Y Ya Estan Por Disparar

Jorge Venegas

JORGE VENEGAS - Y YA ESTAN POR DISPARAR [CHILE, 1980s]

And they’re about to shoot, and they’re about to shoot
They won’t pass, comrades; we won’t let the oppressors enter.”

This is a song by my comrade Jorge about repression during the military dictatorship in Chile and about organizing an underground community of armed resistance. Jorge Venegas was active in the Comites de Autodefensa de Masas (People’s Self-Defense Committees), underground resistance organizations with ties to the Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front (FPMR), itself formed by left-wing factions of the Chilean Communist Party in the 1980s. He has a short book called Camotazo: Un Canto en Rebelion Popular which talks about his experience as a musician during this difficult period, a book from which I was able to grab the song lyrics.

You’ll notice a lot of themes in this song; particularly, the communalism that was necessary for survival, the notion of family to represent that solidarity, and of course, the desire that the armed struggle can be replaced by peace.

Jorge’s music tends to have a sound more reminiscent of North American folk music, with a heavy emphasis on guitar and harmonica (both of which he plays himself, as you can see in the picture). The lyrical content, however, is often quite different: given the nature of the conditions in Chile, his music tends to emphasize hope in difficult times, stories of resistance—armed or otherwise—and denunciation of repression.

No need for a longer intro than this, so here are the lyrics with an English translation at the bottom and I hope you enjoy as always!!

SPANISH:

Al despertar esta mañana, todo es distinto, nada es igual
Había crecido nuestra familia, el indeciso asumiendo va
Habrá que juntar pertrechos, fijar el plan de autodefensa
Cavar pronto las zanjas pa que no entre la autoridad
 
Y ya están por disparar, y ya están por disparar
No pasarán, compañeros; no dejaremos la repre* entrar
 
Compañeras de madrugada organizaban la olla común
Los cabros chicos entusiasmados ponían empeño en la recolección
Crece la fuerza como un gigante, los comités hay que activar
Con la unidad defendemos la vida, nuestra victoria vendrá con la paz
 
ESTRIBILLO
 
Necesario es seguir luchando; no a la pereza, no a la indecisión
La libertad se construye creando, el camino se llama sublevación
 
ESTRIBILLO

ENGLISH:

Upon awaking this morning, everything is different, nothing is the same
Our family has grown, the indecisive have left with their assumptions
We will have to collect our ammunition, set up our defense plan
and dig our trenches quickly so that the authorities can’t enter.

And they’re about to shoot, and they’re about to shoot
They won’t pass, comrades; we won’t let the opressors* enter.

The sisters put together a late night common meal
The enthusiastic young ones put their hearts into collecting food
Our strength grows like a giant, the committees must be activated
With unity we will defend our life, our victory will come along with peace.

CHORUS

We have to keep fighting; no to laziness, no to indecision
Freedom is built by while building, the road is called ‘uprising’

CHORUS

*I presume that “repre” refers to the Chilean military or the Carabineros and is probably short for “represion.”

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Ya No Somos Nosotros

¡Karaxú!

SONG OF THE DAY: ¡KARAXÚ! - YA NO SOMOS NOSOTROS [CHILE, 1974]

“What the hell! The minute I say
that I feel like being free,
they exchange my clothing
for that of a prisoner.”

Hey friends! I’m back after a short hiatus for a new episode of song of the day! As always, I encourage you to look through the whole series and check out some of the many updates.

Today, we’re going to stay with the Chilean nueva cancion tradition and listen to a song by ¡Karaxú!, a group that was formed by famed singer-songwriter Patricio Manns in exile, a year after the 1973 coup d’etat that overthrew President Salvador Allende. Its lineup also included Mariana Montalvo, Franklin Troncoso, Bruno Fléty, Negro Salué, and Negro Larraín. It’s name is said to come from the Spanish word carajo which colloquially translates to damn it but, in context, comes from the work of Ecuadorean poet César Dávila Andrade and refers to a “shout of courage and rebellion.”

¡Karaxú! was known for being politically allied to the MIR (Revolutionary Left Movement), the most radical socialist party during the Allende presidency and the only organization to conduct armed resistance to the military regime of Augusto Pinochet. Before the election of Salvador Allende, MIR had conducted a guerrilla war against the state but demobilized their armed forces to act as a critically-supporting organization for Allende’s Unidad Popular coalition. In turn, Allende gave amnesty to the guerrillas and their leader, Miguel Enriquez (pictured). They resumed guerrilla warfare shortly after Allende was deposed, but were ultimately unsuccessful in defeating the military government.

Ethnomusicologist Jan Fairley notes that while the musicians associated with Unidad Popular (Inti Illimani, Quilapayún, etc.) promoted the idea of organizing solidarity with the people of Chile from their exile, ¡Karaxú! actively solicited both moral and financial support for resistance to the regime. Despite the coup, the MIR chose to keep the majority of its leaders and membership inside the country, and a few years afterward decided to begin what they called retorno, the return of some of its exiled members to assist the insurgency. The plan was ultimately unsuccessful, and the MIR ended up suffering heavy losses of its membership at the hands of the military. Leader Miguel Enriquez was killed in battle in 1974, a few years before the beginning of retorno.

In the album booklet for Chants de la Résistance Populaire Chilienne, ¡Karaxú! prefaces the song Ya No Somos Nosotros (We Are No Longer Ourselves) as such:

Although our lands are rich and fertile, they don’t yield enough to satisfy the needs of the vast majority of Latin Americans. This is because the ownership of the land is concentrated in the hands of a small group The peasant, working from sunup to sundown, barely makes enough to survive.

On July 26, 1971, the peasants of the Revolutionary Peasant Movement (MCR—the peasant branch of the MIR) held a large march which ended with a rally in the southern city of Temuco. Community people, workers and students, all supporters of the MIR, attended the rally. Luciano Cruz spoke in the name of the national secretariat of the MIR, and he said in part:

“Comrades, we must begin a massive campaign to tear down the fences, uniting all Chilean workers throughout the length and breadth of Chile, from the mountains to the sea. And then we’ll construct a package and fill it up with the bosses and the yankees and we’ll hurl it into the sea. We’ll smash them.”

And then he added: “The workers have the right to learn the best possible methods for struggle against the bosses. And it is good that they learn them. Because it will be us workers, all workers, these very workers, who will make the revolution.”

The songs lyrics talk about how the people of Latin America are not what they once were; where they formerly owned the lands they worked, now all the products of their labor go into the pockets of exploiters and imperialists. Written by Patricio Manns in 1972, the song preceded the coup d’etat and thus demonstrates its continental character, as Chile was then undergoing changes to the very structures of subjugation that Manns is referring to while the rest of Latin America, save for Cuba, was under the rule of reactionary governments and military dictatorships.

Musically, we should note that the song is in triple meter (three beats per bar), which signifies immediately that this is not a cueca (always in 6/8 meter), a popular folk genre utilized by ¡Karaxú!. We can also tell by the instrumentation that it is not influenced by the Andean styles common to Chile, which will generally feature a quena, a zampoña, and/or a charango, none of which are present here. This particular song seems to use a more Argentine-inspired sound; the guitar is played in a form more reminiscent of a classical guitar, and the triple meter is likely of European origin, as most indigenous music of the Americas comes in duple and quadruple meter. Overall, all indications are that the song borrows heavily from the chacarera genre of Argentina (including the reference to the chacarera toward the end of the song!).

So let’s get to it then! Here are the lyrics, provided in both English and Spanish for your convenience. I hope you enjoy!

SPANISH:

Aquí donde usted nos ve
como dueños de la tierra
pa’ no morirnos de pobres
pasamos la vida en guerra

Somos pobres, somos ricos?
Nadie sabe lo que somos.
Con las penas de mi pueblo
florecieron los aromos.

Que carajo! Apenas grito
que hay metal en el potrero
que viene el gringo desde el norte
lo saca y deja el agujero.

Que carajo! Apenas grito
que me siento libertario
me cambian la vestimenta
por una de presidario.

La tierra tuvo a mi abuelo,
tuvo a mi padre y a mi madre
y al hijo que nació de ellos
no hay ni perro que la ladre.

Yo defiendo mi derecho
que no es el derecho de otros,
pero que caray! estoy viendo
que ya no somos nosotros.

Ya no somos de este valle,
ya no somos de este monte,
y todo lo que uno labra
se va usted sabe pa’ donde.

Chacarera, chacarera!
Chacarera de mi pago
no me libro de esta plaga
ni por mas fuerza que le hago.

ENGLISH:

Here as you see us,
like the owners of the land,
so as not to die of hunger,
we spend our lives at war.

Are we poor, are we rich?
Nobody knows what we are.
With the sorrows of my people
the myhrr trees bloomed.

What the hell! The minute i say
that there’s metal in the field
the gringo from the north comes,
takes it and leaves a hole.

What the hell! The minute I say
that I feel like being free
they exchange my clothing
for that of a prisoner.

The land begat my grandfather,
begat my mother and father.
Even a dog wouldn’t bark at
the son born to them.

I defend my right
which is not the right of others
but damn, now I see
that we are no longer ourselves.

We are no long from this valley
we are no longer from this mountain
And everything we till
goes you know where.

Chacarera, Chacarera!
chacarera of my reward.
I can’t get rid of this plague
no matter how hard I try.

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