Ben H. English Author ~ Texas U.S.A. Alpine

LA GOLINDRINA
(The Swallow)

Deje también
mi patria idolatrada
esa mansión
que me miró nacer
mi vida es hoy
errante y angustida
y ya no puedo
a mi mansión volver…

(I left too
my beloved homeland,
That home
that saw me born;
My life today
is wandering and anguished,
And I cannot
to my home return…)

–Opening page for Destiny’s Way: A Novel of the Big Bend

If my book has a theme song, it is this wistful old ballad from a century and a half before. Written by an exiled Mexican physician during his people’s struggle against the invading French, it became a favorite of those who had been taken prisoners by Maximilian’s army during the conflict. That popularity, for one reason or another, has continued on to this day.

I first heard the tune as a small child and have listened to it innumerable times since then, and in all sorts of arrangements from operatic to mariachi to a single six-string Mexican guitarra. The latter to me is the finest version of all, as it illustrates so passionately the beautiful simplicity of the song and why it is so enduring.

A link follows below to such a recording and I hope that you, the reader, will take a moment to listen. The experience will help you better understand the thinking involved in the writing of ‘Destiny’s Way.’

For of all the ballads, tunes and lyrics ever created; this is the one that bends and flows through my mind and memories when I consider my own homeland:

The lower Big Bend of Texas.

Cuidado y vaya con Dios, paisanos…

Ben H. English
Alpine, Texas

Solo guitarra: