#beverly bryan

It’s been almost a week since the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando took the lives of 49 people, many of them Latinx. It was Latin night at the club. For many people in the LGBTQ community it has been a wrenching reopening of old wounds that weren’t necessarily what one could called healed in the first place. Violence against gay and trans people motivated by hate is horribly commonplace, and yet there are still no words for the pain and anger this mass murder has caused for the LGBTQ community, myself included, and anyone else who recognizes the humanity of those killed and who also recognizes that it was a hate crime. It is in fact the deadliest attack on LGBTQ people in US history. It’s been a long week. Personally, I can’t believe it’s only been a week.

Earlier in the week I recorded the Pride episode of Songmess, the Latin indie music podcast I do with my friend and fellow Soundfriend Richard Villegas. We had been planning to record it this week but we moved the date up and changed some of our song selections. Richard chose this song to close the episode and I found it to be a beautiful choice. Los Espiritus is a collaboration between Tony Gallardo and Lido Pimienta that resulted in only two songs, but those songs are terrific.  

“Atlantico Pacifico” is a sparse electronic track built on a midtempo beat that almost sounds like falling rain or a shallow, hand-held drum. Lido Pimienta’s voice is haunting and childlike. The lyrics are written in the voice of a young woman who is afraid of how her parents will react when they find out she is involved romantically with another girl. You can feel the tender compassion the singer has for the vulnerable character she has created and inhabits in the song. Overall, the song itself feels both wise and innocent. I’m sharing it here because, this simple, wistful song is helping me find some peace right now.

— Beverly Bryan, editor in chief at Soundfriend, writer for Noisey, Remezcla, and the Village Voice, podcast co-host of Songmess, Brooklyn