# Desperately needed song thread (Guantanamera) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 22, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235 "2001-09-22T19:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/1 "2001-09-22T19:46:21Z")
Okay, maybe not _that_ desperately, but if I hear America The Beautiful one more time I’m going to get dry heaves. (Sheesh, wasn’t playing The Star-Spangled Banner at sporting events just supposed to be a wartime custom?) Anyway, what better to discuss than a song that not only has nothing to do with America, it involves one of our most bitter Cold War enemies. Guantanamera…rememeber hearing this song a lot during my grade school years, but I never saw the movie. So anyway, I was listening to this song just the other day. Three specific questions: 1. Exactly what kind of song is this? I’m thinking folk, but considering how popular it got stateside, I think it’d have to be a little broader than that. 2. Where I can get translations of this and other Spanish language songs? (I’ve also wanted to know what the hell La Bamba was about for the longest time.) Yes, I already did searches. 3. Did this place ever have any kind of historical signifigance? As far as I can tell, it’s pretty much an ordinary twon. Again, searches didn’t turn up anything. As a footnote, I noticed that the “balladic” structure of this song is remarkably similar to La Cucaracha. Which, I suppose, could lead to a discussion of how communist governments like Cuba’s stifle creative expression, but this is Cafe Society and not The BBQ Pit, so I won’t go there. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ToobaTeacher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@ToobaTeacher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToobaTeacher)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2001, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/2 "2001-09-22T20:51:31Z")
The only memory of that song I have is the one of Eddie Albert (Yes! of Green Acres) singing it on Johnny Carson. When you’ve heard it mauled like that, you can’t remember how it’s supposed to sound. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/3 "2001-09-23T02:56:07Z")
for a majestic rendering of this song, listen to tRay Charles. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/4 "2001-09-23T03:21:03Z")
\*One ton tomato It was a one ton tomato One ton to-ma-to! \* I wonder if I could option that to Veggie Tales? ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/5 "2001-09-23T03:37:54Z")
\*Yo soy un hombre sincero De donde crece la palma Yo soy un hombre sincero De donde crece la palma Y antes de morir me quiero berchar mis versos del alma Mi verso es de un verde claro Y de un carmin encendido Mi verso es de un verde claro Y de un carmin encendido Mi verso es un ciervo herido Que busca en el monte amparo Por los pobres de la tierra Quiero yo mi suerte echar Por los pobres de la tierra Quiero yo mi suerte echar Y el arroyo de la sierra Me complace mis que el mar\* Rough translation: I am an honest man from the land of the palm trees, and before dying I wish to share the songs of my soul. My songs are bright green and deep red My songs are like a wounded deer in the highest mountains With the poor people of the earth I want to share my faith The cool streams of the mountains please me more than the sea. What kind of song it is? I would guess international folk. I believe the origin is Cuban, but I suck so bad at geography that I can’t even tell you if Guantanamo is there. I have some memory of someone explaining the “meaning” behind the song, that it had something to do with human rights violations by Castro, but I can’t cite, because my ex-boyfriend doesn’t have a webpage. “Guantanamera” itself means “woman from Guantanamo”. Does that help at all? ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/6 "2001-09-23T03:42:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LifeOnWry \* > > What kind of song it is? I would guess international folk. I believe the origin is Cuban, but I suck so bad at geography that I can’t even tell you if Guantanamo is there. I have some memory of someone explaining the “meaning” behind the song, that it had something to do with human rights violations by Castro, but I can’t cite, because my ex-boyfriend doesn’t have a webpage. “Guantanamera” itself means “woman from Guantanamo”. > > Does that help at all? Guantanamo Bay is a US military installation on Cuba. I’ve never really understood how THAT works. But I’ve also always been under the impression that has nothing to do with the song. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/7 "2001-09-23T03:52:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ShibbOleth \* > \*\*\*One ton tomato > It was a one ton tomato > One ton to-ma-to! > \* > > I wonder if I could option that to Veggie Tales? \*\* Geez ShibbOleth, everyone knows it’s one ton _of mayo_. They’ve got a powerful hankerin’ for BLTs south of the border. Here are the lyrics in english and spanish. [http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/guantanamera.shtml](http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/guantanamera.shtml) GUANTANAMERA Original music by Jose Fernandez Diaz Music adaptation by Pete Seeger & Julian Orbon Lyric adaptation by Julian Orbon, based on a poem by Jose Marti Here is a short bio of Jose Marti [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/josemart.htm](http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/josemart.htm) Here is a link with the song being performed and some background it’s origin. [http://www.ovationtv.com/cuba/compay3.html](http://www.ovationtv.com/cuba/compay3.html) More extensive bio with pics of him and the poem itself [http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/jmarti.html](http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/jmarti.html) José Martí Cuban Statesman (1853-1895) THOUGHTS [http://xld.com/public/cuba/marti.htm](http://xld.com/public/cuba/marti.htm) ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/8 "2001-09-23T04:03:48Z")
> [@](#): > > Guantanamo Bay is a US military installation on Cuba. I’ve never really understood how THAT works. But I’ve also always been under the impression that has nothing to do with the song. OK, I bet that’s the answer to #3, historical significance. If someone was protesting a US base in Cuba, perhaps this song is sort of a lament for things past? Or maybe a folk song revived in honor of? Or maybe I could click some of those neato links **astro** provided, and stop talking out of my hat, huh? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/9 "2001-09-23T04:03:55Z")
For the history of the song: [http://www.helmutlottiofficial.com/Latinoeng.htm](http://www.helmutlottiofficial.com/Latinoeng.htm) > [@](#): > > Guantanamera in fact refers to the west coast of Cuba, where the Americans had set up their base. This is to say that Guantanamera made its mark on History with a capital H. Guajira Guantanamera - its full title - has absolutely no military significance whatsoever because it means young girl, a little peasant girl from (the province of) Guantanamo. > The first couplet begins with a fragment from the Versos Sencillos, “simple verses”, a work by José Marti, who was a 19th century Cuban poet. “I am an honest man and I come from the place where the palm trees grow…” Hector Angulo - a friend of Fidel Castro - added a few couplets to it at the beginning of the 1940s, basing himself on a story popular in Havana. Twenty years later, when the same Angulo sang the song for children at summer camp in New York, a certain Pete Seeger fell under its spell. He took the Guajira out of the title and became the first of a long line of famous performers. Helmut Lotti is a worthy name on a list that includes Joan Baez, Trini Lopez, Digno Garçia, Joe Dassin, Nana Mouskouri, Julio Iglesias, Phil Manzarena and so on. > The tune was written by Joséito Fernandez. Fernandez, was an unusual character who worked for the Cuban radio station CMQ: he would sing his improvised comments on the day’s event on news bulletins. It was in doing this that he “invented” the tune for Guantanamera in 1928. It was only recorded for the first time in 1941, under the title of “my biography” and with the sub-title of Guajira Guantanamera. [http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y98/sep98/04e3.htm](http://64.21.33.164/CNews/y98/sep98/04e3.htm) > [@](#): > > HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba will celebrate this weekend the 70th anniversary of its unofficial national anthem, ``La Guantanamera,’’ the popular ballad that became a hymn of solidarity worldwide for supporters of Fidel Castro’s revolution. For the most complete lyrics: [http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/guantanamera.shtml](http://www.arlo.net/lyrics/guantanamera.shtml) For the english lyrics (not complete tough): [http://home.talkcity.com/PennyLn/nghanh/lyric/eng/eng/guantanamera.htm](http://home.talkcity.com/PennyLn/nghanh/lyric/eng/eng/guantanamera.htm) Warning (or great if you like it) Guantanamera in Midi in the background!: [http://www.jopsite.com/mid\_guanta3.html](http://www.jopsite.com/mid_guanta3.html) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/10 "2001-09-23T23:04:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ShibbOleth \* > **Guantanamo Bay is a US military installation on Cuba. I’ve never really understood how THAT works.** Maybe the real estate lawyers can explain it further, but it works like this: You sign a lease. You pay your rent and the lessor doesn’t throw you out. From [here:](http://www.cubethis.com/gtmo.htm) > [@](#): > > Originally a Caribbean vacation retreat for newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst, Guantanamo Bay was leased to the U.S. Navy shortly after the mysterious sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor in 1898. The initial 99-year lease was re-negotiated in early 1976 as part of the amnesty agreement reached in the Patricia Hearst federal bank robbery case. So I guess the Hearsts still own it, not Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2001, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/11 "2001-09-23T23:53:10Z")
I guess what I find odd about the Guantanamo arrangement is that during the Cuban revolution, everything else was pretty much seized and privatized. Since the U.S. didn’t really resist the overthrow of the Batista government, why didn’t they just go after the Naval installation there as well? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/12 "2001-09-24T16:35:19Z")
The poet [José Martí](http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/josemart.htm), original author of the lyrics, is one of Cuba’s greatest patriotic heroes. He was killed in a skirmish during the Cuban War of Independence in 1895. He lived in exile in New York for much of his life, and there is an impressive equestrian statue of him on Central Park South in New York. He is claimed as an inspiration by both Castro’s government and by the Cuban exile community; the U.S. sponsors Radio Marti as an equivalent to “Radio Free Europe” for Cuba. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/13 "2001-09-24T17:06:23Z")
And (IIRC) he was a grandfather of actor Cesar Romero. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2001, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/14 "2001-09-24T21:12:45Z")
But I did see his stirring rendition of this song on the 1969 classic series “What’s It All About, World.” ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/desperately-needed-song-thread-guantanamera/83235/15 "2001-09-25T05:40:59Z")
As always, thanks for all the fascinating responses. (More than I expected, really!) I suppose a better question would be why certain Spanish-language songs hit it big in America. From what I’ve seen, it all depends on how famous the person is. Richie Valens was a great singer cut down in his prime; everyone knows La Bamba. (There may be more to it, so feel free to amend that.) I have to admit, I find Guantanamera a heckuva lot more applicable to our current situation than America the Beautiful. A simple man who wants to live in peace, who appreciates the beauty in life, and who opposes the beligerance of a freedom-suppressing government…wow, what a concept. And yes, like Got Rest Ye Merry Gentleman, it’s one of the most parodizable songs ever. Frank Delima (a famous local entertainer) did one.