Song’s Eerily Prophetic Lyrics Have Arjona’s Fans Buzzing

Few paid much attention last year to track eight on the latest album by popular Guatemalan singer and social critic Ricardo Arjona. But after last week’s horror in the United States, there has been a rush to scrutinize a song many see as eerily prophetic.

Armchair analysts on Spanish-language radio talk shows and on the Internet looked for connections this week between Arjona’s gloomy composition “Mesias” and the attacks on New York and Washington. In the song, Arjona tells of a menacing messiah who lives in Manhattan, has a partner in Afghanistan and is considered a terrorist by the Pentagon.

The song’s closing images gave some listeners chills: “Faith on the blade of a knife/A suicide in the Big Apple/A cloud of doubt which shades the sun.”

Prediction, or just a strange coincidence?

Either way, the mystery has kept skittish fans buzzing from Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, especially after television personality Don Francisco discussed the song Saturday on his popular program, “Sabado Gigante.”

In Southern California, radio shows took calls from listeners anxious to join the speculation. Music retailers sold out of the album “Galeria Caribe,” which Sony Discos had on back order.

“All of a sudden, everybody was looking for that song,” said Carlos Herrera, regional manager of the Ritmo Latino music store chain. “They wanted to know exactly what it says.”

The song is a modern-day parable that falls far short of a parallel to the actual events. Arjona’s messiah appears in the form of a wealthy, well-armed magnate with a Harvard degree, a penthouse in Paris and some sinister plan for the world. Some critics argue it’s a metaphorical attack on capitalism and imperialism, classic Arjona targets. But a jittery public read more into it.

Arjona is a prophet who wanted to warn the world, some said. No, said others, he’s the antichrist, or at least an accomplice to the attacks who should expect a visit from the FBI.

Arjona has been unavailable for comment, but his record company distributed a statement he had given to a Spanish-language publication: “I didn’t have a vision about this incident. This is merely a song based on a surrealist trip that I happened to imagine.”

Meanwhile, fans flooded his Web site. “How did you know everything that was going to happen?” one wrote. Another urged fellow fans to cool it: “Stop writing such stupid things. Whoever did this [terrorist attack] was somebody who heard the song and simply liked the idea.”

It’s not so strange for people to spin tales of dread in times of crisis, says professor David Hayes-Bautista, director of UCLA’s Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture. “Clearly, when societies are under stress, there seems to be an upsurge in people trying to find meaning,” says Hayes-Bautista, comparing the Arjona episode to rumors in the ‘60s about the death of Paul McCartney. “Now, there are enough Latinos that we get our own urban folklore.”

Emilio Pastrana, assistant program director of popular L.A station Super Estrella (KSSE-FM 97.5), says discussion about the song is healthy. As long as people don’t take things too far.

“There is a bit of superstition in all of this,” Pastrana said. “Or maybe it’s just fear that makes us hear things which aren’t there.”