Pop Song 188 'Hijo de la Luna' Mercano 1986 (Son of the moon)

Pop Song 188 'Hijo de la Luna' Mercano 1986 (Son of the moon)

Thank you, miguelavendano for the suggestion of this song in Spanish and the encouragement to try!

The lyrics depict a tragic Romani legend of a Roma woman who awakes at sunrise, begging to the moon to marry a Roma man (calé) the same day. In exchange the moon asks for the woman's first-born as payment.

After the child is born, the woman and man are dismayed to see that his skin is the whitest white and his eyes are grey, even though they both have dark skin and dark eyes. The lyrics explain that the child is an albino, due to being a son of the moon. But the man presumes that the father is a payo (a non-Roma person) and furiously stabs his wife to death. He takes the child and abandons him on a mountain, leaving the child to die of exposure.

Later the baby is said to live happily ever after with the Moon as his mother. When the child cries, the Moon wanes to cradle and comfort him.

The chorus says that the moon wants to be a mother, yet cannot find a lover who will make her his wife, and questions her as to what she would do with a human child. The French translation of the song asks a more precise question (Tell me, silvery moon, You who has no arms, How will you rock the child?), which is answered in the last stanza (And whenever the child cries, She [The Moon] crescents, Turning herself into a light-cradle).

In turn, the Moon doubts the mother's commitment to the little boy, wondering how much she can love her child if she is eager to trade him for a partner.

Mecano was a Spanish pop band formed in 1981 and active until 1992. Mecano became one of the most successful Spanish pop bands of all time. The band is still the best-selling Spanish band, with over 25 million records worldwide. They were considered by some to be avant-garde for their time and part of la Movida Madrileña countercultural movement. They had a brief comeback in 1998.