Luna de Xelajú is a very popular
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
n
waltz composed by
Paco Pérez
Francisco Pérez Muñoz (1916–1951) was a singer, composer, and guitarist from Guatemala.
Biography
Pérez was born on April 25, 1916, in Huehuetenango, Guatemala to José Pérez and Luz Muñoz. At the age of 6, he acted in the municipal thea ...
in 1944.
The title translates as "Moon of Xelajú". "Xelajú" (pronounced sheh-lah-HOO) is the
Kʼicheʼ Maya name for the Guatemalan city
Quetzaltenango, still often popularly called "Xelajú" or "Xela".
The song was written to Miss Eugenia Cohen, a beautiful Jewish lady who stole the writer's heart, but eventually left him because Eugenia's parents disapproved of the relationship. She lives in Quetzaltenango and Guatemala City to this day.
All of the great marimba bands of Guatemala have played it to great success. Perhaps one of the most popular recent versions is as the first selection of the CD ''Valses inolvidables de Guatemala'', with the Guatemalan
Millennium Orchestra under the baton of Maestro
Dieter Lehnhoff.
The song has been performed by several musical acts, including Guatemalan singer and Grammy Award nominee,
Gaby Moreno. In 2023, she did a collaboration with actor
Oscar Isaac, which was released first as a single, and later as a part of her album “X Mí (Vol. 1).”
Song lyrics
Although the song has lyrics, it is frequently performed instrumentally.
Popular culture
Luna de Xelajú became a cult favorite among Macintosh users in the mid-1990s with the release of a novelty application called "Jared, the Butcher of Song" written and published by Freeverse Software. In the app, an 8-bit rendering of a smiley face attempts to sing the song with light guitar accompaniment.
[Archived a]
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
References
External links
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Guatemalan music
Guatemalan culture
Spanish-language songs
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