AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
In Mexico, the majority of murders go unpunished - by some estimates, 90%. But when a woman kills an abusive partner, many are convicted of, quote, "excessive use of legitimate force." NPR's Mexico City correspondent, Eyder Peralta, met a musician who's telling the stories of those women on her new album. And a warning - this story does contain descriptions of violence.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Vivir Quintana says the idea for her latest album came 15 years ago when a college friend was murdered.
VIVIR QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was a high-profile murder, so she says the pictures of her friend's body were plastered all over the newspapers.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "And I felt this terrible rage."
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "And I became obsessed with this idea of what would have happened if she had killed him."
Quintana researched cases of women who did kill their abs.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "And I found out my friend would have likely been in jail."
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, "MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA")
PERALTA: Quintana's album was 10 years in the making. She scoured news articles for cases. She went to prisons to talk to women who had killed their partners. Mexico doesn't keep statistics on how many women are jailed for killing their abs, but it's common enough that human rights groups have denounced the practice. Quintana came out of those jails with 10 first-person narratives. In one of those songs, "More Free Than At Home," a woman sings, "he beat me day and night. I killed him because I could no longer take his boots on my face."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: The songs don't shy away from violence. They're visceral. They talk about women cornered by terrible men, so they find peace by committing murder. "Now I'm locked up in jail," she sings, "but I feel more free than at home."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MAS LIBRE QUE EN CASA")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: Quintana says, in jail, she found women who were never visited by anyone. She found women who were ignored by authorities when they filed police reports. Quintana says, in Mexico, they try to sell this idea of a wonderful country, where when something bad happens, everyone runs to help.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "But the truth is, when terrible things happen," she says, "there is also a brutal silence." The title of the album is "Things That Surprise The Audience." Vivir Quintana says it was inspired by a TV interview she saw years ago.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MARISOL VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: It was Marisol Villafana telling journalists how she killed her abusive husband. She drugged him. She beat him with a hammer, and she eventually suffocated him with a plastic bag. Mexicans weren't shocked at what she had endured. They were shocked because she smiled as she told her story. They were shocked because when journalists asked if she had regrets, she said, no.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "He was a bad man," the woman said, "and I went to the police many times, and no one did anything."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
VILLAFANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: Mexicans were surprised that the woman didn't feel guilt. They were surprised that a woman knew how to defend herself.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIVIR QUINTANA SONG, "ERA EL O ERA YO")
PERALTA: In the song "It Was Either Him Or Me," Quintana sings about the stacks of cases of women who escaped death with force. "Justice killed our luck," she sings, "and now I'm left here looking for my freedom."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ERA EL O ERA YO")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: The women in Quintana's songs are heroes, and she's writing corridos, which have traditionally been used in Mexico to tell the stories of bandits. More recently, artists have been criticized for glorifying violence. Quintana says this album couldn't be further from that.
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "This is sad and painful. A lot of modern corridos," she says, "are about how cool it is to walk around with a gun, how awesome it is being the most powerful man."
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "And these songs are about, I had to do this."
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "Because everyone abandoned me."
QUINTANA: (Non-English language spoken).
PERALTA: "The system abandoned me, and I was abandoned even by you, the listener."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI COBIJA")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: In "My Blanket," Quintana sings about a woman beaten by her military commander partner. "Now that he's dead, he doesn't deserve a prayer," she sings.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI COBIJA")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language).
PERALTA: And then, her only regret - "that my children forgive me," she sings, "that they not forget I love them, even if I'm forever locked up."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MI COBIJA")
QUINTANA: (Singing in non-English language). Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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