When I teach Feng Shui classes or workshops I use a technique to help participants connect with each other and with their own emotions. This technique first asks a question for people to answer to themselves -- write it down if they wish, then share it with the person sitting next to them. Each person talks for a couple of minutes while the other one listens. When every person in each pair has had a chance to confide, then those who choose to get to share their answers with the group.
One time, back in Iowa, I was teaching a class on the Nine Life Areas in Feng Shui and we were discussing life area #1: Career, Life Mission and Individuality.
To help participants connect with their own inner sense of their life mission, I asked them to ponder this question: "If many years from now you were lying on your death bed, and had the chance to look back at your life, what would be the thing that would hurt the most to know that you didn't do, learn, or accomplish?"
It is a very powerful question. I present this question to you now. Take a few minutes to think about it, if you wish to, write down your answers. Then seek a person whom you trust and know that seeks your highest good, and tell them your answer. If they are open to it, have them do the same exercise.
One of the most interesting answers I heard during that class came from a woman who worked at a bank and was at the time pursuing certification as a Feng Shui consultant. Her answer was that it would hurt tremendously to look back at her life and find out that she didn't dance enough. The reason I find her answer so ineresting is in part that this is something I did not know or expect about her, but also that shortly after she enrolled in ballroom dancing, and later on became a teacher, as well as a Feng Shui consultant. I'd like to think that something shifted inside her that evening as a consequence of pondering this question.
Something else happened that evening. Someone in the class threw the question back at me. I was not prepared for this -- actually I had been avoiding this question for myself. I had to come up with an answer on the spot, and this is what came to me: "I would feel like a failure if I reached the end of my life and was never able to get a handle on my weight, eating and physical strength."
My own answered surprised me because I would have expected that it would include something about Feng Shui or space arrangement, for which I have great passion. It also surprised me because when I was in my twenties I had already been in control of my weight, my food and my strength. I was living in Quito, Ecuador, almost 10,000 ft above sea level, in the middle of the Andes mountains. Most of my exercise was provided by vigorous walking up and down the hilly streets in my city, the reduced oxygen due to the height added to the demand on my lungs and heart. I ate at the Macrobiotics center The Art of Living, where I met with most of my friends for lunch. We shared some of the most amazing natural foods, prepared in the best ways. Sometimes our lunch meetings lasted up to three hours of animated conversation and laughter. The macrobiotics diet, one if its secrets being that there is never a sugar spike, is designed so that there are no sudden insulin dumps in the bloodstream. It is insulin that gives the signal to the body to convert excess sugar into fat.
When I moved to the United States, I lost my community and my challenging walks. I was also exposed to lots of food and non-food ingredients that I had not come across before. For example, I did not know about "cheese products," I only knew real cheese. I would get a sinus infection after every single party I attended the first year. I joked with my husband that I must be allergic to parties. We later found out that I had a sensitivity to the yellow coloring used for yellow cheese. I did not know about high fructose corn syrup and the hidden sugars in most crackers and bread. I did not know that eight ounces of bottled fruit juice (one cup) bought in the United States had four times more grams of sugar than the home made juices I was used to drinking back home.
In short, I gained a lot of weight. For the first time in my life I had to make time for workouts, which I did not enjoy. I found out that even though I had had a handle over weight, food and exercise in my native Ecuador, I had not clue on how to be fit in the United States.
It took over a decade for me to figure out the ins and outs of nutrition in the US. I learned to do "defensive grocery shopping," I started making my own bread and my own juices. It took me a lot longer to find exercise that I actually liked. What I found, also helped me reconnect with the roots of my original culture and helped reduce home-sickness. If you didn't already guess, I am talking about Zumba®. Now I teach Zumba® and the love for exercise only grows.
It was through asking and answering this question though, that I discovered that every aspect of this life area: Career - Life Mission - Individuality could stand alone. Until then I had believed that all three aspects had to be connected for someone to be truly happy. Through my experience of becoming a Zumba® instructor while continuing to grow my Feng Shui business, and since the financial crisis of 2008, I have also seen in my clients the value of having a job, even if it is not their dream job, or even if it is not aligned with their life mission -- indeed, career and life mission can be separate.
In my next blog post I will share with you more about life area #1: Career, Life Mission and Individuality and the role each of its aspects has in our lives.
In the meantime, you can check these resources in the free learning sections of my site:
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/Pages/LifeArea1Career.html
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/Pages/LifeArea1Prints.html
http://www.fengshuiforus.com/feng-shui-money.html
Love and Blessings,
Moni
© 2012 Monica P. Castaneda
www.fengshuiforus.com
www.monilife.com
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Living a Life of Freedom and Balance
I am a fan of Ted Talks, and now that they are available on Netflix, I try to spend at least a half an hour a day learning something new through these videos.
I recently watched a video on success by Alain de Botton: A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success.
I enjoyed this video very much, and agreed with much of it. At some point, Alain made a comment along the lines of how, whenever we choose something in which we want to succeed, we are at the same time choosing to neglect something else. While I can see truth in this statement, I also have a different perspective, from my practice of Feng Shui.
Feng Shui identifies Nine general Areas of Life:
All of the above Life Areas have to be tended to for a person to be truly happy, prosperous and free. However, not all these life areas have the same importance during all of the stages of our lives.
Moreover, if we dedicated the same amount of energy and time to each of these life areas at any given point in our lives, we would end up with a very unbalanced life. To give you an example, consider life area number 3: Health, Family and Community. This is a life area that you have to tend to every day, and devote at least a few hours every day to prepare/eat wholesome meals, walk or exercise a few times every week, and attend your church, clubs or organizations at least once a month to feel connected to a community. Now compare that to life area number 7: Children, Creativity and Entertainment. This is a life area that depending on the circumstances and stage in your life may take over most of your day (e.g. taking care of a baby or toddler), or just need a couple of hours a week to satisfy your need for fun or entertainment at a movie theater. Of course, ideally, you would be able to make time every day to nurture your creativity and to have fun, but these may not be realistic at certain points in our lives, say, for example, while going through a graduate program or during the first few years of a career.
The dilemma is: how to know how much time and energy need to be devoted every day to each life area in order to live a balanced life?
I don't believe there is an intellectual answer to this question. Whenever we try to give intellectual answers to the bigger questions of life we fall into the temptation of assuming that life can be lived based on recipes, instead of feeling the authenticity of each moment. I believe, however that there is an intuitive answer to this dilemma, an "inner knowing," so to speak.
For this reason, when Florida healer and artist Bill Austin and I were working on the Feng Shui Healing Book Feng Shui Cures for the Life Areas https://www.createspace.com/3464762, I asked him to create a piece of his vibrational healing art devoted to this subject. Then I placed his abstract art into the shape of a wheel. The life areas, when used in Feng Shui, are placed in an arrangement that resembles a wheel, called the bagua. I call this wheel, the Wheel of Life Areas. Below you can see an image of the Wheel of Life Areas. If you click on the image you can check out the various products available with this image:
Please visit our CafePress store Feng Shui Cures to explore 6 different products you might get for your home or office that contain this image, to assist you in your sincere intent to live a balanced and happy life.
I recently watched a video on success by Alain de Botton: A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success.
I enjoyed this video very much, and agreed with much of it. At some point, Alain made a comment along the lines of how, whenever we choose something in which we want to succeed, we are at the same time choosing to neglect something else. While I can see truth in this statement, I also have a different perspective, from my practice of Feng Shui.
Feng Shui identifies Nine general Areas of Life:
- Career, Life Mission and Individuality
- Marriage, Relationships and Partnerships
- Health, Family and Community
- Wealth, Prosperity and Self Worth
- Center of Good Fortune and Gratitude
- Spirituality, Helpful People and Travel
- Children, Creativity and Fun
- Wisdom, Self Knowledge and Calm
- Fame, Reputation and Social Life
All of the above Life Areas have to be tended to for a person to be truly happy, prosperous and free. However, not all these life areas have the same importance during all of the stages of our lives.
Moreover, if we dedicated the same amount of energy and time to each of these life areas at any given point in our lives, we would end up with a very unbalanced life. To give you an example, consider life area number 3: Health, Family and Community. This is a life area that you have to tend to every day, and devote at least a few hours every day to prepare/eat wholesome meals, walk or exercise a few times every week, and attend your church, clubs or organizations at least once a month to feel connected to a community. Now compare that to life area number 7: Children, Creativity and Entertainment. This is a life area that depending on the circumstances and stage in your life may take over most of your day (e.g. taking care of a baby or toddler), or just need a couple of hours a week to satisfy your need for fun or entertainment at a movie theater. Of course, ideally, you would be able to make time every day to nurture your creativity and to have fun, but these may not be realistic at certain points in our lives, say, for example, while going through a graduate program or during the first few years of a career.
The dilemma is: how to know how much time and energy need to be devoted every day to each life area in order to live a balanced life?
I don't believe there is an intellectual answer to this question. Whenever we try to give intellectual answers to the bigger questions of life we fall into the temptation of assuming that life can be lived based on recipes, instead of feeling the authenticity of each moment. I believe, however that there is an intuitive answer to this dilemma, an "inner knowing," so to speak.
For this reason, when Florida healer and artist Bill Austin and I were working on the Feng Shui Healing Book Feng Shui Cures for the Life Areas https://www.createspace.com/3464762, I asked him to create a piece of his vibrational healing art devoted to this subject. Then I placed his abstract art into the shape of a wheel. The life areas, when used in Feng Shui, are placed in an arrangement that resembles a wheel, called the bagua. I call this wheel, the Wheel of Life Areas. Below you can see an image of the Wheel of Life Areas. If you click on the image you can check out the various products available with this image:
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Are You Truly Free?
Freedom is defined as "the capacity to perform choice, and not being under the domination or control of another; not being bound or enslaved."
I was born in what some call the Third World, in a little country called Ecuador, about the size of the state of Colorado. There, I never experienced anything but freedom.
When I was very young my father was a great admirer of the United States of America and tried to follow their lead. When I was a pre-teen my father started studying Sociology at the University and became enamored with Marxist theory, which came with a deep hatred of the United States.
My perception of the United States came to me, not through my parents beliefs, but by what I saw in movies and TV series, and by what people who had lived in the US told me. As a teen, I thought the USA was full of libertine people, who practiced free sex anywhere (like in "Dynasty") knew nothing of loyalty and murdered each other routinely.
As a young woman, I watched the news and read newspapers and became acquainted with US foreign policy. I couldn't help notice that the US always used freedom as a supporting philosophy of all their actions, but adapted the definition of freedom to the situation. For example, they opposed Castro's government in Cuba based on the fact that it wasn't a democratic government, while vigorously supporting Pinochet in Chile, one of the most vicious dictatorships in the modern history of the planet.
When I first moved to the United States I thought to myself, "This is the country of freedom?" I looked around and all I saw was people working too hard, sometimes two or three jobs, to make ends meet, or to fit a standard of living that they had not chosen themselves, but which had been suggested to them by the media.
I saw people who had the freedom to get credit cards, to then have to pay liberal amounts of interest. I met women who chose to go to work, even though they had the freedom to stay home, because their neighborhoods were desolate during the day and there was no one with whom to interact.
I mostly saw people who were good and lived by a set of decent morals and values – nothing like the people in most US TV series or movies -- caring people, with good intentions, willing and ready to offer help. I was surprised to see so much natural beauty and so many people with such a strong interest in the environment.
I now realize that compared to some countries in Africa and the Middle East, the US is really a haven for freedom. Compared to Latin American countries, I am not so sure. As I write this, I am aware that my perspective comes from living a life of privilege, and not a life of poverty, in South America.
The only freedom I saw in the US that I didn't already have in my native Ecuador, was the freedom to publicly criticize or even make fun of the president of the country without getting in immediate trouble. But what good is freedom of speech when you don't have time to exercise your freedom of thought?
We need to make time in our busy lives to enjoy our blessings, including our freedom. If we feel we desperately need a vacation, maybe it is time to make some changes to our daily lifestyle.
These are some of the best resources I have found to make significant changes in the way we live, which is a direct result from our daily choices:
• The Simplicity Movement - especially the book Circles of Simplicity by Cecile Andrews, which is basically a manual to simplify your life in order to live your passions, while at the same time building friendships and stronger communities.
• The book Making Room for Life by Randy Frazee.
Our family has made choices that baffle some of the people who know us. I started saving money four years before I got pregnant to get the equipment that would enable me to work from home and stay with the children. We homeschool. My husband left a job managing a Chiropractic practice for a large corporation to open a home based practice, so he can be close to us and not miss the children growing up. In some ways, we have traded income for time, and our wealth, happiness and quality of life have increased.
I invite you to explore ways in which your own life might be simplified. I invite you to live a life that responds to your own values and standards and not to what other people have led you to believe will make you happy.
I was born in what some call the Third World, in a little country called Ecuador, about the size of the state of Colorado. There, I never experienced anything but freedom.
When I was very young my father was a great admirer of the United States of America and tried to follow their lead. When I was a pre-teen my father started studying Sociology at the University and became enamored with Marxist theory, which came with a deep hatred of the United States.
My perception of the United States came to me, not through my parents beliefs, but by what I saw in movies and TV series, and by what people who had lived in the US told me. As a teen, I thought the USA was full of libertine people, who practiced free sex anywhere (like in "Dynasty") knew nothing of loyalty and murdered each other routinely.
As a young woman, I watched the news and read newspapers and became acquainted with US foreign policy. I couldn't help notice that the US always used freedom as a supporting philosophy of all their actions, but adapted the definition of freedom to the situation. For example, they opposed Castro's government in Cuba based on the fact that it wasn't a democratic government, while vigorously supporting Pinochet in Chile, one of the most vicious dictatorships in the modern history of the planet.
When I first moved to the United States I thought to myself, "This is the country of freedom?" I looked around and all I saw was people working too hard, sometimes two or three jobs, to make ends meet, or to fit a standard of living that they had not chosen themselves, but which had been suggested to them by the media.
I saw people who had the freedom to get credit cards, to then have to pay liberal amounts of interest. I met women who chose to go to work, even though they had the freedom to stay home, because their neighborhoods were desolate during the day and there was no one with whom to interact.
I mostly saw people who were good and lived by a set of decent morals and values – nothing like the people in most US TV series or movies -- caring people, with good intentions, willing and ready to offer help. I was surprised to see so much natural beauty and so many people with such a strong interest in the environment.
I now realize that compared to some countries in Africa and the Middle East, the US is really a haven for freedom. Compared to Latin American countries, I am not so sure. As I write this, I am aware that my perspective comes from living a life of privilege, and not a life of poverty, in South America.
The only freedom I saw in the US that I didn't already have in my native Ecuador, was the freedom to publicly criticize or even make fun of the president of the country without getting in immediate trouble. But what good is freedom of speech when you don't have time to exercise your freedom of thought?
We need to make time in our busy lives to enjoy our blessings, including our freedom. If we feel we desperately need a vacation, maybe it is time to make some changes to our daily lifestyle.
These are some of the best resources I have found to make significant changes in the way we live, which is a direct result from our daily choices:
• The Simplicity Movement - especially the book Circles of Simplicity by Cecile Andrews, which is basically a manual to simplify your life in order to live your passions, while at the same time building friendships and stronger communities.
• The book Making Room for Life by Randy Frazee.
Our family has made choices that baffle some of the people who know us. I started saving money four years before I got pregnant to get the equipment that would enable me to work from home and stay with the children. We homeschool. My husband left a job managing a Chiropractic practice for a large corporation to open a home based practice, so he can be close to us and not miss the children growing up. In some ways, we have traded income for time, and our wealth, happiness and quality of life have increased.
I invite you to explore ways in which your own life might be simplified. I invite you to live a life that responds to your own values and standards and not to what other people have led you to believe will make you happy.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Lecture series on Feng Shui, Affirmations, Wealth
I recently gave a series of four lectures on the Feng Shui perspective on Affirmations, Manifesting and Wealth at the Positive Living Center of Knoxville (formerly known as Religious Science Church of Knoxville). I have embedded the videos below:
1. The Feng Shui Home as a Positive Feedback Loop for Your Affirmations
2. Getting Through the Dark Night of the Soul with the Help of the Home.
The “dark night of the soul” is a metaphor used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life, marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation. Moni Castaneda talks about how using your home as a healing tool can help you get through this and other hard moments in life.
3. The Feng Shui Gratitude Box
4. Wealth and Spirituality and the Use of the Wealth Poster
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Zumba - Hot Latin Guys... for Inspiration
As it gets colder, we all need some inspiration to get through the cold winter days.
I thought I'd share my favorite Hot Latin Guys with you.
I thought I'd share my favorite Hot Latin Guys with you.
(Make sure to check out my favorite Hot Latin Guy at the bottom of this post, then tell me who is your favorite Hot Latin Guy)
Hot Latin Guy #7: Chayanne
(Not my type but a lot of ladies like him)
Hot Latin Guy #6: Ricky Martin
(sure he is gay, so what? He is still hot)
(sure he is gay, so what? He is still hot)
Hot Latin Guy #5: Marc Anthony
(not handsome, but such a sensual voice!)
Hot Latin Guy #4: David Bisbal
(has that Spanish bravado)
Hot Latin Guy #3: Juanes
Colombian singer/songwriter
Hot Latin Guy #2: Carlos Vives
This is also my favorite Zumba song:
Hot Latin Guy #1: Marco E. Castaneda
The Hottest Latin Guy: The one that shows up, and stays through thin and thick, who changed diapers and bathed babies, and whom my children call Dada: Dr. C. (Really hot too, but he wouldn't let me take a pic of him without his shirt on). Today, December 8th of 2011 is our 17 Year Wedding Anniversary!
Saturday, July 23, 2011
To My Friends
In Latin culture there is a devotion to friendship. There is a moment, in really good parties, when you are tired of dancing, that someone takes out a guitar and we sing songs about friendship.
Friends and no one else. The rest: a jungle. Jorge Guillén, Spanish Poet
Translation to English of the song "A Mis Amigos." (To My Friends) by Alberto Cortez, sung by Facundo Cabral and Alberto Cortez
You can watch/listen to this song at the bottom of this post.
I am indebted to my friends for their tenderness and their words of encouragement and the hugs... and splitting the bill which life presents us - step by step - with all of them.
I am indebted to my friends for their patience in tolerating the sharpest thorns, the bursts of temper, the negligence, the vanities, the fears and the doubts.
Sometimes friendship seems like a fragile paper boat, but the most violent storm can't destroy it, because on that paper boat, as captain and steersman, holds on to the steering wheel... a heart, a heart, my heart.
(the heart of [names of friends], the heart of a friend I call master, because every time I talk with him I learn four or five words I didn't know before.)
I am indebted to my friends for the annoyances that have disturbed some times our harmony. We all know it can't be a sin, to sometimes argue about small things.
To my friends I will leave, when I die, the legacy of my devotion on a note of my guitar and, among the forgotten verses of a poem, my poor incorrigible soul of a cicada.
Sometimes friendship seems like a fragile paper boat, but the most violent storm can't destroy it, because on that paper boat, as captain and steersman, holds on to the steering wheel... a heart, a heart, my heart.
My friend, if this song, like the wind, wherever you want to listen to it, speaks to you, you will be a plural, because feelings are not exhibited when friends are carried in the soul.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Facundo Cabral and the Love of Life
I asked my eight year old son not long ago, while we were lying down on the grass enjoying the sunshine, to tell me something about the world. He said, "OK," thought for five seconds, then said, "the world is peaceful, graceful, and beautiful." This comes of course from the child who, when he and his brother were asked what they think Heaven is like, described their current life. (We must be doing something right.)
My son's statement about the world is a lot truer than what the media shows in what we call "the news." I don't usually watch the news. When I was younger I believed I should watch the news to be informed about what was going on in the world, but it didn't take long for me to notice that watching the news was just a way to be informed about all the bad things that happen in the world, collected and put together to make it seem like the world is a terrible place. The truth is most of the world is at peace and free of tragedy most of the time, the larger part of the world is like my son Awan says, "peaceful, graceful and beautiful" – even in the Third World, where I was born.
I don't watch the news, but I also don't want to be the only person at a meeting who doesn't know about some major world event that just happened, so sometimes I watch the muted headliners that the Spanish channel shows during the night time soap opera (yes, I confess to watching soap operas).
It was through the headline briefs that I learned of the death of Facundo Cabral, a beloved Latin American singer, songwriter and poet. To describe the shock and pain of this discovery, of what the tragic death of this singer means to the Latin world, the only thing I can think of is to compare it to what people in the US felt when they learned about the untimely death of princess Diana.
Facundo Cabral agreed with me and my son that the world is beautiful, in spite of all the strife, and Cabral knew a lot about strife.
He was the seventh child of a very poor family in Argentina. His father abandoned the family a day after his birth. He said in interviews that at the age of nine he stopped the official vehicle of then-President Juan Domingo Peron and his wife, Evita, to ask for work for his mother, Sara. Eva Duarte, Argentina's first lady is quoted as saying that was the first decent thing she had heard that day. Everyone else was asking for charity, but Cabral had asked for work. This meeting led to the family moving to the city of Tandil, Cabral worked on a farm and had his first exposure to Argentinean folk music but also to alcohol and criminal activity.
Facundo said he was an alcoholic by age nine and up to no good in the streets, until he became a thief and was sent to a reformatory, at age fourteen, due to an act of violence. It was in this reformatory that he met a Jesuit priest who taught him to read and write and introduced him to classic literature. In three years, Cabral completed the equivalents to elementary, middle school and high school.
Cabral said that as a teen he had an encounter with a vagabond named Simon, who introduced him to religion and encouraged him to seek a career in music.
As a young man Facundo got a job playing an a hotel in a coastal city in Argentina. He had moderate success until he composed his most famous song: "No soy de aquí ni soy de allá" (I am not from here and I am not from there"translated at the bottom of this post)
Cabral found the love of his life and got married at forty, but both his wife and one year old daughter died in a plane crash a few years later. Cabral, devastated, went to meet Mother Theresa. He related that when she saw him she told him, "I know what your problem is" to which he thought that everybody knew what his problem was and that the world was a mess. She then continued, "Your problem is that you don't know where to put your love. You have so much of it, and now you don't know where to put it." This led to Cabral moving to Calcutta for a while to help Mother Teresa tend to people suffering from leprosy.
Cabral never remarried, devoting his life to his music. He wrote 66 books. On July 9 of 2011 Facundo Cabral was murdered while driving to the airport in Guatemala, where he had given a concert the night before. The target, some news services say, may have been his Nicaraguan promoter. He was 74 years old when he died.
For someone with his history it is amazing to read some of his quotes or to listen to the lyrics of his songs. Here are some examples:
I AM NOT HERE AND NOT FROM THERE (translated lyrics)
I like to walk, but I don't follow the paths, what is for sure is already devoid of mystery. I like to go very far in the summer, but go back to my mother in the winter, and see the dogs who never forgot me, and get the hugs I receive from my brothers. I like that, I like that.
Of course I like that.
I like the sunshine, Alice and doves, good cigars and the Spanish guitar, jumping walls and opening windows, and girls in April.
I like wine as much as flowers, and rabbits, but not tractors, home made bread and the voice of Dolores, and the sea wetting my feet.
I am not from here and I am not from there, I have no age, or future, and being happy is the color of my identity.
I love to lie down always on the sand, or chase Manuela on my bike, or having all the time in the world to watch the stars while lying down with Maria on the wheat fields.
I am not from here and I am not from there, I have no age, or future, and being happy is the color of my identity.
My son's statement about the world is a lot truer than what the media shows in what we call "the news." I don't usually watch the news. When I was younger I believed I should watch the news to be informed about what was going on in the world, but it didn't take long for me to notice that watching the news was just a way to be informed about all the bad things that happen in the world, collected and put together to make it seem like the world is a terrible place. The truth is most of the world is at peace and free of tragedy most of the time, the larger part of the world is like my son Awan says, "peaceful, graceful and beautiful" – even in the Third World, where I was born.
I don't watch the news, but I also don't want to be the only person at a meeting who doesn't know about some major world event that just happened, so sometimes I watch the muted headliners that the Spanish channel shows during the night time soap opera (yes, I confess to watching soap operas).
It was through the headline briefs that I learned of the death of Facundo Cabral, a beloved Latin American singer, songwriter and poet. To describe the shock and pain of this discovery, of what the tragic death of this singer means to the Latin world, the only thing I can think of is to compare it to what people in the US felt when they learned about the untimely death of princess Diana.
Facundo Cabral agreed with me and my son that the world is beautiful, in spite of all the strife, and Cabral knew a lot about strife.
He was the seventh child of a very poor family in Argentina. His father abandoned the family a day after his birth. He said in interviews that at the age of nine he stopped the official vehicle of then-President Juan Domingo Peron and his wife, Evita, to ask for work for his mother, Sara. Eva Duarte, Argentina's first lady is quoted as saying that was the first decent thing she had heard that day. Everyone else was asking for charity, but Cabral had asked for work. This meeting led to the family moving to the city of Tandil, Cabral worked on a farm and had his first exposure to Argentinean folk music but also to alcohol and criminal activity.
Facundo said he was an alcoholic by age nine and up to no good in the streets, until he became a thief and was sent to a reformatory, at age fourteen, due to an act of violence. It was in this reformatory that he met a Jesuit priest who taught him to read and write and introduced him to classic literature. In three years, Cabral completed the equivalents to elementary, middle school and high school.
Cabral said that as a teen he had an encounter with a vagabond named Simon, who introduced him to religion and encouraged him to seek a career in music.
As a young man Facundo got a job playing an a hotel in a coastal city in Argentina. He had moderate success until he composed his most famous song: "No soy de aquí ni soy de allá" (I am not from here and I am not from there"translated at the bottom of this post)
Cabral found the love of his life and got married at forty, but both his wife and one year old daughter died in a plane crash a few years later. Cabral, devastated, went to meet Mother Theresa. He related that when she saw him she told him, "I know what your problem is" to which he thought that everybody knew what his problem was and that the world was a mess. She then continued, "Your problem is that you don't know where to put your love. You have so much of it, and now you don't know where to put it." This led to Cabral moving to Calcutta for a while to help Mother Teresa tend to people suffering from leprosy.
Cabral never remarried, devoting his life to his music. He wrote 66 books. On July 9 of 2011 Facundo Cabral was murdered while driving to the airport in Guatemala, where he had given a concert the night before. The target, some news services say, may have been his Nicaraguan promoter. He was 74 years old when he died.
For someone with his history it is amazing to read some of his quotes or to listen to the lyrics of his songs. Here are some examples:
- "Every morning is good news, every child that is born is good news, every just man is good news, every singer is good news, because every singer is one less soldier."
- "I'm amazed to form part of this amazing universe and I'm proud of the hunger that keeps me awake. Because when man is full he falls asleep."
- I always ask God, why did you give me so much? You gave me misery, hunger, happiness, struggle, lights... I saw everything. I know there is cancer, syphilis and spring, and apple fritters..
- ...You think you lost something – it is not true, everything was given to you... You have lost no one -- those you loved who have passed on, are just ahead of you, and wait for you when your time comes.
I AM NOT HERE AND NOT FROM THERE (translated lyrics)
I like to walk, but I don't follow the paths, what is for sure is already devoid of mystery. I like to go very far in the summer, but go back to my mother in the winter, and see the dogs who never forgot me, and get the hugs I receive from my brothers. I like that, I like that.
Of course I like that.
I like the sunshine, Alice and doves, good cigars and the Spanish guitar, jumping walls and opening windows, and girls in April.
I like wine as much as flowers, and rabbits, but not tractors, home made bread and the voice of Dolores, and the sea wetting my feet.
I am not from here and I am not from there, I have no age, or future, and being happy is the color of my identity.
I love to lie down always on the sand, or chase Manuela on my bike, or having all the time in the world to watch the stars while lying down with Maria on the wheat fields.
I am not from here and I am not from there, I have no age, or future, and being happy is the color of my identity.
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