writes:We previously did The Grand Design, the music video presenting Napoleon III's motives for the French Intervention in Mexico. But was that the starting point?
The challenge with history is that for any particular moment, there always seems to be a preceding moment! You could say the French Intervention was 'born' when the South fired on Fort Sumter, as the French would never have intervened if the Union had not been distracted. You could say it all started with the Mexican-American War, which raised the specter of the U.S. potentially steamrolling through all of North and South America – which the conservative monarchies of Europe dreaded. And you could argue the French Intervention was simply the continuation of the Mexican civil war known as the Reform War, which pitted the Conservatives (monarchists and the Catholic Church) against Liberals (democrats and reformist priests).
However, I think it comes down to Juarez winning the Reform War, and as president of Mexico, proclaiming a moratorium on debt repayments to the bankers of Europe. Juarez's position was that Mexico, fresh out of civil war, needed time to recuperate before making further debt payments. He also felt some of the debts claimed were fraudulent, and that his government was not responsible for all of the debts of the conservative Mexican government they had just defeated!
So I thought that a song, from President Juarez's point of view, would be a useful addition to our historical series.
I worked with the Gemini AI to create these lyrics, asking for several revisions until it covered what I thought were the main points (it is easier to make the AI make the changes, as it can rhyme better than most humans), and then I lightly edited the results:
Verse 1
You sit in velvet parlors, three thousand miles away
Counting out the interest on the lives you want to sway.
You bought the souls of traitors and you call it a "legitimate loan,"
But you didn't buy the dirt or the spirit of this throne!
The silver in our mountains doesn't belong to your crown,
And I’m the one who stands here when the walls are coming down!
Pre-Chorus
Go on, gather up your empires!
Go on, call your "Tripartite" fleet!
You can block the port of Veracruz,
But you'll never own these streets!
Chorus
I am the Law of the Land, and the Law says we are free!
I’m the son of the mountain, not a puppet of the sea!
Take your ledgers, take your titles, take your greed back to the shore,
Because we don't owe a penny to the masters of war!
You want blood? You'll find it in the dust of every pass,
But you won't get a copper from the Republic’s working class!
Verse 2
You found a "Jecker" paper, a shadow in the dark,
Signed by hands of tyrants who left a bloody mark.
You think because I’m Zapotec I don't know how to fight?
I’ve spent a lifetime walking from the darkness to the light!
I’ve stripped the mitre and the sword, I’ve broken every chain,
Do you really think a French decree can make us slaves again?
Bridge
Napoleon is dreaming of a throne in the sun,
But he’ll find out what happens when a nation stands as one.
The debt is just a phantom, a ghost of yesterday,
And the Republic is the giant that stands within your way!
STAND UP!
STAND TALL!
WATCH THE EMPIRES FALL!
Chorus
I am the Law of the Land, and the Law says we are free!
I’m the son of the mountain, not a puppet of the sea!
Take your ledgers, take your titles, take your greed back to the shore,
Because we don't owe a penny to the masters of a war!
You want blood? You'll find it in the dust of every pass,
But you won't get a copper from the Republic’s working class!
Outro
Respect our rights.
Or feel our might.
The moratorium is final.
The Republic is eternal.
Peace is respect!
Historical Notes
The 'silver in our mountains' refers to the silver mines of Mexico, the principal source of Mexican wealth at the time.
Getting ahead of the story (which AI has a tendency to do!), the Tripartite Fleet will be sent by the Great Powers to enforce loan payment after Juarez declares the moratorium.
Veracruz is Mexico's primary eastern port, where the customs house is located (basically, the money).
Juarez is the 'son of the mountain' because of his humble origins in the Sierra Juárez mountain range of Oaxaca, Mexico. Of Zapotec ancestry, he rose from sheepherder to president of Mexico.
The 'Jecker' paper refers to a particular loan from French bankers. The Juárez government argued that the debt was illegitimate, predatory and contracted by a previous, defeated regime specifically to subvert the current government.
'Stripped the mitre and the sword' is a reference to Juarez's victory in the Reform War against the institutional Catholic Church and the Conservatives/monarchists.
Napoleon is Napoleon III of France.
'Peace is respect' is the motto of Juarez.
Making the Music
Sonauto had a pronunciation problem with 'Tripartite Fleet', so I substituted 'Trypartite Fleet'.
The Gemini AI suggested three possible styles, and I tried all three as I asked the AI for tune after tune after tune. The musical style which finally worked for me was:
Latin, deep male baritone vocals, rough, defiant, patriotic, musical theater, operatic pop, 72 BPM, 34 waltz time, grand piano, sweeping orchestral strings
And the music tags which the AI selected based on that were 'orchestral pop, latin, symphonic rock, operatic pop, 2020s, patriotic'.
I had a lot of 'near miss' results, where I would get a tune that I liked, but the AI would screw up a word or an entire line.
Nano Banana again came up with the art, based on the lyrics. At first, it wanted to give me a cartoonish poster with lots of labels, so I had to guide it towards President Juarez in his office. Then, finally, I asked it to change sunny weather to storm clouds, signaling war is coming.
I then used another AI, Flux Klein, to make some final edits, and I used See Dance to animate the flames in the fireplace.
Caption files were created for English, French, German, Spanish and Tagalog. (I've started to add German captions because, for unknown reasons, we get a large German audience through Facebook.)
The final step was to combine the music with titles, using ClipChamp:
I've posted the video as a reel on the TMP Facebook page.