Carmen+De+Jesus

​ Juan Luis Guerra  Juan Luis Guerra: Lyrics of Poverty in the D.R In 1992 Juan L. Guerra has been a controversial figure in the Dominican Republic because he tackles social issues of the Dominican Republic.The Dominican government did not appreciate some of the songs he wrote because he spoke of the corruption and inequalities that exist in the D.R. He is an extraordinary artist because of the fact that he sings about reality and what minority people care about.Juan Luis Guerra is a well-known in and outside the Dominican Republic.He sings about Christianity, love, and Dominican social issues.The genre of his music is Merengue, Salsa, Balada, Rock & Roll, and Gospel. He is a talented artist that attracts all different types of fans.He is a significant artist because unlike most Dominicans he uses his music to reach a broad audience and exposes important social issues. Guerra’s remarkable voice, fine guitar work, and classy lyrics have made him legendary.Guerra writes his songs and produces some of them. He has sold 20 million records.He was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in June 1957.The typical image of the 6’5” Guerra is a beard and a hat.It is usually what you will see him in.His music is made up of great sounds that make you want to dance.In an article I read it said, “Guerra's Merengues are characterized by breakneck tempos, lightning-fast horn lines and jabs, and highly polished productions” (Small). His music is great for dancing, but also has great poetic imagery. After finishing High School Guerra studied philosophy and literature in the Autonomic University of the Dominican Republic. It was not until a year after these studies that Juan L. Guerra enjoyed music.He began to study in the National Music Conservatory of Santo Domingo. When he graduated from the National Music Conservatory, he won a scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied the basics of music.Years later he returned to his native country where he worked as a musical composer. Guerra was in the, “4-40 Group” and released their first album entitled “Soplando” in 1984. Following studio recordings Guerra became the main figure turning them into “Juan Luis Guerra and 4-40”. However they were not successful with this album.Guerra then released “Bachata Rosa” in 1990, “being the first edited on compact disc and the most successful from a commercial point of view, selling up until then 5 million copies and achieving the highest peaks in his career” (Guerra).Guerra then retired for four years and during that time period became “interested in and converted to Evangelical Christianity. When he came out of retirement in 2004, it was to present the world with his new album //Para Ti// (For you) which was mostly religious in nature” (Ilich). In 1993 he wrote a song about the economy of the Dominican Republic and its effect on the people. He is the main singer and has his back ground singers.The instruments being used in most of his songs are drums, guitars, piano, and trumpet.A few of his songs focus on the social issue of poverty.One of his songs called “El costo de la vida” (the cost of life) talks about the economy of the Dominican Republic and how people can’t afford things. I pulled out a short selection from this song and it says, “Ay, the cost of living?... It goes up, you see, And the peso goes down,… not even the poor can see it., And the medicine?, Eh, now you see it goes backwards., Here it doesn’t cure…”. Guerra sings exactly what the conditions of the economy and the hospitals are like.There is not enough medical equipment like there is in the United States to cure the sick. People die because they don’t have money to pay for medicines and most important they can’t afford to pay for surgeries.Guerra says, “The hospitals around here are not well equipped, and a lot of the equipment in them is broken down”. In 1999 Juan Luis Guerra was inspired to write a song relating his experience in the emergency room in a public hospital in the Dominican Republic.The gloomy song, “Niágara en Bicicleta,” (Niagara Falls on a bicycle) is about the hospital conditions in the Dominican Republic.The song says, “Don’t tell me that the doctors left …you don’t have anesthesia …someone’s drunk the alcohol, And sewn the thread for stitches into a tablecloth, Don’t tell me the forceps are lost, The x-ray machine has burnt out, And the serum has been used to sweeten the coffee”. A former student from the Berklee College of Music interviewed Guerra and asked him about the title of this song “Niágara en Bicicleta” and he said, “That expression equates getting through hard times with going over Niagara Falls on a bicycle.” He uses irony in this song for people to get an idea of what Dominican residents from his country go through and so they get an idea of how bad things can be in the D.R. Juan L. Guerra has earned numerous awards including nine Latin Grammy's and two Latin Billboard Music Awards.In April of 2008, “Guerra’s smash disc “** La Llave De Mi Corazón” (Key to My Heart) crested ** Billboard’s Top Latin Albums – his first chart topping CD of the Sound Scan era” (Guerra).In the 2000 Latin Grammy Awards, Guerra received three awards.He has successfully performed in many diverse countries such as Aruba, Denmark, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Amsterdam, and Italy.In other words he is a well known artist, reaching out to all kinds of people and fans throughout the world. Another social issue that Guerra stresses in his songs is the song about immigration.The song is called “Visa Para un Sueno” (Visa for a Dream).He talks about people wanting to get their visas to travel to another state to get away it says, “Looking for visa for a dream, looking for visa the reason of being, looking for visa not to return” (Guerra).Many Dominicans wants to travel to better themselves and their family.Parents want to come into this country so that their children get a better education that they did not receive.However, in many cases it is difficult to do so.Not every family can come in to the United States and that’s why the Dominican government needs to make the Dominican Republic a better country.They need to make life better so that life expectancy for people in the D.R increases. Today the life expectancy according to the HRW World Atlas is 71.3% for males and for female it is at 75.6%.According to the Centers of Disease Control in 2005 the United States life expectancy for women is 80.4% and for males its 75.2%.Which is not much of a difference, but people in the Dominican suffer a lot more than an average American. The songs that Juan L. Guerra sings have reached the hearts of many people.Whether his songs are about love, Christianity, or Dominican social issues many people can relate to his songs in some way.Many people from around the world enjoy listening to his music because of the lyrics and the sounds to his music.They are all so enjoyable and make anyone dance.I recommend people listen to his music and translating it to the English version.Since Guerra’s songs have a romantic feeling, I would say that his common audiences are older people from ages of twenty- six and up. Juan L. Guerra has a foundation where they donate money to Children’s Hospitals and money to construct churches.Guerra said, “We make various types of surgical procedures like kidney transplant, open heart, eye correction, and prosthesis installation”.The foundation also built basketball courts in poor neighborhoods and gave out school uniforms.He has made it possible for people to learn about hygiene and how to prevent illnesses.  __Bibliography __ Guerra, Juan L. "Juan Luis Guerra Biography." //Juan Luis Guerra 440//. N.p., 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. .

"Juan Luis Guerra Biography." N.p., 2009. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. .

Kugel, Seth, ed. "The Sound of La Vida Dominicana." //The New York Times// [New York] 18 July 2008, Copyright 2008 ed., Music sec.: n. pag. Print.

"Juan Luis Guerra: Tropical Music Superstar." Interview by Mark Small. //The Berklee Internet Radio Network//. Berklee College of Music, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2009. .

media type="youtube" key="b4i7tbqKWp4" height="344" width="425"This is the video of one of the songs that I wrote about "Niagara Falls on a bicycle". Since many do not understand spanish you may want to watch the video to see what the song is about.

media type="youtube" key="_zLpacr1DlU" height="344" width="425"This is the video of the second song I talk about "the cost of life" where Guerra speaks about the hospitals in the Dominican Republic.

[|Christianity]