Y Regresaron los Muchachos - Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy
“Si cumplimos con este juramento, seremos hijos dignos de Sandino!” -Comandante Tomás Borge Martínez
23 de agosto de 1980, regresaron los muchachos de alfabetizar a todo un pueblo [nicaragüense] que empendría el comienzo de su liberación ya no con las armas, sino con el papel y los lápices. Honor y gloria a los Héroes y Mártires de la Cruzada Nacional de Alfabetización. El vídeoclip fue realizado por el Periodista Carlos Suárez Aguiar.
La Ceiba | Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy y Grupo Mancotal | A Pesar de Usted | 1985 | Nicaragua
“Desde la tupida cumbre de Kilambé, la ceiba decidió bajar; milenaria mujer, compañera eterna del cedro real!”
Originally featured on the 1980 album Canto Epico al FSLN, La Ceiba is a homage to the ceiba pentandra tree of Nicaragua, which provided cover to the Sandinista guerrillas during their 18-year struggle against the Somoza dictatorship. Its initial release had it positioned as the first of eight songs paying respect to various trees found in the Segovia forest of northern Nicaragua, the historic region that also played host to Augusto C. Sandino’s war of resistance against the US Marines.
This is a super fun song that uses a typically pastoral Nicaraguan lyrical style, which somewhat anthropomorphizes elements of nature; here, the ceiba is conceptualized as an aged woman and companion of the cedro real, which I believe is more commonly known as thecedrela.
The lyrics are embedded so that you can follow along!
A video I just made… Nicaraguan revolutionary folk singer Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy sings about Gaspar Garcia Laviana, a guerrilla priest from Asturias who joined the Sandinistas in fighting the Somoza dictatorship. I embedded the translated lyrics along with some details on lyrical references. Enjoy!
This song is a constant reference point for me when I explain what I mean when I say that revolutionaries need to be politically agile and willing to learn how to “swim in stormy waters.”
In Memorandum Militar 1-79, Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy sings some helpful tips on tactics and strategy mean to be disseminated during the 1979 Nicaraguan insurrection which ultimately overthrew the Somoza dynasty. Since most of the population was illiterate at the time, the Sandinista Front had to find innovative ways to train people to defeat the substantially better-armed National Guard. The Mejia Godoy brothers were like “hey, why don’t we make some songs teaching people how to field strip rifles and shit?” They did, and it was a massive contribution to only the second successful revolution in Latin America, and one of the only revolutions in history to come to power largely via urban insurrection.
The lyrics are built into the video so that you can follow along!
“Aún pequeños, juntos somos un volcán.”
Nació el Niño Negro is a well-known Nicaraguan folk song from the culturally-distinct Atlantic coast, written by David McField and performed by Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy. Its very simple lyrics attempt to draw a parallel in the origins of the Sandinista National Liberation Front [FSLN] and the African-descended people of the southeast region near Bluefields, many of whom have non-Spanish names and speak English or a variant of Jamaican patois.
Fun fact: David McField is the current Nicaraguan ambassador to Jamaica.
Unlike west and central Nicaragua, the Atlantic coast was colonized by the British and remains largely isolated from the rest of the country. Despite the Atlantic coast regions occupying nearly half of the national territory, they contain barely over 10% of the population. This historic separation caused significant problems for the Sandinistas in the 1980s, whose attempts to transform politics in the region created conflicts, particularly with the indigenous people scattered in the northeast.
LYRICS
Nació el niño negro [the Black child was born]
en una barraca [in a little hut]
En una plantación [On a plantation]
nació el Frente de Liberación [the Liberation Front was born]
Aleluya, pan para los pobres [Hallelujah, bread for the poor]
Aleluya, para los ricos [Hallelujah, for the rich]
cabuya con tenedor [cabuya cactus with a fork]
“Convirtiendo la oscurana en claridad, Josefana va, por la costa va. Con un sol en su cartilla de enseñar, Josefana va, por la costa va.”
Nicaraguan musician Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy, along with is band Grupo Mancotal, perform their song Josefana, which is about a brigadista in Nicaragua’s 1980 literacy campaign. In this song, Josefana travels all the way to the Atlantic coast to teach the rural population how to read and write. It’s got a very danceable rhythm and a very upbeat message, so I think you’ll dig it. Enjoy!
Nicaraguan band Los de Palacagüina perform Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy’s song Un Gigante que Despierta [A Waking Giant], inspired by the people of Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast.
The Atlantic coast region of Nicaragua, now known officially as RAAN/RAAS (North/South Atlantic Autonomous Region), is culturally distinct from the Pacific side of the country, with many of its residents speaking either English or the indigenous languages of the Miskito, Suma, and Rama Indians. Unlike the west, the Spanish never conquered eastern Nicaragua and it experienced more contact with the British instead.
The song celebrates this difference, at a time when the ruling Sandinista National Liberation Front—of which Mejia Godoy was a member—was in a sharp conflict with the indigenous peoples of the northeast.
LETRA:
Por esta tierra pasó el pedernal y la miel pasó
El oro, el jade pasó, pero nada se quedó
Solo quedó el duradero residuo de las lenguas
miskitos, sumos y ramas que junto al criollo se quedó
Donde no hubo ciudades, ni templos ceremoniales quedó
solamente se quedó la yuca y el pijebaye quedó
entre blasfemias y rezos del inglés y del español
un país distinto al mío nació en mi propio corazón.
Un gigante que despierta en la costa
Un gigante que ya nada detiene
A la a la a lalalalalala.
TRANSLATION:
Through this land passed flint and honey,
gold, jade, but nothing remained
except the enduring residue of the language
of the miskitos, sumos, and ramas, along with creole
It lasted where there were no cities, no ceremonial temples,
only the yucca and pijebaye remained,
amid prayers and blasphemies in English and in Spanish,
a country distinct from my own was born right in my heart.
A giant is being woken on the coast,
a giant that nothing can hold back,
A la a la a lalalalalala.
![Nicaraguan legend Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy’s 1981 album, Un Son para mi Pueblo [Songs from the new Nicaragua], featuring his group Mancotal. Download here.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luok0fTzxU1qesnz6o1_500.jpg)
Nicaraguan legend Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy’s 1981 album, Un Son para mi Pueblo [Songs from the new Nicaragua], featuring his group Mancotal. Download here.
Front and back cover of Nicaraguan folk singer Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy’s 1972 album, Este es mi Pueblo….
Click the link to go to PERRERAC’s free album download page. No registration, no nonsense.
CARLOS Y LUIS ENRIQUE MEJÍA GODOY - EL REPLIEGUE [NICARAGUA, 1980]
“We were militia combatants beneath the dark night,
women, children, and the elderly, hardened by battle.”
This is a very short [1:29] song commemorating an important event in the 1979 insurrection in Nicaragua which overthrew Anastasio Somoza, known as El Repliegue Táctico de Managua a Masaya. A repliegue táctico refers to a tactical retreat, and on June 
27th in the dead of night combatants left the western neighborhoods of Managua to make the 20 mile trip west to the Nindirí neighborhood of Masaya, which at that point I believe was held by revolutionaries.
I know almost nothing about this event, but I just found this article called ¿Por qué y cómo fue el Repliegue a Masaya? if anybody wants to read about it further, I definitely plan on reading it. The site the article comes from, La Voz del Sandinismo is (I believe) run by the FSLN, so expect a healthy dose of organizational mythology mixed in. For those of you that don’t speak Spanish, maybe I’ll write a summary of it later. Anyway, here are the lyrics to this short song by brothers Carlos and Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy (along with Carlos’ group Los de Palacagüina) in both the original Spanish with an English translation. Enjoy!
Adelante, compañeros!
SPANISH:
No había que pisar ramas ni hacer ruidos con hojas secas
y la orden fue cumplida hasta por la naturaleza
no se oían las chicharras, ni los chayules ni los ronrones,
sólo se oía el latido de todos los corazones
queriendo alcanzar Masaya, queriendo entrar a Masaya,
aquella columna de agua, de sudor y de esperanza,
milicianos combatientes bajo la noche cerrada
mujeres, niños y viejos curtidos por la batalla.
Divisamos Nindirí, territorio liberado,
pero la orden del Frente fue cumplida palmo a palmo,
mantuvimos la cautela para no ser detectados
con su aliento de coraje nos animaba el Santiago.
ENGLISH:
Be careful not to step on branches or rustle dry leaves
and the order was fulfilled even by nature
the cicadas could not be heard, nor the beetles
the only sound was the beat of each one of our hearts
We were wanting to reach Masaya, wanting to enter Masaya,
that column of water, of sweat and of hope,
militia combatants beneath the dark night,
women, children, and the elderly, hardened by battle.
We spotted Nindiri, liberated territory,
but the orders of the Frente were fulfilled inch by inch,
we kept our stealth so as to not be detected,
with his courageous breath, Santiago encouraged us.
LUIS ENRIQUE MEJÍA GODOY - YO SOY DE UN PUEBLO SENCILLO [NICARAGUA, 1983]
“I come from a people who are as simple as the name John,
simple like the love I offer, simple like the love they give me.”
It turns out I did have time to write and post something tonight!
I’ve posted a decent number of songs over the past few months, all of which I think have all been well worth listening to. If there’s going to be any one song lately that I think you absolutely shouldn’t miss, however, it’s this one. It may not be all that impressive musically, but the phenomenal lyrics and hopeful tone will make up for any other shortcomings you may notice.
Translated into English as I Come From a Simple People, this is a song and album from 1983 by Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy. Along with his older brother Carlos, Mejia Godoy was at the forefront of the new cultural movement developed in Nicaragua during the 1980s, taking place under the revolutionary government of the Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional (FSLN). The music of the Mejia Godoy brothers and their respective bands, Mancotal with Luis Enrique and Los de Palacagüina with Carlos, was instrumental in popularizing the revolutionary struggle of the FSLN in the years preceding the 1979 insurrection that forced out Anastasio Somoza Debayle from power. As early as 1972, Luis Enrique was singing songs glorifying Augusto Sandino (see Alla Va el General), the Nicaraguan rogue general whose Ejercito Defensor de la Soberania Nacional (EDSN) led a 6 year resistance to U.S. occupation between 1927-1933 and whose legacy was, at that time, unequivocally associated with the FSLN.
In 1979, in conjunction with the nationwide insurrection, he released Guitarra Armada with his brother Carlos, featuring 11 songs of propaganda, homage, and weapons training for the Frente. The next year they released Canto Epico al FSLN in collaboration with other artists in celebration of the victorious revolution the previous July.
Throughout the 1980s the Mejia Godoy brothers worked in the new Ministry of Culture under the leadership of liberation theologian and renowned poet Fr. Ernesto Cardenal, regularly contributing their talents and fame selflessly to the liberation struggle. Luis Enrique was instrumental in the government’s creation of ENIGRAC, the Nicaraguan Company of Cultural Recordings, which was responsible for releasing over 100 albums of popular (as in people’s, not pop) folk music between 1981 and 1988. Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy himself has composed upward of 300 songs and released 18 albums, many of which are available at PERRERAC for free download.
This particular song speaks of the Nicaraguan people as small and simple, but loving, honorable and rebellious. I think you will really enjoy the poetry in his words, and I provided an English translation at the bottom. Enjoy!
SPANISH:
Y soy de un pueblo pequeño, pequeño como un gorrión
con medio siglo de sueños, de vergüenza y de valor
Yo soy de un pueblo sencillo como la palabra Juan
como el amor que yo entrego, como el amor que me dan
Yo soy de un pueblo nacido entre fusil y cantar
Que de tanto haber sufrido tiene mucho que enseñar
Hermano de tantos pueblos que han querido separar
Porque saben que aun pequeños, juntos somos un volcán!
Yo soy de un pueblo que es poeta y sus versos escribió
En los muros y en las puertas con sangre, rabia y amor
Yo soy de un pueblo orgulloso con mil batallas perdidas
Soy de un pueblo victorioso que aun le duelen las heridas.
Yo soy de un pueblo reciente pero antiguo su dolor
Analfabeta vigente, medio siglo en rebelión
Yo soy el pueblo que un niño en Niquinohomo soñó
Soy del pueblo de Sandino y Benjamín Zeledón
Yo soy de un pueblo sencillo, fraterno y amigo
que siembra y defiende su revolución!
ENGLISH:
I come from a small people, small like a sparrow
with a half century of dreams, of shame and courage
I come from a people who are as simple as the name John,
simple like the love I offer, simple like the love they give me.
I am of a people born of rifles and songs
that, having suffered so much, has much to teach
It is a brother of many peoples, which the enemy tries to separate
Because they know that though we are small, together we are a volcano!
I come from a poetic people which writes its own verses
on walls and doors with blood, rage and love
I come from a proud people with a thousand lost battles
I come from a victorious people that still feels its old wounds.
I am of a new people who suffer old pains,
Currently illiterate, in rebellion for a half century
I am the people dreamed up by a child in Niquinohomo
I come from the people of Sandino and Benjamin Zeledon
I come from a simple people, a brother and friend
that sows and defends its revolution!
Here are Nicaragua’s famed Mejia Godoy brothers, Carlos and Luis Enrique, performing the light-hearted song Panchito Escombros in Managua’s Ruben Dario National Theater. Originally featured on Carlos’ 1973 album Cantos al Flor de Pueblo, it is a story told from the point of view of a fictional, cross-eyed, Nicaraguan man named Francisco Cajina, working in the ‘reconstruction’ of downtown Managua after the devastating 1972 earthquake. President Anastasio Somoza Debayle notoriously stole a significant amount of the foreign aid that came into the country in its aftermath, and also used the opportunity to expand his financial empire into construction, giving his new companies exclusive contracts for rebuilding.
The final lines of the chorus, “Mi nombre es Pancho Cajina pero tengo un mal apodo: por trabajar en las ruinas, me dicen Panchito Escombros” mean “My name is Pancho Cajina but I have a bad nickname: because I work among the ruins, they call me Little Frank Rubble.” Throughout the song, it makes light of the different people he works with who all have equally funny nicknames: “Donkey Face”, “Lion Body”, “Dog Face”, and “Measles”. Giving people humorously cruel nicknames is common throughout Latin America and is generally taken in stride as a term of endearment.
Anyway this is a really great song, definitely check it out. Carlos’ voice has lost a lot of its potency, but his compositions are still masterful and his lyrics sharp. Enjoy!
LYRICS:
Me llamo Francisco y soy medio bizco, me hizo Dios así
A mi me hacen ruedas en las polvaredas del reparto Schick
Quede sin trabajo y “agora” carajo! todo se acabó
Y hace quince días que entre en las cuadrillas de demolición
Y me encontré en la brigada con el Pofi “Cuerpo de León”
Con Porfirio “Cara de Mula” y Venancio “Sarampión”
Coro:
Mi nombre es Pancho Cajina, Managua terremoteado
Y aunque tengo mala espina, yo no soy mal bozaleado
Mi nombre es Pancho Cajina, pero tengo un mal apodo
Por trabajar en las ruinas, me dicen Panchito Escombros
Tuve un ‘rifi-rafa’ con un tipo chafa que es de aquí no mas
Por su “cara de perro” fue que lo escogieron como capataz
El mentado clinche fue por un bochinche que inventó el jayán
Porque en los escombros con tremendo asombro divise un collar
Un collar de fantasía que le quiero regalar
A la Pilucha Bonilla, mi mujer del oriental
Coro
En el alboroto de este terremoto todo lo perdí
Perdí mi casita que era tan bonita de la Tenderí
Me puse contento cuando supe el cuento que iban a venir
muchas toneladas de carne enlatada para mi país
‘Pero siempre a la sardina se la come el tiburón’
‘El que tiene más galillo siempre traga más pinol’
Coro
Two of the best people’s singers in Latin American history: Silvio Rodríguez of Cuba (L) and Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy of Nicaragua (R).
“Y allá va el General con su batallón, rojinegro pañuelo lleva en el cuello, rumbo al Chipotón. Y allá va el General bajando Estelí… “Patria o muerte!” repiten los campesinos del Wiwilí.”
-Luis Enrique Mejia Godoy, Alla Va el General, a homage to Augusto Cesar Sandino, leader of Nicaragua’s Ejercito Defensor de la Sobernia Nacional.
“And there goes the General with his battalion, a red-and-black kerchief around his neck on the way to Chipotón. And there goes the General descending from Estelí… “Homeland or Death!” shout the peasants of Wiwilí.”
Latin American revolutionary music, chavismo, Nicaraguan history, and other communist musings.
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