Jesse and Joy on a Surprising Tuesday

To be clear I did not want to go to a concert on a Tuesday, which surprisingly is very unlike me.  I’m always up for a good time, especially when it's during the week.  It breaks up the monotony, gives me something to look forward to when I’m facing the uphill battle to Friday.  But my husband was looking forward to this particular band, although I had never heard of them before.  They are called Jesse and Joy, a Mexican pop duo that was formed in 2005.  They are a brother and sister team, released five studio albums and have even won an American Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album, as well as six Latin Grammy Awards in a variety of different categories.

I really shouldn’t have been all that surprised when we arrived at the concert venue, right when the doors opened, and there was already a line of people waiting to get inside.  

And I shouldn’t have been surprised when my husband rushed us to the front to wait 40 minutes before the time the concert was set to start. 

And I really really shouldn’t have been surprised when the concert began at least 30 minutes from the time it was supposed to.

But,

I was nonetheless.

My feet hurt, my legs were stiff, and I wasn’t looking forward to standing for the next two hours (when you include waiting time it was really three) when I didn’t even know one song. 

But the music eventually seeped into my consciousness like it so often does. (Something else I really shouldn’t have been surprised about).

Mariachis were even brought to the forefront and I found myself singing along to some of those classic Mexican tunes that I did know (thanks to my husband’s family for keeping Mexican traditions alive) and when Joy began to sing Viva Mexico I found that my eyes began to actually tear up.  You could blame it on the hormones of course or the fact that I was tired, but I felt a bond begin to form amongst the crowd as I stood watching, the only white person in a sea of Latinos. Everyone knew the words to songs that seemed as familiar to them as that favorite Christmss dish.

Does Americans have such a thing, I couldn’t help but to think.

Is there something that brings us together in such a way as this?  The bond that I was feeling amongst the crowd was indeed palpable. 

You may say the crowd bonded together because they consisted of either first, second, third, or even fourth generation immigrants and when you grow up in a country that has let you in, but still has people in it that treat you like you are less than, you will be brought together by people who sound like you, look like you, speak like you. 

But, 

I have felt this bond amongst Mexicans before and I wasn’t even in the United States when I did. 

When you travel to Mexico you are met with a happy group of people who want to share  their ethnicity, their culture, with a stranger. You just have to give them the time to do it.

I soon forgot about my aching feet, my stiff legs, and got swept away in the joy that this music was bringing to everyone around me.  My head began to move along to the music, my hips began to sway (as much as a white girls can anyway) and I found myself singing along to words I didn’t know, lyrics that I couldn’t tell you what they mean, but the melody, the harmonies, the chorus was speaking to me.

And isn’t that what really good music is supposed to do at the end of the day?  Unite us in some way or the other, some form or the other?

It’s probably why I like it so much.

Jesse and Joy did their job if their goal was to unite the crowd, if their goal was to entertain, and I will be listening to them again and again.  Probably singing in my car to words that I still really don’t know, lyrics that I still couldn’t tell you what they mean, but the music tells its own story if you listen to the strum of the guitar, the beat of the drum, and the heart of the singer’s voice.

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