The line is the international border that separates the United States and Mexico, a geographic and political division of about 3,100 km that runs from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico and marks where the territory of one country ends and that of the other begins.
This imaginary division inspires ‘La Línea’, the recent single by Julieta Venegas, included in her new roots album, ‘Norteña’. It is the best song of this era and, in the absence of being promoted with a video clip, today we make it Song of the Day.
‘La Línea’ is marked by a beautiful melody full of melancholy and by the prominence of a melodic accordion “line” that responds to the chorus. Giving meaning to the story of the forced separation between two people, Venegas sings the song along with a guest voice, that of Yahritza and Su Esencia, whom you have recently heard in ‘La Perla’, Rosalía’s hit.
‘La Línea’ does not hide the pain of separation, but chooses to transmit hope and optimism, almost serving as an anthem. Through a “bitter” line and a “sad memory” that makes both narrators feel that there is no way out of their situation, the song is filled with hope and resilience in the chorus, with verses like: “I miss you so much, I can’t without you / But I have to continue, I have to continue / Until the day I return to you / I will continue singing.”
Venegas has said that ‘La Línea’ reflects the drama of mass deportations, although he wrote it two years ago, long before Donald Trump’s immigration policies. “I wrote it thinking about people who are separated by circumstances beyond their control,” the Mexican has said on her networks. “It is a song of love, but also of pain and hope, of wanting to be with someone we love again despite the obstacles that life and borders sometimes impose on us. I grew up on a border and all my life I have seen the struggle of people who want to migrate, the lives that are built and that, unfortunately, are separated in sometimes horrible circumstances. Today the “Deportation no longer has to do with something illegal, that is unfortunately very different these days. This story is about two people who are separated, but who know that one day they will see each other again.”
