Musical Monday: Cumbia De Los Pobres

By janna on November 30, 2008 9:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When I hear this song, I think of Guatemala, and I think of Mexico. I think of the fathers of the migrants I know, who depend on their sons to send home money to sustain the family. I think of the fathers who have lost their pride by their inability to provide for their families, and who become desperate in their need. I think of the men who give in to that desperation and leave their families, and I think of the men who stay and continue to fight.

Today one of those fathers left his wife and daughters for another woman. His only son has been here working and sustaining them with his earnings for almost 3 years now. Unable to find work in Mexico, too old to seek his fortune in el norte, and after watching one after another of his business ventures end in failure, he sought a change, and fled to where he could forget his failures for awhile. This is, or was, a good man, who taught his son to be a good man.

Now his son is heartbroken to see his family falling apart. His dream was to provide well for his parents and sisters, and eventually be able to return to Mexico, where his family would welcome him home, together. That dream is disappearing before his very eyes as work keeps him here, poverty at home makes going back futile, and his family becomes more unrecognizable to him year after year.

So while his father falls, like others fall into alcoholism or violence or crime in their desperation, he will stay here and work, and fight to triumph over the poverty that devours lives, hopes, and dreams.

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Tu vives tan rodeada de pobreza
No tengas pena no tengas verguenza
Que es muy triste y muy dura esta vida
Y deja los demas y ponte a luchar

Tambien soy pobre soy un pobre como tu
Tengo a mi madre, a mi esposa y a mis hijos
Que me piden algo y no les puedo dar
Que me piden algo y no les puedo dar

Pero se luchar, se luchar y triunfare
y un destino cruel mi vida detener
se que solo asi luchando triunfare
se que solo asi luchando triunfare
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You live surrounded by poverty
Don't be embarrassed, don't be ashamed
That life is very sad and very hard
Leave all the rest and get ready to fight

I am also poor, I'm a poor man like you
I have my mother, my wife, and my kids
Who ask of me what I cannot give
Who ask of me what I cannot give

But I know how to fight, I know how to fight
and I will triumph
And by my life stop a cruel fate
I know that I'll triumph only by fighting
I know that only by fighting will I triumph.