Timbiriche is the name of a popular 80’s Mexican pop group with the likes of Paulina Rubio, Eduardo Capetillo, Sasha Sokol, and Thalia having been members of it. Their music still has a great influence on mainstream pop culture.
They remind me of being a kid, visiting Tia Chuy and ‘buelita Linda in Reynosa. Of the coca-cola bottles fresh outta the ice box and dulces I could buy for a peso from the tiendita near tia’s house.
More specifically, Timbiriche reminds me of my flower girl days and of mi primo Pilarin, a teenage noviero with the hugest celeb crush on Thalia.
Timbiriche reminds of one particular flower girl dress my mother had to put away. Of being 7 years old and taking a cruise down the streets of Reynosa, being coerced by a handsome primo to sing ‘Si no es Ahora’ as we pretended to be running mandados with the extra time it took us to get back home. Of his secret novias I could tell nobody about. Of the Gansitos he bribed me with so I could ask tía to let him take me de paseo, when all it was really for was to visit a new girl he wanted to pay a visit to.
The Quinceañera song reminds me of his silent goodbyes. Of the news nobody expected as we prepared for his sister’s wedding. Timbiriche reminds me of those days before his mother’s forever grief.
I can picture her still, sitting in her rocking chair in the wee morning hours as she prepared last minute details for her eldest daughter’s wedding. I can hear her impatience, knowing something was wrong when her son wouldn’t come home as the morning hours passed. I wasn’t there but I can hear her shrieks when police walked up to her as she sat in that rocking chair, telling her of her only son’s death in a freak car accident.
Timbiriche reminds me of that morning when we learned that instead of a wedding, we should dress for a funeral.
Priscilla Celina Suárez 