El Otro Chile

In the night, full Moon
In the day the sirens sound

I come from Chile, the anonymous underground Chile
Supporting actors in an antagonistic film
That Chile they define as middle class
But they have debts that plague and beset them
The Chile of my peers and yours
Who don't appear in the pages of the Mercurio
They have no statue, no main streets
And they're not big names in the official fucking stories
The one of many peoples
That were born by the settlers themselves in the occupations
The one of low, shanty houses and the slums
The chubi houses, the basic flats for the poor
The one of the warehouses and various bazaars
That go bankrupt when a supermarket takes over neighbourhood
That of the flea markets and Persian markets, that resist with strength
The brutish monopoly of the shopping centre
Of those who take the metro to work
Standing up, and packed in the underground as they arrive home
Of those who make their journey in Transantiago or by bus
And don't pay the fare when it's cheap, mijo
The Chile of the hotdog carts
And sopaipilla that you grab in the corner of a ghetto
Where there are less schools than off licences
The Chile of my aftermath, of my sorrows and my joys

I come from ordinary Chile
The kind that doesn't appear in TV commercials
Where the taps open, because here the Sun burns
Careful not to scald yourself with this message

I come from Chile
From the Victor Jarra and the Violeta Parra
The Vergara brothers, El Cizarro and El Zafrada
The Chile of the 33 trapped miners
Who almost died cause of the slave-driving man
That Chile of industrial high schools
Private, subsidised and municipal schools
That of the debt-ridden university students
Who have to pay for two more degrees than they've studied
The Chile that really suffered with the cataclysm
Who lost their homes, their families, and their beloved children
An earthquake does not discriminate and that's true
But if this murderous and criminal way of living
That of collapsed hospitals
Where there is no stretcher and they attend to you in the chair or anywhere
And in winter the corridors are so full
Of sick children and its hell if the welfare state hasn't covered you
Of street sellers
Of students, debtors, workers and the unemployed
Frustrated with outsourcing
Port workers, miners, settlers and exploited labourers
I come from the Chile of the majority
Who carry the throne of a few on their backs all fucking day long
This is the pain of my poetry
The Chile of my aftermath, of my sorrows and my joys

I come from Chile, ordinary Chile
The one that doesn't appear in TV commercials
Where the taps open, because here the Sun burns
Careful not scald yourself with this message

Your speeches of national unity are just that
Speeches because the reality is different
We live in a segregated society
And it's no coincidence, the well-off always wanted it that way
That's why when I think of Chile
I'm not talking about flags or emblems, I'm talking about the Chile I come from
I'm sorry, but if one day I shout: Viva Chile
It will be the day when Chile really belongs to the people who lead it

Song of thousands upon thousands
From below preparing the missiles

Me! It's the people