The Party and 'Culiacan'

The Great Plotnik was so busy running around yesterday at the Noe Valley Voice Summer Party, held each Labor Day at The Great Plotnik World Headquarters, Meatball Kitchen and Barbecued Salmon Emporium, that he didn't even take one photo. Hopefully somebody will send one in.

It's one of those rare parties where everybody knows everybody. The kids get older and taller and the parents get older and rounder and each year there are a few more turkey burgers. The bbq turns out hot dogs and various burgers and this year there was a whole bbq salmon coated in chimichurri...no, wait, there wasn't any chimichurri because Trader Joe's has discontinued chimichurri and Plottie didn't have time to make his own. But he had made some smoky Oaxaca salsa so he squirted lemon on the salmon and dusted it in Tony Chachere's, then loaded it with Oaxaca salsa, fresh salsa, fresh ginger, a little soy and fresh, whole scallions, sealed it in foil and tossed it right on the coals so the dogs and burgs could cook above it. When the meat came off, Plot removed the grill, grabbed the salmon off the coals, and finished it off on the grill. Man, this is a great method and All Thanks To Da Punk.

This year's pot luck seemed to attract yummy desserts. The Great Beburee-san's peach cobbler was to fall over drooling.

It's a tradition for The Great Plotnik to sing a new song each year and, as is also the custom, he never knows if it's a good song until he plays it for this crowd. This year they got 'Culiacan.' It's kind of a Mexican-immigration-tear jerker-yodel. Seems to have been a big hit. Here's the lyric:

Culiacan

Verse 1
I came through Tijuana in a truck carrying concrete
Coyote, he dumped me right here on Main Street
I looked around, everyone was Latino
Walking with faces hidden in shadow

I got a room with my cousin from Durango
Two guys from Los Mochis, three more from Hermosillo
Working all day, washing the platos
Working all night, with all the other vatos

Sometimes we talk about things that we miss
It isn’t our mothers or the girls we have kissed
Well yes, yes it is, but what makes us all cry
Is the smell of the earth and the color of the sky

CHORUS
Culi-a-can
Culi-a-can
Back on the Rancho where all of my family comes from
Culi-a-can
In LA it’s sunny, I’ve got a little money, I’m learning my English by watching TV
But I save every quarter to buy a money order and send it ‘cross the border
So they won’t forget me

Verse 2
I work with the moon, I work with the sun
My bed is always empty, the TV stays on
Weekends in offices, sweeping the hallways
And while I am working, I’m thinking always

Someday, Dios bendiga, with money in my pocket
I’ll buy a lot of presents and fly like a rocket
Back to my hometown of Culiacan
Walk like a king and live like a man

But what will I do there? Where will I work there?
I earn in two days here what it takes a month there
None of us say it, but all of us know
We’re never going home to Mexico

CHORUS
Culi-a-can
Culi-a-can
Where life costs ten pesos, but nobody’s even got one
Culi-a-can
In LA it’s sunny, I’ve got a little money, I’m learning my English by watching TV
But I save every quarter to buy a money order and send it ‘cross the border
So they won’t forget me

Verse 3
My brother Hernando is in San Fernando
One sister’s in Phoenix, the other’s in Fresno
Our village is empty, like after a battle
Nobody’s left but the priest and the cattle

We are a river of souls in slow motion
From beyond the mountains and over the ocean
Build a high wall and we will climb over
Build a deep trench and we will dig under

So God Bless America and Viva la Raza
Shoot off the fireworks out on the Plaza
Chiapas, Oaxaca, Havana, San Juan
We’re all from somebody’s Culiacan

CHORUS
Culi-a-can
Culi-a-can
Where life costs ten pesos, but nobody’s even got one
Culi-a-can
In LA it’s sunny, I’ve got a little money, I’m learning my English by watching TV
But I save every quarter to buy a money order and send it ‘cross the border
So they won’t forget me

9-07
DAK