El Barzón

Those lands in the corner
I sowed them with a gray ox
The yoke broke on me
And the team keeps going

When I arrived at half the lands
The plow was buried

It buried up to the handle
The plowshare fell apart
The yoke was swaying
The yoke was scraping
The sower was talking to me
I told the sower
Don't talk to me while I'm plowing
The yoke broke on me
And the team keeps going

When I finished harvesting
The rich man came and divided it

He took all my corn
He didn't leave me any to eat
He presents me the bill here
Here you owe twenty pesos
For the rent of some oxen
Five pesos for magueys
A nega, three cuartillos
Of beans that we lent you
A nega, three cuartillos
Of corn that we provided you
Five pesos for some sacks
Seven pesos for cigarettes
Six pesos I don't know what for
But everything is on the bill
In addition to the twenty reales
That you took from the store
With all the corn that is yours
You don't pay the hacienda
But you can count on my lands
To keep sowing them

And now go work
So you can keep fertilizing

I just stayed thinking
Shaking my blanket
Rolling a leaf cigarette
Oh, what a shameless boss
He took all my corn
For his damn granary
The yoke broke on me
And the team keeps going

When I arrived at my little house
My beloved one said to me

Where's the corn that was yours?
I sadly replied
The boss took it
For what I owed at the hacienda
But the boss told me
To count on the store

Now I'm going to work
To keep paying him

Twenty pesos, ten cents
Some that I subtract
My beloved one said to me
Don't work with that man anymore
He's just robbing us
Go to the meeting hall
Let my godfather take you
Don't listen to the priest
Him and his excommunications
Don't you see your family
That doesn't even have pants?
I don't even have a skirt
And you don't have pants
I just stayed thinking
Why did I leave my boss?
My beloved one said to me
Let the boss go to hell
As if we were starving
If you keep believing
What the priest told you
About the pains of hell
Long live the revolution!
Down with the supreme government!

The yoke broke on me
And I kept on sowing