Guantanamera: The Girl From Guantánamo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Guantanamera ("The girl from Guantánamo") is perhaps the best known Cuban song and that country's most noted patriotic song. The lyrics are based on the first poem in the collection Simple Verses by Cuban nationalist poet José Martí, adapted by Julián Orbón. The music was composed by José Fernández Díaz. There are many versions of this song but the definitive one was written with one verse by Martí from his poem "Yo soy un hombre sincero".

Lyrics

Yo soy un hombre sincero
I am a truthful man

De donde crecen las palmas
From the land of palm trees

Y antes de morirme quiero
And before dying I want

Echar mis versos del alma
To share these verses of my soul

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro
My verse is light green

Y de un carmín encendido
And it is flaming red

Mi verso es un ciervo herido
My verse is a wounded stag

Que busca en el monte amparo
Who seeks refuge on the mountain

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Cultivo una rosa blanca
I'll grow a white rose

En julio como en enero
In July just like in January

Para el amigo sincero
For the honest friend

Que me da su mano franca
Who gives me his open hand

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra
With the poor people of the earth

Quiero yo mi suerte echar
I want to share my happiness/fate

El arroyo de la sierra
The runnel of the mountains

Me complace más que el mar
Gives me more pleasure than the ocean

Guantanamera, guajira Guantanamera

SOURCE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamera

(...)

José Martí

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from Jose Marti)

José Julián Martí y Pérez (January 28, 1853 – May 19, 1895) was a leader of the Cuban independence movement as well as an esteemed poet and writer. He is often considered Cuba's greatest hero.

Jose Marti was born in Havana when Cuba was still a colony of Spain, to Spanish parents Mariano Martí and Leonor Pérez Cabrera, and was the oldest brother to seven sisters. When he was only four years old, his family moved from Cuba to Valencia, Spain, but two years later they returned to the island where they enrolled José at a local public school.

(...)

In 1894, he left planning to land in Cuba and fight for revolution, but was intercepted in Florida. On March 25, 1895, José Marti published the Manifesto of Montecristi, proclaiming Cuban independence, an end to all legal distinctions between the races, friendship with Spaniards who did not oppose the independence, and war with all who stood in the way of independence.

On April 11, 1895, Martí landed in Cuba with a force of rebel exiles, who joined the rebel General Máximo Gómez y Báez. José Martí was killed in battle with Spanish troops at the Battle of Dos Ríos on May 19, 1895. He is buried in Cementerio Santa Efigenia in Santiago de Cuba.

José Martí strongly opposed U.S. involvement in the Cuban War for Independence. The Spanish-American War ended approximately three years after his death. His best and most revered works were his books for children; La Edad de Oro ("The Golden Age") being the most widely read. One of the poems from his collection Versos Sencillos was later put to music as "Guantanamera," which has become Cuba's most famous patriotic song. José Martí International Airport in Havana is named after this leader of Cuban independence.

SOURCE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Marti