Don't Forget The Lyrics! - Rebelion

Do you know what the lyrics of the song you are dancing to, really means?

by Catherine

So often, we dance to songs in Union without knowing what the lyrics really mean because unfortunately we did not grow up listening to Latin music neither is Spanish the first language for most of us.

So a kind friend of mine, who is a native Spanish speaker and actually grew up listening to the music we groove to at Union, agreed to help translate some songs and shed some light. This is the first of the "Don't Forget The Lyrics!" section in this blog. This has no relation to the TV show.

Please excuse any grammatical errors and so on...they were probably lost in translation *laughs*


This is a song that I believe most of you would have heard of and danced to. It has a joyous, almost celebratory tone to the music but wait till you see what the lyrics really mean.




Rebellion (Don’t Hit My Woman)
by Joe Arroyo


I want to tell you my brother, a little bit of the (1) black history, our history, gentleman

And it goes like this:

Uhh!
Says!

During the 1600’s, when the tyrant ruled
In the Cartagena streets, this story witnessed
When the african slaves arrived, chained
Kissing our land, perpetuous slavery

Perpetuous slavery
Perpetuous slavery

Say it, Salome

An African couple, and his Spanish master
Who mistreated them, hit his wife

And then, the brave slave rebelled
Taking revenge for his love
And you still can hear in the fields his cry
“Don’t hit my woman”

Don’t hit my woman!
Don’t hit my woman!
Hey man!!
Don’t hit my woman!
No, no, no ,no, no, no,
No, no, no, no, no, no

You respect my woman!
You still can hear it, hear it in the fields
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, don’t hit my woman


Translation notes:
1: Black history refers to the african slaves who came to america after the spanish conquest.
2: He actually says la negra, which literally translates into black woman, but in Latin America is used as a some sort of pet names men give to women (usually their girlfriends and/or wives)


Now, wouldn't you see this song in a slightly different light the next time you dance to it?

Thanks a lot to maggz, who took the time out to do this :)


Video credits: youtube rax2099