I sang South Coast at the Sunnyside Song Circle yesterday (4/22/01) and the song raised a question I had never previous considered. First recall this important stanza:

But then I got hurt in a landslide,
Crushed hip and twice-broken bone;
She saddled up Buck just like lightning,
And rode out through the night to Jolon.

Now the question: Was the young woman riding to get help, or was she using the accident as an opportunity to escape from the forced "marriage" to Señor de Castro?

Viewed again in light of this question, South Coast is as much a tale of selling a child into servitude, sexual and otherwise, as it is a tragic love story.

What do you think?

--- Steve