Susana Harp and her enormous need to sing / Elena Poniatowska

The extraordinary singer Susana Harp is loved because she believes nothing, her slim figure does not weigh her down, her smooth and kind voice reaches the heart. I heard her from afar several times, but I saw her for the first time at the Oaxaca airport accompanied by her musicians. She didn’t want to be noticed, but we all wanted to approach her. Greeting her anticipated her ascent to heaven. I never saw her reject anyone or ask to be isolated in a VIP room. She smiled and genuinely hugged. We all wanted to tell her how much we loved her. Very, very thin, her black hair hanging over her shoulders. How beautiful her smile!, commented some travelers. Flying with her to Mexico City allowed me to attend her show and talk to her.

–Susana, when did you know that you wanted to sing and go on stage?

–I really liked feeling how my voice resonated inside my ribcage, inside my head. It was something very nice to hear myself inside and outside at the same time; a very nice feeling, of a very deep contact with others, something very joyful. I went to a nun’s school and sang at mass.

-In latin?

–No, I didn’t have Latin anymore. It was a very deep feeling of pleasure, an inner pleasure. Later I understood that what made me happy was this contact with myself. Singing allows you to spread ideas, express your passion or your indignation. Singing is a great way to communicate.

–Did you discover that in Mexico City?

–No, I am from Oaxaca and I discovered it there from a very young age, because we sang in the church and also in my house because my mother is a pianist, although she did not work professionally because she got married immediately and had her first, second, third, fourth and then that’s it. There are six of us, I have five siblings, two men and four women. They were different ways, the houses were big, there was always help, my grandmother was two blocks away, my aunt two more; There was always a different livelihood. Of my brothers, Antonio and Luis Alberto are the oldest; Then, Lila, Flor, Lorena and I, Susana, follow.

–Did you feel protected by your brothers?

–In the beginning I was the one who was greatly spoiled, because they had no other choice, I am a santanazo, Elenita already had male brothers, Chinese, lanky, white, dark-skinned women; I have been stubborn since before I was born, I was born out of stubbornness. I am the youngest, of course my brothers supported me; When I was older, they did like me a little when I tried to get among their boyfriends, but then I turned 18, 19, 20 years old, and I found myself again, it no longer matters if someone is 30 and you are 20, things become equal.

–Were the Harp Helú very important, a powerful family?

–My grandparents, who are the Harps, came from Lebanon, they entered through Tampico. My grandfather arrived with his oldest son: Alfredo Harp Abub, with a nephew named Tufic Harp. My grandfather left his oldest son and his nephew here in Mexico because, in theory, they were going to go to the United States, but my grandfather liked Mexico and they decided to stay. He left the eldest son and nephew who accompanied him doing some kind of work; He returned to Lebanon, he still had another couple of children there, and he came with all the pipiolera, as we say here. My dad, all my uncles, are Lebanese in Mexico, we are first generation. My grandfather and grandmother decided to settle in Oaxaca. I don’t know the Helú part well, because it is my mother’s family, that of my cousin Alfredo, whom everyone knows. He is my first cousin, son of Uncle Alfredo, who was the eldest, and he does have both the maternal and paternal Lebanese side. It was very easy for my dad to convert his name Antoine into Antonio and arrive in Mexico at the age of seven and blend in.

–Lebanese food is wonderful.

–The Lebanese eat the same, they go to the same church, because they are Maronite Catholics; Therefore, the way in which they integrated into Mexican society is much simpler.

–Did they speak French?

–Yes, in Lebanon the two languages ​​are Arabic and French. In my grandmother’s house they spoke in Arabic; My grandfather promised my grandmother to return to Lebanon and he did not keep it; So, I think that due to an act of rebellion, my grandmother did not learn any Spanish. She spoke to us in Arabic and we understood almost nothing and, finally, my father, who did know Arabic, did not teach it to us.

–So you don’t know Arabic?

–Well, I know what everyone knows about a distant language: rude words and very nice phrases and that’s it; I sign in Arabic. I speak little, I don’t speak French well, but I understand it. My son went to the Franco-Mexican High School and I had to listen carefully.

–The education at the Lyceum is severe and intelligent.

-It’s great. I loved that my son was there; He lived with boys and girls from many countries. He had already finished his degree in psychology in Oaxaca. I was very boring, very well behaved, although my mother will say otherwise, I always got 10, 11 and 12. The school was the best in Oaxaca and after graduating I came to the city to study music and singing, and a specialty in Gestalt therapy. Then I did five years of something called neurolinguistic programming.

-Because?

–Because the part of human development is something that I am passionate about, I worked as a therapist for a couple of years here; I met people in a therapy office. I went for the humanist, gestaltist side, it was not psychoanalysis; In psychology there are many dissimilar currents. If you are a gestaltist you are a different thing from behaviorists, they have different approaches, than if you are a psychoanalyst, than if you are a humanist, they seem very different things to a therapist…

–That sounds very abstract to me, I went to group therapy with the writer María Luisa Mendoza, and they kicked me out.

–I was giving therapy for a short time because there was the opportunity to record the first album. That’s why I had come to Mexico, to study music. It was my need, I had a huge need to sing and I wanted to do it left and right, whether they paid or not; It was a necessity. Singing starts from a very different place than having a life project. Mine was not a little worm, but a boa constrictor that was choking me… I have been singing since I can remember, but the first time they paid me was in my psychology degree in Oaxaca. I started going to the Oaxaca House of Culture to learn to play the guitar in the morning and since it was an early hour I ended up being the only student. My teacher, Marcelo, who plays extraordinarily well, invited me to sing Cuban trova, Mexican singer-songwriters from the 70s, 80s… David Haro, Pepe Lorza, Marcial Alejandro and Mercedes Sosa. For a long time I went to the communities in the mountains of Oaxaca to do community work (vaccinations, feeding with more protein), which I really liked. We brought beans and soybeans, which were not yet fashionable, so that they could plant crops and not depend only on beans. Soybeans are planted just like black beans in the cornfield, they grow the same, and the truth is that they are very delicious when stewed. In addition to soy, Mercedes Sosa, Silvio, Pablo resonated in my head…

“I came to Mexico City at the age of 22 for my pistols, when I finished my degree. Work to pay rent and pay what you have to pay and at the same time study. It wasn’t easy, but I managed it. I went to singing classes with private teachers in order to get a resume.

–How did you have to work if your name is Harp Helú?

–(Laughs) No, my name is Susan Harp Iturribarría. My mother is Oaxacan of Basque descent, but her family has been in Oaxaca for more than 200 years, they are very Oaxacan. Alfredo Harp Helú is my first cousin, but he has his family, his business; He is a wonderful man, he is a great guy, and part of this good relationship is because I never turned to him. One has dignity, two hands and works, we don’t have to depend on anyone. He didn’t live in Oaxaca, now he does. His father died when he was about two or three years old and his mother, Suahd Helú, already widowed, came to Mexico, because his family was here. Alfredo, my cousin, has lived in Oaxaca for 25 or 30 years.

I recorded my first album at the age of 29, I arrived late, but I arrived. All my life I have worked with indigenous communities by my own decision. When I was 16, I went to the communities of the Sierra Juárez, in Oaxaca, and that opened my eyes to understand where I was born. I really understood what Oaxaca was when I went to join those communities that speak Zapotec. I sing in seven Mexican languages, but I don’t speak them, I can read them, I know every word I’m singing, I know what it means, but I can’t engage in a fluid dialogue even though I understand poets whose mother tongue is Zapotec, Mazatec or Nahuatl, who teach me how to handle the language perfectly and correct me to pronounce it as best as possible so that it is understood. I know how to approach the language in the most respectful way. Zapotec, Elenita, especially the one from the Isthmus, is the sweetest language I have ever heard, it sings alone, it is wonderful.