LA-based singer/songwriter and experimental pop auteur Angélica Garcia further cements her ethnic and spiritual prowess with the cumbia-inspired, avant-pop single “Juanita” about a limitless woman.
The official video for “Juanita,” also out on Partisan Records and starring Angélica, was directed by Sonia Malfa, an award-winning documentary filmmaker from Puerto Rico, and explores liberation from restrictive gender roles through its dueling characters. Steeped in Angélica’s love for her culture and passions for visual poetry and storytelling, the black and white video further explores spirituality and Angélica’s Latin heritage.
“Your voice, the sound of stars/Not even the gods can draw you,” Angélica sings on “Juanita,” an expression of beauty in a song that also probes the chaos inherent in cycles of generational trauma, and the possibilities of breaking them. Or as Angélica puts it: “I wanted ‘Juanita’ to feel like the story of my life, but one that was also true in a past life. I wanted the song to have a never-ending quality.”
The track has its roots in 2020, as Angélica was sitting before an altar that she constructed in her bedroom, a culmination of her new inquiry into ancestral veneration: looking into the past to inform the present with familial knowledge.
Raised by an Episcopal priest father in a traditional Latino family structure, Angélica has devoted her recent years to the process of deconstructing religion, spirit, heritage, and womanhood, confronting grief and healing.
On the production style and lyrical weight of the song, Angélica adds, “Many cumbias have lyrics about pain and longing… My intention was for the tension and confusion in the song to feel like remembering a past life. I wanted to capture what the shadow side of grief does to us. ”
Learn more about Angélica Garcia
Listen to “Juanita”
