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A moving tribute

A little cultural comfort for the mourners of Uvalde:

A bus rolled in off the dusty highway and into the heart of a town mired in sorrow.

Outsiders had sent so much to Uvalde lately: food, flowers, millions of dollars in donations, prayers — gestures, large and small, meant to acknowledge a grief that no one believed they could cure. Like the others, compelled to do something, dozens of mariachi musicians had traveled from San Antonio with the hope that they could deliver a dose of comfort.

In the square that has become an expression of Uvalde’s pain, where 21 crosses were erected to mark the lives stolen by the gunman who stormed into an elementary school, the musicians gathered along the edge of a fountain and started to play, drawing on the aching words of the revered Mexican musician Juan Gabriel.

Tú eres la tristeza de mis ojos
Que lloran en silencio por tu amor

You are the sadness in my eyes
that cry in silence for your love

“They don’t pet you,” Anthony Medrano, one of the performers, said of the lyrics. “They cut you.”

Healing requires honesty, however lacerating, he said. A mariachi performance like this one was meant to be a journey, starting in darkness and climbing closer to the light.

Mariachi music — with its trumpets, strings and serenades — often conjures images of jubilation or romance, its costumed performers playing at quinceañeras, weddings, anniversaries and birthdays. Yet in truth, performers say, the music traces the arc of life, as adept at accompanying the depths of anguish as soaring triumph.

“We as mariachis are there for every part of a person’s life,” Mr. Medrano, who helped coordinate the trip, told the other performers as they hit the road. “We’re called to step up and step in — and help comfort families and help comfort community. That’s what we’re going to do today.”

Mariachi players came from all over south Texas to participate, some as young as 7.

The pull to join the performance was strong. “They look like our children,” Sandra Gonzalez, a violin player, said of the victims. “The faces look familiar.”[…]

[J]ust as Mr. Medrano promised, the music seemed to give those who gathered a respite, even if for just a moment. Mr. San Miguel led some of the musicians in an instrumental rendition of “Amazing Grace.” He remembered the comfort he felt when the song was played at his brother’s funeral last year.

His father, the Grammy Award-winning mariachi performer Juan Ortiz, crooned another song that many in the crowd knew instantly: “Un Dia A La Vez.” The song’s consolation: Healing was not here, and no one knew when it would come. But Uvalde could summon the resilience to move forward.

Un día a la vez, Dios mío
y es lo que pido de ti
dame la fuerza para vivir
un día a la vez

One day at a time, my God,
and that is what I ask of you,
give me the strength to live
one day at a time.

Words of wisdom….

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