String Quartet No. 2 (Revueltas)

It has been suggested that it may refer to the song of the tlachiquero, a peasant who extracts the juice of the maguey to make the alcoholic drink pulque.

[3] Two other suggestions are that the cactus may be a metaphor for a political critique of the Mexican ruling bourgeoisie's strong preference for imported European music over the domestic product, or else a symbol of the expression of a composer's independent and prickly self-confident will to survive a confrontation with the highly demanding genre of the string quartet, along with an urge for nationalist music.

[4] However, an even simpler solution (with possible autobiographic allusions) may lie in the fact that, at the very opening of the quartet, Revueltas quotes a famous song of the time, known as "Los Magueyes".

One version of the lyrics begins:[5] Le pido al cielo que se sequen los magueyes Porque esos magueyes son causa de mi desgracias; Soy muy borracho y nada me causa gracia, Porque no me ama la mujer que tanto amé.

It opens with a brief subject in quintuple meter, presented in stretto imitations, and continues in a busy and noisy fashion to the end.