Su nombre, Ho Chi Minh (Your Name, Ho Chi Minh)

Annotation

LP of songs released by the Experimental Sound Collective of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Arts and Industries (ICAIC), which featured some of the most prominent artist in the Nueva canción latinoamericana movement, including Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Noel Nicola, Sara González, Emiliano Salvador, and Pablo Menéndez. Released in the US on Paredon Records (# P-1010), founded by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber in 1969, whose objective was to "seek out the music and speech, documentary or dialogue, that spring from the conscious artist who relates to people's movements, and which pour from all people in struggle".1 This record label released several albums either about the Vietnam War or that contained a Vietnam War song, which are discussed on this list, see the note below. Also note that in 1969 Dane and Sliber published the book "The Vietnam Song Book" which included the notation and lyrics of one hundred anti-war songs collected from around the world. It featured the song "Su nombre' Ho Chi Minh (Your Name, Ho Chi Minh)". The lyrics were composed by poet Félix Pita Rodríguez, born on 18 February 1909 in Bejucal, Havana, Cuba. He died in 1990 in Havana, Cuba. The music was written by Pablo Milanés - born on 24 February 1943 in Bayamo, Granma, Cuba. It took a North Vietnamese patriotic position, as suggested in the title, praising the leadership of the country's leader Ho Chi Minh, calling him the "quiet Vietnamese farmer".1Sources1What Now People, Vol. 1 - Paredon 2001↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Because you President Ho Chi Minh / Poet Ho Chi Minh / Quiet Vietnamese farmer / Ho Chi Minh, have spent seventy-seven years in struggle / Your whole life / Because you have given up being all you names / A voice, a breath, a glance, to be only, and nothing / Less than, the earth, blood and bones of your homeland / Because of all these things, and many others which cannot be / Imprisoned in cages of words / And because for you the dignity of man is more important than bread / More important than glory / More important than ones own survival / Your name Ho Chi Minh / Can be put to verse / Poets can sing to you / As one sings to the sea and to the mountains / Because to sing to you, Presidente, poet, farmer / Is to sing to the beautiful and tormented land of Vietnam / That no longer has the shape of a bamboo pole / With a basket at either end / But the glorious shape of the only door which one can enter...

About the artist

he lyrics were composed by poet Félix Pita Rodríguez, born on 18 February 1909 in Bejucal, Havana, Cuba. He died in 1990 in Havana, Cuba. The music was written by Pablo Milanés - born on 24 February 1943 in Bayamo, Granma, Cuba.

Themes

Anti-War · Ho Chi Minh · Vietnamese Patriotic · Vietnamese Perspective

In collections

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