An English Literature Class Analyzes Ropa Cara By Camilo

Hello, everyone, 

This time, I share a summary and an essay on the song, Ropa Cara by the Colombian singer songwriter, Camilo Echeverry. These two pieces were written by my English Literature class student, Lidia Mercedes. They are a sample of our teaching-learning process in the 2021 first semester. In order to get my students into literary analysis, I usually choose a song in Spanish, our official language in the Dominican Republic. I make sure the story behind the song is evident. Later, they explore the song, discover it and tell that story in a written summary. After that, many of the students brainstorm about general topics they think the song is about and tell the rest of the class the reasons for their choices. Right after that, they do the same with subtopics and support their ideas with evidence from the song lyrics or the story behind it. Finally they choose one general topic and three subtopics from the resulting lists and write down a five-paragraph analytic essay.

Summary on Ropa Cara by Camilo Echeverry

     The song, Ropa Cara, written by Camilo Echeverry is about a man who meets a girl on social media. She demands that he wear designer clothes. He starts to dress in expensive clothes for her. He reflects and realizes he is not that kind of person, so he decides to go away from her. 

Essay on Ropa Cara by Camilo Echeverry

     The song, Ropa Cara, written by Camilo Echeverry is about vanity. Vanity is an exaggerated expression of self-pride or feeling of superiority over other individuals. A vain person seeks to be admired by others and tends to have a derogatory treatment with people. Vain people like to show off their successes. They take care of their image in an exaggerated way and show their material goods with excessive pride. They need to be flattered and attract the attention of others as well; therefore, they surround themselves with people who are at their same level or higher. Nowadays, examples of vanity can be seen on social media, since those are means by which individuals can share their day to day activities. Thus, it is easier for many people to pretend to be what they are not, or pretend to have what they do not just to impress others.   

     First of all, toxic love is clearly noticed in Ropa Cara and it is characterized by behaviors that are emotionally or physically damaging to someone. Toxic love damages self-esteem and drains energy. Some of the characteristics of toxic love are insecurity, self-centeredness, dominance, control, and much more. An example of toxic love could be when in a relationship one of the partners tries to change the other to an excessive degree either physically or emotionally. Toxic love is shown in the song when the girl demands that the man change his way of dressing, and he starts wearing expensive clothes to please her. 

     A second issue related to vanity is identity loss, which is described as a process in which a person loses his/her essence seeking self-worth or approval from others. An example of identity loss could be when someone who has low self-esteem gets into a relationship. This kind of person will always seek and depend on his/her partner’s acceptance preventing the real them from being out there. Identity loss is shown in Ropa Cara, when the man forgets the things he is taught at home and starts wearing expensive brand clothes for the girl’s approval, but that is not the one he really is. 

     Another issue shown in the song is materialism and it is described as the belief that money, possessions, and comfort are the most important things to obtain in life, with a disinterest in or rejection of spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values. An example of materialism could be when a person marries another just because he or she is rich. Camilo Echeverry shows materialism in his song when the girl only focuses on expensive clothes, but she doesn’t care about the man’s feelings and values.  

     To summarize the analysis on the song, Ropa Cara by Camilo Echeverry, it is important to point out that vanity is an exaggerated expression of self-pride or feeling of superiority over other individuals. Also, toxic love is a love characterized by behaviors that are emotionally or physically damaging to someone. In addition, identity loss is a process in which someone loses his/her essence seeking approval from others. Furthermore, materialism is the belief that money, possessions, and comfort are the most important things to obtain in life. Camilo Echeverry, through his song, wants to show people the things someone who is in love can do just for the approval of the person he or she is in love with. In my opinion, Camilo made a good point with this song, because it clearly shows that when people seek approval of someone they are in love with, it can cause them to lose their essence, and do things they never thought of doing.