Guantanamera: Playing For Change

by PPN Staff

The Guantanamera Song originated as a serenade dedicated to a guajira guantanamera (“peasant woman from the city of Guantánamo”) and has as its background the independence struggles that inflamed Cuba in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (in that period first a Spanish colony and later a US colony). The romantic character of the Guantanamera Song, combined with the patriotic values it expresses, make it one of the most loved songs by Cubans. The refrain of the song “Guantanamera” refers to the Cuban territory of Guantánamo, which since 1898 has been occupied to the United States of America, which established a military base and a prison there.

The refrain … refers to the Cuban territory of Guantánamo.

The better known “official” lyrics are based on selections from the poetry collection Versos Sencillos (Simple Verses) by Cuban poet and independence hero José Martí.

The four verses of the song were adapted from four stanzas of Versos Sencillos, each from a different poem.

The music for the Guantanamera song is sometimes also attributed to Joseíto Fernández, who claimed to have written it at various dates (consensus puts 1929 as its year of origin), and who used it regularly in one of his radio programs.

Guantanamera

I’m an honest man
From where the palm trees grow
I’m an honest man
From where the palm trees grow
And before I die I want
to let my verses out of my soul