Mrs Maki writes:
The Argentinian singer-songwriter and poet Facundo Cabral was murdered in Guatemala City yesterday. Officially an innocent victim of a drive by shooting aimed at the promotor who had booked him to appear in Guatemala, a theory that convinces few and certainly not Rigoberta Menchu, a close friend of Facundo and fellow denouncer of Latin America’s extreme right death squads.
Facundo, like many others who have died before him, was fearless in his opposition of dictatorship, social injustice and all the other crimes that have been committed (and ignored) in the name of economic progress over the decades in his beleaguered continent. His death in one of the countries with one of the worst records for human rights abuse in the area seems just a little too coincidental for the official explanation to be believed.
His influence, musically and lyrically, in the seventies and eighties was spread wide throughout the Spanish-speaking world. His protest songs rang true here in Spain as, during the late seventies and early eighties, we were throwing off the shackles of our own dictatorship. His lyrics and poetry were a breath of fresh air and an inspiration to my generation. Facundo, gracias por tu legado.
Mrs Maki
Here is his first international hit a milonga called Pobrecito mi Patrón (will try to get the lyrics translated and put them in the comments section).
Bloody hell, how shocking and awful. Lovely video, beautiful song. I’d never heard of Facundo Cabral, but regardless of what the lyrics mean, his humanity shines through in this clip. Heartbreaking. RIP.
Spoken intro:
The devil went down to to the sea to write the history of the world but there was no water: god had drunk it all. Juan Comodoro was looking for water and found oil. But he died of thirst.
I don’t know who goes further
The mountain or the crab
My poor master
He thinks I’m the poor one
Who knows if leaning (on others)
Is better than sliding
Soft water does away with hard rock
More than gold,
Poverty is
The costliest thing in existence
Only cheap things
Are bought with money
Price isn’t what’s important
But the value of things
Damned master
His way is to prevail
And no-one escapes that
The conqueror to preserve his conquest
Becomes the slave of what he conquered
In other words by fucking us
He fucked himself
Why should I want to earn ten
If I can count to six
You can find the lyrics in Spanish here
Dreadful. Thanks for posting, Mrs Maki.
Thanks for this Mr & Ms Maki, it definitely needs to be heard.
“Officially an innocent victim of a drive by shooting” – my arse, anyone who speaks the truth in that US supported fascist state has and will meet a similar fate, I started going there in the 70′s and it was happening then and has continued ’til now. You couldn’t drive anywhere there in a rural environment without coming around a bend and finding a military roadblock; “everybody out and up against that wall”. It still goes on.
Hey, May1366 has put it on facebook!
Con paz descanse.
Mr. & Mrs. Maki. Some Latin American countries are terrible places to speak out. I was a big fan of Victor Jara who was murdered by Pinochet in Chile.
The right wing death squads in Colombia are covertly funded by Clinton’s “Plan Colombia” and also Coca-Cola. The usual victims here are trade unionists.
I see there are rumblings again about the Malvinas.
Just too sad. At times I just despair of the human race.
I can’t stop watching this. I just love the song. Thanks so much for posting, the makis. Sorry it’s under such sad circumstances.