legacy of beloved Mexican composer Francisco Galibondo Soler

characters and unforgettable songs. As a child growing up in Mexico, I distinctly remember doing one of my kindergarten shows to the Cri-Cri song “Caminito de la Escuela,” which tells of different animals making their way to school (one of my personal favourites). It was adorable! On road trips we would sometimes put on Cri-Cri DVDs and my whole family would sing his songs. To put it into perspective, my father was born in 1966, well after Soler’s program ended, and he can still sing his songs word for word. Cri-Cri has had a cricket-y grip on over four generations!

Soler wrote 228 songs, which varied greatly in style and genre, but all captured the essence of traditional Mexican music. Soler uses the Tango in “Che Araña”, polka in “El Ratón Vaquero,” the waltz in “La Muñeca Fea,” and Son Cubano in “Cucurumbé.” The song “Cucurumbé” pays homage to the place of his birth — the state of Veracruz. This state is one of great historical importance in Mexico, and is also a state with one of the highest Afro-Mexican and Afro-descendant populations in the country. My own grandfather and his side of the family are Afro-descendants from Veracruz, and I distinctly remember him singing and dancing to “Cucurumbé” and other Cri-Cri songs with his grandkids. It is very likely he sang these songs with my mom and her siblings too, and as he has been a teacher for most of his life, he would be familiar with the sounds of Cri-Cri around the classrooms.

However, it is important to note that like other media aimed at children at the time, such as the works of Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney, some of Soler’s works contained racist and classist imagery reminiscent of the time. This is evident in his songs “Negrito Sandia,” “Métete Teté”” and “Chinescas,” which contain blatant colourism, racist caricatures, and tragically normalized violence towards Black bodies that stems from Mexico’s history of colonialism. Old performances of songs like “Métete Teté” were often conduits for minstrelsy. These songs are often forgotten amongst Soler’s repertoire, or in the case of the generally wellknown“Negrito Sandia,” have not been recognized as harmful until recently, in the past decade or so.

However, Soler’s grandson Gabilondo Vizcaíno stated in a 2017 interview that he remembered his grandfather didn’t share the racial prejudices of the people of his time, and that his aforementioned song, “Cucurumbé” reflected this. The song tells us the story of Cucurumbé, a little girl who wished to lighten her skin with the ocean foam. But a fish with a hat swims up to her and exclaims that there is no need for that, for she with her black skin, is beautiful the way she is. Gabilondo Vizcaíno recounts that Soler deeply loved Veracruz and its people. Soler is remembered fondly, by my family, by Veracruz, and by most of Mexico, as many of us have memories of family and childhood attached to his music. Although throughout his life’s work, Soler created a space for children to explore their imaginations, even great composers like him are not free from accountability. The impact of his harmful works should not be excused because of his positive contributions to musical traditions. It is important to face, recognize, teach, and remember the harmful works he created that helped perpetuate racism, regardless of Soler’s association with childhood innocence.

One thing remains true, and that is that Cri-Cri is part of Mexico’s cultural and musical history, as well as many of our personal stories. I, for one, will forever hold in my heart the

Frida Sofía Morales Mora | Social Media Editor

memory of laughing and pretending to howl with my jaded, Gen-X father, while we sing about a dog with a tooth ache in “El Perrito”. It is these moments of connection between generations that I cherish, and where Cri-Cri has carved his music into our memories. I don’t know if a decade from now school children will still perform “Caminito de la Escuela” like I did. Or maybe they will. I do hope that if Soler’s music and legacy carries on, we would do right by history and not sweep his harmful works under the rug and remember Cri-Cri as he was.