and Words
No sé exactamente qué pasó
Que todo de repente ya cambió
En nuestro diariamente, lo bonito
Tristemente terminó
¿A dónde va nuestro amor?
Si cada día
Se va muriendo la flor
De tu alegría
Lyric excerpts from Musixmatch.
Like anyone else these days, I’ll chill out to movies or series on Netflix. One of the latest shows that I’ve enjoyed is The Lincoln Lawyer. The series follows the movie, both based on the Mickey Haller novels by Michael Connelly. While I enjoyed them both, the movie had a much darker tone to it. The story revolves around the lawyer that runs his law practice out of his Lincoln Town Car, hence the title.
As you might imagine, the show runs a little more upbeat than the movie. Haller practices his law fairly fast and loose, though he is generally pretty principled. They interject enough plot twists to keep it interesting, and I certainly looked forward to its returning for a second season. Out of respect for those who have yet to watch it, I’ll omit any spoilers, since it’s still a recent show.
That said, I’ll indulge in mentioning some basic characters and relationships.
Haller has been married twice; he maintains good relationships with both wives. Lorna, one former wife (and her fiancé) work in his law office. You can feel the affection between them as they navigate conversations. Besides Haller who is in most scenes, she is likely the next most visible person. She’s principled and has a good moral compass.
Maggie, the other former wife, works as a lawyer for the city. They also demonstrate a great affection for each other, though this relationship is a bit more tumultuous. There are sparks of romantic interest, though this is generally biorhythmic. Maggie is played by Neve Campbell; I’ll admit that I had a TV crush on her when she played Julia in Party of Five.
They share a daughter, Hayley, and this is naturally the source of some tension. She too maintains a good relationship with Mickey. Mickey is of Mexican descent, though you may not necessarily tell by listening to him. However, when he and Hayley talk, they’ll occasionally throw a Spanish word of phrase. He’ll often refer to her as ‘hija’, the Spanish word for daughter. I found this endearing.
This season brings in a new female character, Lisa. She runs a restaurant and becomes both a love interest and client, but no, not at the same time. Lisa looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it at first. She is played by Lana Parrilla, and that jogged my memory. She played the Evil Queen in Once Upon a Time. That character had her own fanbase named the “Evil Regals”; no, I’m not making that up.
However, this last character was perhaps the most interesting to me. In season two, we meet Mickey’s mother, Elena. They’ll often speak in Spanish. Elena is kooky, flighty, and even a bit self-centered. Nonetheless, she remains endearing. Though as I watched each scene with her, there was something eerily familiar about her. Could she possibly be played by Angélica María? Holy smokes!
In Puerto Rico, we (read that as my older sister) persistently watched a Mexican telenovela (effectively a soap opera) on our modest black and white televisions; it was a daily ritual. I couldn’t remember the name of the telenovela, but I remember the theme music at the start of each episode. That song was “¿A Dónde Va Nuestro Amor?”, which translates to “where does our love go?” I simply worked backwards from there.
This familiar tune started every episode of “Muchacha Italiana Viene a Casarse”. Really?! Is that the name of that soap?! It literally translates to “Italian young woman comes to get married”. As it happens, Angélica María plays the protagonist and sings the familiar theme song that has been forever burned into my memory. To me this is the mindbender, the show aired from 1971 to 1972. Really?! The last episode aired over fifty years ago?!
At first, I didn’t believe that show had such a simple, descriptive name. Then, I simply needed to track down the starting credits. Sure enough, that was the name of the show. And you know what else? She got top billing in the credits, a woman… in 1971! I smiled about that. It surprised me to learn that they filmed the show in black and white, though I don’t think we ever watched it on a color television.
Of course, there’s the question of why the song was so memorable. First, it’s profoundly poetic. It sings verses like “we believe we’re happy and quarrel… thirty times each month”, or my favorite “In our heavens there’s a sun, in agony”. I won’t tell you that no one pens visually poetic songs in English, but they are exceedingly rare. Second, she sings it with incredible emotion. Her words alternate between pleading and despair, at times you can almost see her sobbing. She is engulfed in helplessness. Hearing her singing those words shatters your heart; you want to reach out to comfort her.
As I searched for references to this song, I found that many covers exist. That didn’t surprise me, though none compared to her performance on that rendition. The one rendition that did tickle my fancy is the duet with her and Angélica Vale, her only daughter.
Only as I read up on this did I find that Angélica María is exceptional. She started acting at the age of four; she transitioned from child actress into both a legitimate actress and singer in adulthood. She starred in that soap and sung its theme song in her mid-twenties, and at the time she was known as “La novia de Mexico” (Mexico’s sweetheart). And she now plays the role of Mickey Haller’s mother Elena, seventy-five years after her start.
Though, as I reflect upon this song, that soap, and its history, I surprises me that I remember it as vividly as I do since I was only four years old at the time. However, the numbers don’t lie. It’s the oldest musical flashback I’ve had to date.