To whoever wins the Presidency, I offer this Prayer Song to guide this person in their ways. It would serve anyone well to contemplate its message before acting. It is a song originally written and performed by the Argentinian musician, León Gieco, and widely popularized by Mercedes Sosa (1938-2009), an Argentinian indigenous singer, who performed the most recognized version, and is part of the nueva canción genre in Latin America. The song is loved and famed throughout Latin-America, and moreover the world, with versions by Pete Seeger and even Bruce Springsteen, and Shakira. Mercedes Sosa became known as the “voice of the voiceless ones” from her activism for the poor and her fight for justice for the people. She suffered from political persecution from the Argentinian government and for a period was forced into exile, with censorship of her music.
This song is a prayer. I’m not at all religious, but this song fits the moment in its beauty, it’s compassion for humanity, and it’s message of peace. One doesn't have to believe in a supreme being (I personally don’t) to be moved by this eloquent message.
The song became an anthem of the movement to fight for economic and social justice in Latin America.
Listen to this song before committing men and women to war.
Listen to this song before sending missiles, or signing off on drone strikes, for there may be innocents, mothers and children, the wounded, or the infirmed who will be harmed or killed.
Listen to this song before committing to toppling elected governments of the people, or supporting coups against elected leaders, for they may be trying to help the poor and oppressed people of their countries and regions. Instead, why not send them mutual aid, and help them achieve their goals.
Listen to this song before signing “free trade” legislation that may cripple wages and destroy income for the poor around the world, and may open the door to worker exploitation, and turn over the people's autonomy to corporations.
Listen to this song before opposing a public option in medical care, for the ill and the economically struggling may need this care.
Listen to this song before empowering Wall Street over the interests of the People.
Listen to this song before cutting medicare, social security, or other vital programs of social need.
Listen to this song before building more walls to keep people out, or prisons to keep people in.
Listen to this song when people demand for more justice in matters of police killings, and want fairness in the criminal justice system.
Listen to this song when considering issues of massive student debt, or signing away rights of debtors in bankruptcy proceedings, or weakening consumer protections against creditors.
Listen to this song before killing legislation that protects renters and homeowners from landlords and mortgage holders.
Let this song enter your mind, you soul, your being, and let it touch you and even change you with its humility, its goodness, its humanity, its love for peace, and its love for the People of this Earth.
Listen.
Listen to the People before acting, both within our borders and without our borders. Listen to their needs and wants before acting.
Do this, and you will be a great President. Don't do this and you will descend into the familiar and prevalent mediocrity that serves no one but the few.
Sólo le pido a Dios
Originally written and performed by Argentinian Leon Gieco in 1978. this song is an anthem that was widely used throughout the social and political hardships across Latin America, particularly in Argentina and Chile. It belongs to the Chilean nueva canción genre. This version performed by Argentinian Aboriginal Mercedes Sosa (1938 — 2009) is the most recognized version though it has been performed by such groups and musicians as Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, and U2.
Spanish Lyrics with English translation
Sólo le pido a Dios – I only ask of God
que el dolor no me sea indiferente – that I am not indifferent to the pain
que la reseca muerte no me encuentre – that the dry (emaciated) death won’t find me
vacío y solo sin haber hecho lo suficiente. – empty and alone, without having done (what is) sufficient.
Sólo le pido a Dios — I only ask of God
que lo injusto no me sea indiferente, — that I won’t be indifferent to the injustice
que no me abofeteen la otra mejilla — that they won’t slap my other cheek
después que una garra me arañó esta suerte. — after a talon has clawed this luck (destiny) of mine.
Sólo le pido a Dios — I only ask of God
que la guerra no me sea indiferente, — that i am not indifferent to war
es un monstruo grande y pisa fuerte — it's a great monster and steps (stomps/crushes) forcefully
toda la pobre inocencia de la gente. — (on) all the poor innocence of the people
Sólo le pido a Dios — I only ask of God
que el engaño no me sea indiferente — that I am not indifferent to deception
si un traidor puede más que unos cuantos, — if one traitor can do more than the many
que esos cuantos no lo olviden fácilmente. — that these many don't easily forget
Sólo le pido a Dios — I only ask of God
que el futuro no me sea indiferente, — that I am not indifferent to the future
desahuciado está el que tiene que marchar — hopeless is he who has to go away
a vivir una cultura diferente — to live in a different culture
Here’s the same song with English subtitles:
A different version by León Gieco, the original author and performer:
Another popular song by Sosa:
Excerpts of biographical notes, from the Guardian:
As a champion of the rights of the poor, Sosa became known as "the voice of the voiceless ones". These political leanings caused Sosa trouble when the Argentinian military, under Jorge Videla, staged a coup in March 1976. Initially, only some of Sosa's songs were censored, but as she became seen internationally as a voice of freedom, the harassment increased.
In early 1979, Sosa was performing in the Argentinian university city of La Plata when the military stopped the concert. Humiliating Sosa by searching her on stage, they then arrested her and 350 members of the audience. Sosa was detained for 18 hours until international pressure forced her release (she had to pay a large fine) but this event – alongside increasing numbers of death threats – forced her to flee to Europe, where she lived in Madrid and Paris.
Sosa found exile difficult and returned to Argentina in early 1982. The military junta remained in power, but Sosa's fame excluded her from punishment, and a series of concerts she gave at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, with guest appearances from celebrated Argentinian singers, found her truly welcomed home. A live recording of these concerts was issued after the junta fell. Sosa continued to tour (performing in the UK several times) and to record, her fame growing on an international scale – she shared stages or studios with artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Sting and Shakira. In a career spanning almost six decades, she released 70 albums. She won three Latin Grammy awards and received a huge number of honorary titles including the UN Voluntary Fund for Women (Unifem) prize from the United Nations, in recognition of her defence of women's rights. She remained politically active and vocally opposed Carlos Menem when he was Argentinian president.
"I didn't choose to sing for people," Sosa said in a recent interview on Argentinian television. "Life chose me to sing."
More on the Nueva canción movement from Wikipedia:
Nueva canción (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈnweβa kanˈθjon] 'new song') is a movement and genre within Latin American and Iberian folk music, folk-inspired music and socially committed music. Nueva canción is widely recognized to have played a powerful role in the social upheavals in Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.
Nueva canción first surfaced during the 1960s as "The Chilean New Song" in Chile. The musical style emerged shortly afterwards in Spain and other areas of Latin America where it came to be known under similar names. Nueva canción renewed traditional Latin American folk music, and was soon associated with revolutionary movements, the Latin American New Left, Liberation Theology, hippie and human rights movements due to political lyrics. It would gain great popularity throughout Latin America, and left an imprint on several other genres like Ibero-American rock, Cumbia and Andean music.
Nueva canción musicians often faced censorship, exile, forceful disappearances and even torture by right-wing military dictatorships, as in Francoist Spain, Pinochet's Chile and in Videla and Galtieri's Argentina.
Due to nueva canción songs' strongly political messages, some of them have been used in recent political campaigns, the Orange Revolution, which used Violeta Parra's "Gracias a la Vida". Nueva canción has become part of the Latin American and Iberian musical canon but is no longer a mainstream genre, and has given way to other genres, particularly Rock en español.