Kateri & Greg of Hijo

I know Kateri and Greg from Josue Urratia.  One of the most delightful things I’ve found in tinyboatsession is when I get introduced to someone and I find out their significant other also plays music, and that they play that music together.  Something about this fills my heart.  

Kateri and Greg are in two bands, ‘Hijo 505’ and ‘The Roswells.’  They showed up to play some classic Cubano tunes from Trio Matamoros.  Both played guitar.  Later Kateri brought out an instrument I had not seen before, a guiro.  This is a gourd that has been notched and is hit or rubbed with a stick.  The sound gives me the satisfaction of scratching a good itch.

 Kateri wore a white dress.  The combination of the river, her playing the guiro, and Greg on the guitar created a happy, joyful sight.  The first words that came to me to describe it were that of a happy La Llorona.  I told Kateri this with a bit of trepidation, but she liked the comparison.  La Llorona is an old New Mexican folk tale.  It's very dark.  A scorned woman who seeks out an act of desperate revenge and drowns her children.  Now she haunts the river calling other children to her.  It is a tale told to children to keep them from the water. Like so many folk stories it starts with a woman done wrong that sets off the tragic events.  The joyful vision between Kateri and Greg playing on the river spoke of an alternate universe.  In this tale of La Lornora that somehow ended with laughter, hope, and understanding that somehow stopped the pain before it got tragic. Could that story have ever made it into a tale, or would it have stayed a soft memory of a beautiful day on the river? Instagram: @hijo505 , @the.roswells