La cárcel de Cananea
La cárcel de Cananea (Spanish: "Cananea jail") is a corrido (Mexican ballad) written in 1917 commemorating the Cananea Strike that took place in the Mexican mining town of Cananea, Sonora, in June 1906.[https://folkways.si.edu/heroes-and-horses-corridos-from-the-arizona-sonora-borderlands/latin-world/music/album/smithsonian Heroes and Horses: Corridos from the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands (Smithsonian Folkways)]
[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/06/03/101780343.html?pageNumber=2 "WENT AGAINST ORDERS; Governor of Arizona Warned Capt. Rynning and Other Americans"], New York Times, June 3, 1906. It has been produced in numerous versions, including one by Linda Ronstadt[http://www.mariachi4u.com/lyrics/LacarceldeCananea.htm Title: La cárcel de Cananea, Composer/Artist: Linda Ronstadt]
on her album Canciones de mi padre, released in 1987.
English translation
I am going to recount to you all what happened to me, (2x)
They've taken me prisoner for being an oft-played fighting cock. (2x)
I went to Agua Prieta to see who would recognize me, (2x)
And at eleven o'clock that night, the police apprehended me. (2x)
The officers* grabbed me in the gringo style, (2x)
Like a wanted fugitive, all of them with pistols in their hands. (2x)
The jail of Cananea is situated up on a mesa, (2x)
Where I was "processed" because of my careless blunder. (2x)
A farewell I do not give because I do not carry it here. (2x)
I leave it to the Holy Child and the Lord of Mapimí. (2x)
(*) In different versions of the song, the word "officers" is "gendarmes" or "sheriffes".
In the previous verse, the word "police" is always "policía".
External links
- A short audio clip provided by the Smithsonian Institution can be heard [http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/?query=Cananea here].
- A longer audio clip of the same track can be heard [https://web.archive.org/web/20040731044856/http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/projects/mariachi04/media/index.html here]
References
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Category:Songs with unknown songwriters
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