“Qué gris estaba la tarde”: legitimation in the music of Mazapán of objected childhood emotions

The notion of childhood that is probably most deeply rooted in our society is the one that conceives of girls and boys as entities in formation and transition towards adulthood, a moment in which they would, only then, acquire legitimacy as citizens and subjects of law. Thus, considerable attention, debates, and expectations around childhood emerge from assumptions such as the duty of obedience, belonging to the responsible adult, non-disruptive behavior, and a lack of agency. In contrast, the work of the Chilean children’s music group Mazapán (1980-) offers, among other things, a broad and diverse range of discursive topics in the lyrics of their songs, in which emotions and feelings are not always tolerated by the adult world in its view towards childhood, such as frustration, anger, introspection, reverie, fear, melancholy, or sadness. Based on the contributions of the history and sociology of childhood, as well as the so-called “affective turn” in the humanities and social sciences, this article presents an analysis of the group’s songs as they relate to the field of emotions, verifying a conception and evaluation of children as entities with the capacity and right to assume and express their emotions in an integral way.