Rosetón MayorCatedral de Palma de Mallorca

A Song · A Saint · A Moment of Faith

Aquí Por Ti

A farm boy from Mallorca. A brilliant young scholar. At thirty-five he left his island and never returned — and the song, three centuries later, that calls him home. By Jaime Anglada, Cathedral of Palma, MMXIII.

Composed & performed by Jaime Anglada Palma de Mallorca · 2013

In memory of Fr. Junípero Serra 1713 — 1784 · Petra → Alta California

Jaime Anglada at the Cathedral of Palma, smiling quietly with his guitar — The Composer Jaime Anglada Cathedral of Palma · 2013

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Statues show us what Serra looked like. Missions show us what Serra built. History books tell us what Serra did. ‘Aquí Por Ti’ tells us what Serra felt.

The Song

Two voices, one prayer

Performed first in the nave of La Seu — accompanied by the Symphonic Orchestra and the Military Band of the Comandància of the Balearic Islands — and again, with a single guitar. Two renditions of the same heart.

Listen · The Recording

Aquí Por Ti · Jaime Anglada

Jaime Anglada performs Aquí Por Ti at La Seu de Mallorca — Recorded at La Seu · 20 June 2013 With the Simfònica de les Illes Balears

A baroque arrangement by Miquel Àngel Aguiló, performed live at the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca with the Symphonic Orchestra of the Balearic Islands and the Military Band of the Comandància of the Balearic Islands.

Watch the bilingual lyric video on YouTube

Jaime Anglada reading the handwritten lyrics of Aquí Por Ti at the cathedral altar, Palma de Mallorca — Reading the song he wrote Catedral de Palma de Mallorca · 20 June 2013

The Songwriter

A song written at the Saint's feet

The commission arrived in 2013, in time for the tercentenary of Father Serra's birth: would a local voice — an islander — write something to honour the islander who had shaped a continent? How could I refuse?

With the commission came a small, extraordinary gift: a copy of the last letter Father Serra wrote before sailing for the New World. “It was a farewell letter, profoundly beautiful,” Anglada later said. “It moved me. He apologised for leaving, citing his unstoppable need to preach the Gospel.”

That letter became the song. Anglada wrote Aquí Por Ti from inside it — a son's apology, a son's resolve, the trembling line between leaving and arriving. He sent the sketch to his friend, the composer Miquel Àngel Aguiló, who wrote the baroque arrangement. “His orchestral writing gave it more strength. It moved me.”

The work was offered freely. “It was an entirely charitable activity,” Anglada says. “There were production costs, of course — but I can boast of having good friends who helped reduce them.”

Read the words

Lyrics

The words, side by side

Written first in Spanish, and translated for those who would listen across the ocean. Read them together, as the song was always meant to be sung.

Español

Aquí por ti

Cuando la tierra es fría Tu corazón arde Cuando tu alma quiere volar.

No existen despedidas El océano no es la huida Es el camino a tu verdad.

El desierto no es fácil Y el horizonte inmenso. ¡Y rezo!

¡Coge mi mano! ¡Coge mi mano! Estoy aquí. Por ti.

No hay vuelta atrás Vine a secar tus lágrimas No hay vuelta atrás.

No hay vuelta atrás Vine a mecer tus miedos Vine a llenar tus manos de bondad.

El desierto no es fácil Y el horizonte inmenso. ¡Y rezo!

¡Coge mi mano! ¡Coge mi mano! Estoy aquí. Por ti.

Cuando el viento quemó mi cara Y atrás el recuerdo de pare i mare Cuando mis pies se clavaron en tu arena Me puse al mercé del Santa Ana.

Fui marinero por ti. Atrás queda un Mediterráneo antiguo. Fui misionero por ti. Oh Señor, me diste fuerza y palabra.

El desierto no es fácil Y el horizonte inmenso. ¡Y rezo!

¡Coge mi mano! ¡Coge mi mano! Estoy aquí. Por ti.

Estuve aquí por ti. Fui todo, Señor, por ti.

English

When the Earth Grows Cold

When the earth grows cold Your heart is burning When your soul wants to fly.

There are no goodbyes The ocean is not an escape It is the road to your truth.

The desert isn't easy And the horizon never ends. And I pray!

Take my hand! Take my hand! I am here. For you.

There is no going back I came to dry your tears. There is no going back.

There is no going back I came to calm your fears I came to fill your hands with goodness.

The desert isn't easy And the horizon never ends. And I pray!

Take my hand! Take my hand! I am here. For you.

When the wind burned across my face My mother and father I would see no more When my feet sank deep into your sands I cast all my hopes on the Santa Ana.

I was a sailor for you. I left behind the ancient Mediterranean. I was a missionary for you. Oh Lord, you gave me strength and voice.

The desert isn't easy And the horizon never ends. And I pray!

Take my hand! Take my hand! I am here. For you.

I was here for you. I was everything, Lord, for you.

The JourneyPetra 1713 → Carmel 1784

Three centuries later, a song calls him home

In the spring of 2013, Jaime Anglada was given a small handful of sand from a Californian shore — soil from the world Father Serra had crossed an ocean to build — along with a single, daunting request: write a song about a young man's first moment of faith. The song does not go to the missions, or the sainthood, or the statues. It goes back to the moment before any of it — the moment in Mallorca when a young man chose.

I.Petra, Mallorca1713 — 1730

El Niño de Petra

Before the missions, before the ocean, before the sainthood — a frail child in a village of vineyards and wheat, in the flat red centre of an island.

He was born on 24 November 1713, in the village of Petra, in the centre of Mallorca. His father, Antonio, and his mother, Margarita, worked the family's vineyards and wheat. The child was christened Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer.

He was so frail at birth that his parents carried him to be baptized the same day, fearing he would not survive the night. He survived. He grew into a brilliant, restless child — the kind a small village could not keep on the farm.

Petra, Mallorca, at sunset — the village where Junípero Serra was born — *Petra, Mallorca* His birthplace · the fields he was born into

Era un niño de campo, un niño de la tierra. A child of the fields · a child of the earth

II.Palma de Mallorca1730 — 1749

The Scholar

Fifteen years old, thirty miles from home, and the whole of the known world waiting inside a Franciscan library.

At fifteen, he was sent to Palma to study with the Franciscans at the Convent of San Francisco. He took the habit at sixteen and the religious name Junípero — after a beloved companion of St. Francis of Assisi.

By twenty-four he was a doctor of philosophy. He taught at the Lullian University of Palma, and was renowned as a preacher: when he gave the sermon, the cathedral filled.

Y entonces, a los treinta y cinco años, lo dejó todo. And then, at thirty-five, he left it all behind.

The farewell letter Father Junípero Serra wrote from Cádiz in August 1749

III.Cádiz, SpainAugust 1749

The letter that became the song

At thirty-five, at the height of his career, with nothing in his life requiring him to leave, he asked permission to sail for the New World. He left without saying goodbye to his parents — fearing he could not bear the parting — and from Cádiz, on the eve of departure, he wrote a letter to a friend, asking him to console them. He entrusted it to a fellow Mallorquín friar, to deliver in person. They would never see him again in this life.

“I wish I could give them some of the happiness that is mine; and I feel that they would urge me to go ahead and never to turn back.”
“Nothing else but the love of God has led me to leave them.”
“They will find how sweet his yoke can be, that what they now consider as a great sorrow will be turned into a lasting joy.”
“If we do not see each other again in this life, let us be together forever in Glory.”

Father Junípero Serra·Cádiz, August 1749

IV.El Océano1749

Ninety-nine days of water

He sailed from Cádiz on 28 August 1749 — a date that would come back for him, thirty-five years later, on the far side of the world.

He crossed on the Villasota and reached Veracruz in December 1749 — some ninety-nine days at sea. From the coast he chose to walk inland to Mexico City rather than ride, and an insect bite on that walk left his leg ulcerated for the rest of his life.

Then eight years in the Sierra Gorda. Then Baja California, and Loreto. And in 1769, at fifty-five, with that same leg, he set out north on the expedition into Alta California.

No existen despedidas.
El océano no es la huida —
es el camino a tu verdad. There are no goodbyes. The ocean is not an escape — it is the road to your truth. Aquí Por Ti · verse two

The road he walked, drawn from the real coast

Petra → Palma → Cádiz → Veracruz → Loreto → San Diego → Carmel

The crossing & the road north El Camino Real — walked The nine missions he founded

V.Alta California1769 — 1784

Nine missions, and the road between them

Fifteen years, thousands of miles, and a leg that never healed. He walked the length of a country that did not yet have a name.

El desierto no es fácil
y el horizonte inmenso.
¡Y rezo! The desert isn't easy, and the horizon never ends. And I pray!

The nine, in the order he founded them

iSan Diego de Alcalá1769 · San Diego

iiSan Carlos Borromeo1770 · Carmel

iiiSan Antonio de Padua1771 · Monterey County

ivSan Gabriel Arcángel1771 · Los Ángeles

vSan Luis Obispo de Tolosa1772 · San Luis Obispo

viSan Francisco de Asís1776 · San Francisco

viiSan Juan Capistrano1776 · Orange County

viiiSanta Clara de Asís1777 · Santa Clara

ixSan Buenaventura1782 · Ventura

He travelled between them on foot — often barefoot, often on that ulcerated leg — along the road that would come to be called El Camino Real.

VI.Carmel, Alta California28 August 1784

The end of the road

He died at Mission San Carlos Borromeo, in Carmel, on 28 August 1784, at the age of seventy — thirty-five years to the season since he sailed out of Cádiz. Thirty-five years on the island. Thirty-five years on the other side of the world. He never returned to Mallorca.

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1988 Beatified by Pope John Paul II
Saint Peter's Square · 25 September

2015 Canonized by Pope Francis
Washington, D.C. · 23 September
the first on American soil

Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo · Carmel, California · founded 1770

From the cathedral

Photographs from the night the song was first sung, the score that gave it shape, and the press that carried it across an ocean.

I The Performance Catedral de Palma de Mallorca · 20 June 2013

The interior of La Seu, the Cathedral of Palma, with a beam of stained-glass light falling over the audience on the night of the premiere — Pl. 01La Seu — the Cathedral of Palma — on the night of the premiere. The rose window's light falling across the audience.

Jaime Anglada singing Aquí Por Ti, eyes raised toward the cathedral vault — Pl. 02Jaime Anglada — un canto al cielo. The composer, mid-song, eyes raised to heaven.

The Symphony Orchestra and Military Band of the Balearic Islands gathered before the high altar of the Cathedral of Palma — Pl. 03The Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears and the Banda Militar de la Comandància General de Balears, gathered before the high altar.

II The Score & The Press Words: Jaime Anglada · Music: Jaime Anglada & Miquel Àngel Aguiló

First page of the orchestral score for Aquí Por Ti — Doc. 01Score, page 1 — *Andante ♪ = 110*. Oboe and harpsichord open the work; the strings hold their rests, waiting.

Serra International Italia article on Aquí Por Ti — Doc. 02Serra International Italia — international coverage of the premiere on the tercentenary of Father Serra's birth, at the 2013 Convention of Serra International.

III From the Press June 2013 · Mallorca

Última Hora·Cultura 11 June 2013

Junípero Serra inspires Jaime Anglada

On the eve of the premiere, the singer-songwriter talks about the commission, the letter, and the song he wrote for the tercentenary of Father Serra's birth.

“When I read his farewell letter to his parents, I understood the sacrifice. That is what I wanted the song to carry — not the saint, but the young man stepping onto the ship.”
— Jaime Anglada, in conversation with Última Hora

Interview · Cultura sectionThe Commission

Última Hora·Local 21 June 2013

A benefit concert at La Seu

Coverage of the premiere at the Cathedral of Palma — Anglada accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra and Military Band of the Balearic Islands, in the presence of Serra International.

The Cathedral of Palma filled to honour the tercentenary of Father Serra's birth — a Mallorquín who carried his island across an ocean, and the song that three centuries later calls him home.
— From the concert review, Última Hora

Concert reviewThe Premiere

Sources Steven W. Hackel, Junípero Serra: California's Founding Father (Hill & Wang, 2013); the canonical record of Father Serra's farewell letter from Cádiz, August 1749. Map geometry: Natural Earth, public domain.

Walk with the song Aquí Por Ti