The everyday lives of Chicano children, a blend of Mexican heritage and U.S. experience, are transformed into song on a new CD produced by poet Francisco X. Alarcón and composer Pablo Ortiz, both award-winning UC Davis artists.

"Canciones del Ombligo de la Luna" ("Songs from the Bellybutton of the Moon") includes 13 original songs in Spanish, with music composed by Ortiz and recorded in Mexico City in collaboration with some of Mexico's finest musicians and singers. The songs are chosen from the "Magical Cycle of the Seasons," a series of four picture books of bilingual children's poems written by Alarcón.

"Just as Francisco writes about the Chicano child's experience as a bridge between two cultures, I've composed music based on traditional Mexican song forms in a more classical setting, incorporating elements of the Western art music tradition," Ortiz says.

Ortiz recorded the work using musicians from the Cuarteto Latinoamericano and the Orquestra Filarmónica de Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. In addition, two renowned Mexican singers, Alicia Ayala and Cecilia Toussaint, perform on the disc.

Alarcón's children's poetry, which has garnered three Pura Belpré Honor Awards from the American Library Association, connects the everyday world of a Chicano child with bigger themes, including Mexican holidays and labor politics.

The CD was supported through bi-national academic and artistic exchange programs co-sponsored by the Fidelmex USA-Rockefeller Foundation and UC MEXUS, a University of California institute devoted to the study of Mexico-related studies.

For more information about the CD, contact Nerissa Moran, Books on Wings, 973 Valencia, San Francisco, CA 94110, (415) 285-1145, casalibro@aol.com.