Ever since the onset of the global pandemic resulting from the coronavirus this year our world has gone topsy-turvy. Shutdowns of businesses, schools, and other establishments have sent the economy into a tailspin, and life as we know it is no longer the way it used to be. Worst of all is the growing death count and the millions who have been afflicted with the seriously debilitating illness for which we currently have neither a cure nor a preventive vaccine.
Maybe that is why when I received a new music submission from this new artist Joseph Fermán (https://www.facebook.com/JosephSFerman) called La Vida and read the accompanying bio I was immediately intrigued to read how his audio recording was connected to our COVID-19 dilemma. You see, Fermán not only became infected with the virus and subsequently suffered all the life-threatening symptoms; he recovered from it then wrote a song of hope about surviving it. That in itself is quite an extraordinary achievement.
Fermán hails from the Central American country of El Salvador, a country that for many years was torn by revolutions and civil wars as well as the blessing or curse of U.S. involvement, depending on your point of view. From 1980 to 1992 the Salvadoran Civil War raged and resulted in an unknown number of people disappearing and an estimated 75,000 plus killed. It wasn’t until the United Nations brokered the Chapultepec Peace Accords that some semblance of normalcy returned to the lives of those dwelling in that Latin American territory.
Being from El Salvador, the lyrics for Joseph Fermán’s La Vida are entirely in Spanish. Included with this song’s submission were the original lyrics not only in Mr. Fermán’s native tongue but, wisely enough, an English translation. The gist of those lyrics speaks of how he decided how he took his near-death experience and used it as a way of seeing that whatever happens to you some good may come out of it because at the end of the day all that happens does so at the will of God. Thus, if you’ve put your life in the hands of God then you’ll understand the meaning of what is happening to you. Good or bad. It’s an uplifting message that many need while making their way through their day-to-day effort to see the light at the end of this seemingly endless tunnel we’re been cast into.
Musically La Vida (released by the Quixote Music record label) is a whimsical piece incorporating the bittersweet sound of an accordion played by the renowned Julian Rojas, with a pleasantly paced rhythm that some in the music business like to refer to as a “catchy toe-tapper.” Joseph Fermán’s voice also assists in creating an overall soothing effect communicating his message that if you allow it to you’ll get past the things that are presently hindering you. Personally speaking, and I hope you’ll agree with me here, an encouragement like that (and here I beg you for your forgiveness in using this tiny turn of a phrase) may just be what the doctor ordered.
