Gato Federal

Federal Cat*

recitation:

And it appears again
our old acquaintances
this time ambassadors
They have only changed the dress.

They negotiate with the empire
that one, from Peter the first,
They negotiate with Orientals
They negotiate with the porteños.

And to that half ground network
that hangs at the end of America
they cut into the pulp
for steak from England.

sung:

And so we came to be
an independent country,
a little wedge between trunks,
little land and few people.

recitation:

There is a brief quiet period
and again foreigners appear
They don't want that land for something else
than a little European stall.

And they find that there are things that bother
that are not in the empire's plans:
that there is a federal in Buenos Aires
and have a federal Montevideo.

May it re-emerge with new vigor
the ideas that old Artigas planted
to make a single town of these towns
and a Latin American nation.

And the imperial forces appear,
Garibaldi, Italians and French
supported by Eastern Sepoys,
old lackeys of the Portuguese.

Chained freedom
stop feeling afraid
Oribe asks Rosas
help against the invader.

sung:

Soon there will be a click
with this part to Don Juan Manuel,
soon a click comes out
with this part to Don Juan Manuel,
Let it be fair gift, it turned around
He already has the Farrapos with him.

That together with the Farrapos
The French are waiting for me.

And the English are very smarmy
they become friends too

Note that in Montevideo
Spanish is almost not spoken anymore,
tell that in Montevideo
Spanish is almost not spoken anymore,
It's pure rented gringo
and we're going to give it a whirl.

La Piedra Alta La Florida
I hear the cry: Federation!

Today wild with the doctors
They are looking for intervention.

Let them come to my countrymen
from far away you will know,
let them come to my countrymen
from far away you will know,
they have the same currency
that there in Las Piedras
knew how to win.

white badge to hat
first emblem of the Oriental.

Chief Artigas first used
before he made La Federal.

*Gives musical work "Chronicles of Free Men" (1972)