Latinoamérica [English translation]

[Featuring Maria Rita, Totó La Momposina & Susana Baca]

I am, I am what that they left behind

I'm all the remains of what they robbed for themselves

A village hidden on the peak,

My skin is made of leather that's why it stands any weather.

I'm a factory of smoke,

Peasant labor for your consumption

A cold front in the middle of summer,

Love in the Time of Cholera, my brother.

[Title of a novel by Gabriel García Marquez]

I am the sun that is born and the day that dies,

with the best views of the dusk.

I am development in living flesh,

a political speech without saliva.

The most beautiful faces I've met,

I'm the photograph of a missing person.

I'm the blood in your veins,

I'm a piece of land that is worth what it takes.

I'm a basket with beans,

I'm Maradona against England scoring 2 goals.

[An Argentine football star who scored against England at the1986 World Cup. One goal was known as “the Hand of God”]

I'm that which holds my flag,

the backbone of the planet is my Andes.

I'm what my father taught me,

“If you don’t love your homeland, you don't love your mother.”

I'm Latin America,

A people without legs that still walks (Listen!)

You can't buy the wind.

You can't buy the sun.

You can't buy the rain.

You can't buy the heat.

You can't buy the clouds.

You can't buy the colors.

You can't buy my happiness.

You can't buy my pains.

I have the lakes, I have the rivers.

I have my teeth for when I smile.

The snow that puts make-up on my mountains.

I have the sun that dries me and the rain that washes me

A desert intoxicated with peyote

A gulp of pulque to sing with the coyotes [pulque: an indigenous Mexican drink made from the sap of the maguey]

Everything that I need

I have my lungs breathing light blue.

The altitude that suffocates.

I'm the teeth of my mouth chewing the coca. [chewing coca leaves is an ancient health practice in the Andes]

The autumn with its leaves that have fainted

The verses written under the starry night.

A vineyard filled with grapes.

A sugar cane plantation under the Cuban sun.

I'm the Caribbean Sea watching over the houses,

Carrying out rituals of holy water.

The wind that combs my hair.

I'm all of the saints that hang from my neck.

The juice of my struggle is not artificial,

Because the fertilizer of my land is natural.

You can't buy the wind.

You can't buy the sun.

You can't buy the rain.

You can't buy the heat.

You can't buy the clouds.

You can't buy the colors.

You can't buy my happiness.

You can't buy my pains.

(from Portuguese)

It is not possible to buy the wind.

It is not possible to buy the sun.

It is not possible to buy the rain.

It is not possible to buy heat.

It is not possible to buy the clouds.

It is not possible to buy the colors.

It is not possible to buy my happiness.

It is not possible to buy my sadness.

You can't buy the sun.

You can't buy the rain.

(we are drawing the way, we are walking)

[in Portuguese:]

(In a smile and in love)

(Let us go walking)

(In our wails and in pain)

You can't buy my life.

THE LAND IS NOT FOR SALE.

Working hard but with pride,

Here we share, what's mine is yours.

These people can't be drowned with tricks.

And if it collapses, I'll rebuilt it.

And I don’t blink when I see you

So that you'll remember my surname.

Operation Condor invading my nest.

[An agreement between right-wing dictatorships in the 1970s, supported by the CIA, that helped South American governments to imprison and torture their citizens who disagreed with government policy]

I forgive but I'll never forget!

(we are walking)

Here, we breathe struggle.

(we are walking)

I sing because it can be heard

(We draw the road as we go).

(We are wakling)

Here we are standing.

Long live Latin America

You can't buy my life.