El ejemplo de Viet Nam

Annotation — Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music

Carlos Puebla, born on 11 September 1917 in Manzanillo, Granma, Cuba. He died on 12 July 1989, Havana, Cuba. He was a prominent member of the Nueva trova movement, the Cuban offshoot of Nueva canción latinoamericana, linked with leftist social and political movement in South & Central America. This album (Areito # LDA-3410) featured two Vietanam War songs. The first was "El Ejemplo de Vietnam" ("Example of Vietnam") which suggested that the North Vietnamese victory over the US had spurred on the freedom movement in Puerto Rico, saying that it resembled the story of "the legend of Goliath, that giant, and little David who forced him to surrender". Likewise, the "Yankee has cannons...but Puerto Rico...has its people".1 Note that this song also featured on the album below. Furthermore, he had a different song called "David y Goliath" with a similar theme, released in 1970 on the LP Cancion Protesta: Protest Songs of Latin America, above, on Paredon Records. The other song on this album was called "La gloria para Viet Nam" ("Glory fo Vietnam"). Released in Havana, Cuba. Sources1Cuba - Songs for Our America↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Puerto Rico, is getting ready to liberate itself / To have a free country, without fear of the Yankee giant / With the Vietnamese victory / It has been shown once and for all that even though they seem so big / The giants are not so great / And now you see, Puerto Rico, in a very concrete way / How the peoples of smaller lands are rising up / Remember the legend of Goliath, that giant, and little David / Who forced him to surrender and to humble himself / The Yankee has cannons, and knows how to exploit you / But Puerto Rico relies on something else / Puerto Rico has its people / The heirs of Betances who at this historic moment have made up their minds to be free

Notes

Track A4. Compares Puerto Rico's independence struggle with the Vietnamese victory - David and Goliath. Also on Paredon P-1018 (1975).

About the artist

Born 11 September 1917 in Manzanillo, Cuba; died 12 July 1989 in Havana, Cuba; formed Los Tradicionales in 1953; a prominent member of the nueva trova movement. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-Imperialism · Vietnamese Patriotic · Freedom & Liberty · Vietnam Analogy

In collections

Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music · Vietnam as Comparison