La ballada de Ho Chi Minh

Annotation

Rolando Alarcón, born on 5 August 1929 in Sewell, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile. He died on 4 February 1973 at the age of 43. He was member of the Chilean folk group Conjunto Cuncumén. A key member of the Nueva canción latinoamericana in Chile, he was highly respected in Chile, an influential folklorist and composer. He released the 1971 album Por Cuba y Vietnam about the Vietnam War, discussed below.This album included a Spanish-language adaptation of the Ewan McCall song "La ballada de Ho Chi Minh", which paid tribute to the North Vietnamese leader. The back of the LP said: "There was a time not far away, in which folklore song was the passion of some and the obsession of others. But these and those will ignore that the folkloric song should run hand in hand with the evolution and events of the peoples, with the dreams of men and women who people the world, with the history that is usually written with song ... words as huge as the voice of their own destiny, Vietnam, Cuba, country and desperate war, massacre, anxiety, longing for a better world" (Spanish "Hubo un tiempo no lejano, en que la cancioon folklore fue la pasion de algunes yu la obsession de etros. Pero estos y aquellos ignororan que la cancion folklores debla correr a la par con el devenir y acontecer de los pueblos, con los suedos de hombres y mujeres que pueblos el mundo, con la historia que suele escrib con song...Y sue voces y palabres tan enormes como el vocio de su propio destino, Vietnam, Cuba, pas y guerra desesperansa, masacre, ansiedad, anhello de un monde mejor"). The English lyrics of the song praise the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, in his "fight for freedom" for the Indo-Chinese people against the "enemy and against the invader". It described how fourteen men became a hundred, and then thousands.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music

Rolando Alarcón, born on 5 August 1929 in Sewell, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile. He died on 4 February 1973 at the age of 43. He was member of the Chilean folk group Conjunto Cuncumén. A key member of the Nueva canción latinoamericana in Chile, he was highly respected in Chile, an influential folklorist and composer. He released the 1971 album Por Cuba y Vietnam about the Vietnam War, discussed below. This album included a Spanish-language adaptation of the Ewan McCall song "La ballada de Ho Chi Minh", which paid tribute to the North Vietnamese leader. The back of the LP said: "There was a time not far away, in which folklore song was the passion of some and the obsession of others. But these and those will ignore that the folkloric song should run hand in hand with the evolution and events of the peoples, with the dreams of men and women who people the world, with the history that is usually written with song ... words as huge as the voice of their own destiny, Vietnam, Cuba, country and desperate war, massacre, anxiety, longing for a better world" (Spanish "Hubo un tiempo no lejano, en que la cancioon folklore fue la pasion de algunes yu la obsession de etros. Pero estos y aquellos ignororan que la cancion folklores debla correr a la par con el devenir y acontecer de los pueblos, con los suedos de hombres y mujeres que pueblos el mundo, con la historia que suele escrib con song...Y sue voces y palabres tan enormes como el vocio de su propio destino, Vietnam, Cuba, pas y guerra desesperansa, masacre, ansiedad, anhello de un monde mejor"). The English lyrics of the song praise the North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, in his "fight for freedom" for the Indo-Chinese people against the "enemy and against the invader". It described how fourteen men became a hundred, and then thousands.

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Beyond, where the sun rises / On the land and in the gulf / The father of the Indochinese people lives / A people that fights alongside Ho Chi Minh / Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh / Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh / In Saigon the mountain roars / And the valleys are silent / Because the young and the old peasant / They fight for freedom for their Vietnam / Ho Chi Minh was a sailor / Who one afternoon came back happy / And found that his people were sad / Sad was not Ho Chi Minh's hope / Ho Chi Minh went to the mountain / And his people also marched / And he dreamed that his land was free / Against the enemy and against the invader / And it grew like a giant sea / Hundreds and thousands alongside Ho Chi Minh / Soldiers flourished for the people / To give freedom, for the Viet Minh / "Freedom" the flags shout / And in the jungle a song is heard / It is the people who march to victory / Peace and freedom will be for Vietnam __________ Spanish: Más allá, donde el sol levanta / En la tierra y en el golfín / Vive el padre del pueblo de Indochina / Un pueblo que lucha junto a Ho Chi Minh / Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh / Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh / En Saigón la montaña ruge / Y los valles en silencio están / Porque el joven y el viejo campesino / Luchan por la libertad para su Vietnam / Ho Chi Minh era un marinero / Que una tarde regresó feliz / Y encontró que su pueblo estaba triste / Triste no era la esperanza de Ho Chi Minh / Ho Chi Minh se fue a la montaña / Y su pueblo también marchó / Y…

Notes

Spanish-language adaptation of the Ewan McCall song The Ballad of Ho Chi Minh

About the artist

born on 5 August 1929 in Sewell, Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, Chile. He died on 4 February 1973 at the age of 43. He was member of the Chilean folk group Conjunto Cuncumén.

Themes

Anti-War · Ho Chi Minh · First Indo-China War · Saigon · Vietnamese Perspective · Vietnamese Patriotic

In collections

Latin & Central American, & Caribbean Music · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]