Ya está despertando el negro

Annotation

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. Released in 1975, all the songs on the album Cuba: Songs for Our America (Paredon Records # P-1018) focused on issues related to the US - such as its involvement in Puerto Rico, Panama, Vietnam, and problems at home, such as both African-American and Mexican-American Civil Rights. Released on Paredon Records, this record label was founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle". (1) This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list, see the note below. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world. This album included the song "El ejemplo de Vietnam" ("Example of Vietnam"), discussed above, featured on the 1973 album Carlos Puebla. A second Vietnam War-related song on this album was "Y está despertando el negro" ("Now the Black Man Is Awakening"), which combined the issues of African-American Civil Rights and the Vietnam War, focussing on the draft resistance movement. The narrator said that the US system tried to protect its investment by "enlisting and training the black man" as "cheap meat" to fight in the war. However, the narrator said that now the "black man is rising" - resisting the draft.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: The black man is waking up / Now he is answering clubs with clubs / And fire with fire / The black man only asks on this earth far his little piece of sky / But he is answered with police clubs, with chains and with dogs / As long as the black man is quiet / As long as he keeps in his place / The rich man classifies him as a "good, poor nigger" / And because the rich man is the owner of the businesses and the money / He tries to protect his investment by enlisting and training the black man / And there goes the "cheap meat" / The tender flesh of the black man / That while alive is "bad", but in dying becomes "good" / But now the black man is rising with all his passion and fire / And things are changing, now that the black man has awakened

Notes

Track A5 ("Now the Black Man Is Awakening"). Recorded in Cuba.

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

Civil Rights · Draft Resistance · Police Brutality · Anti-Imperialism

In collections

Civil Rights Songs · Draft Songs · Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]