El Guanaguanare [Song]

Uploaded by keysalmo
GUANAGUANARE [Venezuelan Classic]
Composed by Jesús "Chu" Ávila [1930-2012]
Inspired by Isabelita Reyes
Chords for cuatro

En un copo de nube blanquecina, en aquel horizonte mañanero
En un copo de nube blanquecina, en aquel horizonte mañanero
Y en un rayo de sol que la ilumina, se ve morir un lánguido lucero
Y en un rayo de sol que la ilumina, se ve morir un lánguido lucero

Vuela Guanaguanare picoteando sobre las olas de la mar serena
vuela Guanaguanare picoteando sobre las olas de la mar serena
Un alcatraz lo va acompañando a recibir a la noche buena
Un alcatraz lo va acompañando a recibir a la noche buena

Tenue es la luz y alegre la alborada, va volando un pájaro en la sombra
Tenue es la luz y alegre la alborada, va volando un pájaro en la sombra
Y en el silencio y la quietud del agua parece oir su voz cuando me nombra
Y en el silencio y la quietud del agua parece oir su voz cuando me nombra

Vuela Guanaguanare picoteando sobre las olas de la mar serena
Vuela Guanaguanare picoteando sobre las olas de la mar serena
Un alcatraz lo va acompañando a recibir a la noche buena
Un alcatraz lo va acompañando a recibir a la noche buena

Dile que yo la espero en noche buena, guanaguanare cántale una canción
Dile que yo la espero en noche buena, guanaguanare cántale una canción
Traela para que vea la mar serena que yo la espero allá en el farayón
Traela para que vea la mar serena que yo la espero allá en el farayón

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance!
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A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Jesús Ávila! Do you even know that we sing your song in Trinidad and Tobago?

One of the songs usually included in the repertoires of our Trinbagonian parang groups, "El Guanaguanare" is for many reasons, one of my favourites. I believe that this seagull, the laughing gull, has yet undiscovered significance for me. Perhaps my Amerindian ancestors are smiling as I say this. Wherever I have lived in the world, gulls have presented themselves. I can watch them forever, whether they are walking, basking, fishing, flying, screaming at the tops of their voices, fighting, they are creatures of great grace and beauty.

This video presents the composer and performer, Jesús Ávila singing his song. It is of added significance to me that he is from Eastern Venezuela, Margarita Island to be more specific. In all of my travels outside of Trinbago, one place only has said clearly to me, "Guanaguanare, THIS was your home from before." and that was Eastern Venezuela where I immediately recognised that landscape and those people on a level that was so deep. I can only guess at what the root of this connection is. The gull, I think, is a bridge, something that comes around me to remind me of another place and time, one that I have never forgotten.

And if I were a composer of music, I would write songs like these about Trinidad and Tobago: songs about the land, the animals and birds and plants and the spirits that make their homes within all of these. There is a correlation between how these are venerated and how we treat each other as human beings.

UPDATE: 15 July, 2012 "El cantautor margariteño Jesús “Chu” Ávila falleció la madrugada de ayer en su isla natal luego de una delicada intervención. El cantante de 82 años fundó la agrupación Cuerdas Espartanas que aún se mantiene vigente." SOURCE

The composer of the song, El Guanaguanare, Jesús “Chu” Ávila, has left us for wider skies. Fly beyond and in peace, El Guanaguanare! Thanks from this Trinbagonian fan, for your life and all your music and the love that inspired it.

Homage to the great composer, musician and performer, Jesús Ávila

Uploaded by HGFILMSMARGARITA

A rendition of his song," Guanaguanare"
by Nancy Ramos.

Uploaded by videoegianvittorio

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare