A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Next, we hear a song that brings a listener back to a moment in the past with a mixtape and a Chicano anthem in the living room of her childhood home. It's part of a new series called Songs That Move You from our friends at the radio show and podcast Alt.Latino. Today, hosts Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras hear from Drisana Rosales.
DRISANA ROSALES: I just think of sitting on the ground cross-legged just as close to the speakers as I could, just listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
FELIX CONTRERAS, BYLINE: I know that song. I know that song so well. Oh, my God.
ANAMARIA SAYRE, BYLINE: (Laughter) I know you do.
CONTRERAS: Right?
ROSALES: My song that brings me to tears would be the song "Angel Baby," by Rosie & The Originals.
SAYRE: Three years ago, a 29-year-old Drisana Rosales was digging through some old boxes when she came across a little mixtape buried at the bottom of one in the garage that she hadn't thought of in years.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS: (Singing) It's just like heaven being here with you. You're like an angel, too good to be true.
ROSALES: It's just me and him. I just zero in on us sitting together.
SAYRE: As she goes back in time, she's in her childhood living room sitting next to her dad, Paul Rosales (ph). She's 6 years old and experiencing something of a Rosales family rite of passage. Drisana's earliest memories of her dad always involve his mixtapes.
CONTRERAS: That is so awesome because it speaks to a certain generation that I can relate to. OK.
SAYRE: It kind of reminds me of those old school Chicano radio dedications.
CONTRERAS: Yeah, like when they would call into the oldies shows and say, hey, I want to dedicate "Angel Baby" to my cousin Chuli (ph) or something like that.
SAYRE: Exactly. And this was Drisana's dad's version of that, and Drisana spent the early years of her life knowing that. So finally, one day, she holds a perfect, little yellow and pink cassette. And on top, Felix, there it is, in glistening, bold, black Sharpie - Drisana's Mix. And they pop it into the player.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "...BABY ONE MORE TIME")
BRITNEY SPEARS: (Singing) Oh, baby, baby.
SAYRE: It's got Britney.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "...BABY ONE MORE TIME")
SPEARS: (Singing) Hit me, baby, one more time.
SAYRE: Backstreet Boys.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "EVERYBODY (BACKSTREET'S BACK)")
BACKSTREET BOYS: (Singing) Backstreet's back, all right.
SAYRE: All the '90s hits.
CONTRERAS: That is one cool dad.
SAYRE: Oh, and a 6-year-old Drisana is bopping. She's grooving.
CONTRERAS: I can totally see it.
SAYRE: But then all of a sudden, the most special song.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS: (Singing) Angel baby, my angel baby, when you are near me, my heart skips a beat. I can hardly stand on my own two feet because I love you. I love you, I do.
CONTRERAS: "Angel Baby" is, like, a Chicano lowrider anthem. And I say is, not was, because it's still very popular in the lowrider scene these days. It's something about the time machine essence of that song. It was everywhere in that world.
SAYRE: And it was everywhere because it spoke to something culturally significant happening in the '60s. Mexican Americans were being loud and proud about their dual identity. It's a simple track sung in English. I mean, Drisana actually thought the lyrics were about a literal baby.
CONTRERAS: And Drisana's dad, a Chicano who loved skateboarding, grew up not quite fitting in anywhere. And he had to have felt the significance of the song.
SAYRE: And that moment, and years later, he's seeing his daughter connect with it. There was something about the song he noticed she loved.
ROSALES: There was no not putting it on that mixtape for me. It was already my song. He definitely threw that in there, I think, to help mold the person I would become. Possibly it's the melody that really just hits me. It's possibly those chords, you know, just that feeling that you get from that intro.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSALES: I can only imagine a slow dance happening when I hear that song, you know, arms wrapped around each other, middle-school-dance style.
CONTRERAS: I'm going to go ahead and say I do remember those middle school dances, OK.
SAYRE: Subject matter expert in the house.
(LAUGHTER)
CONTRERAS: But the power of a song like that - the emotions of the song, the slow groove - like, I totally get it.
SAYRE: Drisana was growing up alongside this song, learning about who she was, who her family was, where they fit into this larger Chicano story. Her dad grew up half in the Chicano world and half in the white American world feeling insecure, and he wanted his kids to continue to exist in all of their cultures without that same insecurity.
ROSALES: And he wasn't afraid to experiment, I think, with his children, because he knew it would be a struggle even more generations down the line growing up here. You know, are you this or are you that?
SAYRE: Felix, what he ended up focusing on was dismantling machismo. He was making space for his kids to freely be who they are, being the kind of dad who could just love.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS: (Singing) My angel baby, my angel baby. Oh, I love you, oh, I do.
ROSALES: I think that's where I get emotional is the reflection on how early he gave this gift to me of this song. I think that I was his angel baby. I think he wanted to kind of transform those lyrics into what he wanted to express to me without outwardly smothering me in love. He's not going to tell me, oh, I love you, love you, love you. Like, it came from his dedications to me.
CONTRERAS: You know, Ana, as a dad and as a music freak, I totally get that. I totally get what he was doing.
ROSALES: This one was specifically labeled Drisana's Mix so I could dig that up later in the garage, put it on and realize, oh, this is the one. And so it has to be much deeper for him even than I can understand. And I could understand "Angel Baby" being, like, perfection, you know, being nothing but love. It's just - it kind of leaves me speechless.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS: (Singing) My angel baby, it's just like heaven being with you, dear.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Drisana Rosales along with Felix Contreras and Anamaria Sayre, the hosts of Alt.Latino. It's a podcast and a radio show that takes a weekly look at Latin music and culture. And they want to hear about a song that moved you, so write to them alt.latino@npr.org.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ANGEL BABY")
ROSIE AND THE ORIGINALS: (Singing) Angel baby, my angel baby. Oh, I love... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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