When a poor man dies
and who works until its dark,
greets his son Miguel,
drinks a cup of coffee, then catches a bus.
His wife doesn’t know when he’ll be back.
At midday, sand a cement,
his hands will build fortresses
or beautiful houses he’ll never inhabit.
Head of the building gang, the best friend there is.
His wife doesn’t know if he’ll be back.
In the afternoon, after work, with his friends,
with firm steps he walks into town.
The shouts of his hopes are like doves in the wind,
falgs are flying and no one is sad.
His wife does not know if she’ll see him again.
Suddenly his path is cut by a shot,
the infamous bullet deadens his senses.
Who is the guilty one? Who the murderer?
A thousand voices rise in protest,
there must be a penalty.
His wife does not know that he is fallen.
The newpaper speak of his death.
Her eyes cannot believe what they see.
He was here for only twenty years.
His brothes on the construction site
shed tears of men with sorrow and rage.
What is justice when it’s a poor man who dies,
one who worked and struggled, I question the court.
The cemetary swells and nobody answers.
Or are they all dead that they see not and hear not
that they’ve killed a father,
that a man is dead.
Translation: Inter-Church Commitee on Chile
La cantautora Judit Neddermann y el guitarrista Pau Figueres presentan un nuevo álbum conjunto, con doce canciones en castellano, catalán, portugués y francés, grabadas en directo en estudio. Entre ellas, una nueva versión de Vinc d’un poble con Joan Manuel Serrat y temas originales que combinan pop, folk, jazz y música popular brasileña.
El cantautor chileno Patricio Anabalón lanza el single Danza con la participación de Silvio Rodríguez, en una obra producida por Javier Farías y enriquecida con los aportes del Cuarteto Austral, Felipe Candia y otros destacados músicos e ilustradores; en un encuentro generacional de la canción de autor.
El compositor, etnomusicólogo y director teatral napolitano Roberto De Simone ha muerto en Nápoles a los 91 años. Fue autor de La gatta Cenerentola y fundador de la Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare. En su Cantata per Masaniello colaboró el grupo chileno Inti-Illimani, en una obra que unió la tradición napolitana con la música latinoamericana.
La cantante catalana Sílvia Pérez Cruz participa con su voz en el nuevo trabajo del compositor Feliu Gasull, donde interpreta varias piezas con orquesta, en un disco que reúne también a Pau Figueres, Josep Pons y la Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu.
La profesora puertorriqueña Limarí Rivera Ríos publica el primer estudio académico interdisciplinario sobre la obra de Silvio Rodríguez, explorando la relación entre canción y poesía, la representación del amor como ética revolucionaria, el discurso racial y el legado de Martí y Guillén.