Ella y él [English translation]

She’s from Havana, he’s from New York

she dances tropical music, he likes rock

she sells kisses in a brothel, while he

studies at the UCLA

she’s sort of marxist, he’s a republican

she wants to be an artist, he hates cubans

he believes in the Statue of Liberty

and she in her old Havana full of solitude

He eats hamburgers, she rice with beans

he drinks champagne with strawberries, she a cuban mojito

she went on a tour to Yucatan, and he went on holidays to the same place

she’s mulatto from top to toe, he’s blond like the sun

she doesn’t speak english, and he doesn’ts speak spanish

he went for a drink without suspecting

he was about to find love in that place

What ideologies do to split humankind

can be joined in the name of love by affection threads

chorus

She moves her waist to the rhythm of tan tan

and he’s divorcing Uncle Sam

he seeks refuge in her skin, he wants it for him

and she’s forgetting Fidel

what did Lenin and Lincoln know about love?

what do Fidel and Clinton know about love?

She sits at his table

he shivers with excitement

her name is Teresa and his is John

she says “hola chico” and he answers “hello”

she doesn’t stop talking, he says “speak slow”

he put his flag away, she forgot the conflicts

he found a way to allow love come out

victorious

he held her hand and took her away

the yankee fell in love with the cuban

What ideologies do to split humankind

can be joined in the name of love by affection threads

chorus

Now they live in Paris, they found a neutral territory

she managed to become an actress, he’s a normal bloke

they walk hand in hand along the Champs Elysées

like someone who’s laughing at this planet and its prejudices