Category Archives: Latino

El pueblo unido (The People United)

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Download PDF of El pueblo unido
Download PDF of El pueblo unido, arranged for band
Download MuseScore file of El pueblo unido

There are several chants that I feel should be retired. As the Peace Poets say on their website, “Hey, hey, Ho, ho,” has got to go! Also tiresome is, “The people united will never be defeated,” or that’s what I thought until I heard the original version in Spanish. Here, the chant is presented in counterpoint to the really thrilling melody of, El pueblo unido jamas será vencido. Listen to the video below and you will hear what I mean.

I am a sucker for a great melody. It’s all very well to chant and yell, but sometimes letting your real voice out and really singing with your brothers and sisters is a liberation of the soul—the foundation of solidarity.

EL PUEBLO UNIDO

De pie, cantar que vamos’a triunfar.
Avanzan ya banderas a’unidad.
Y tú vendrás marchando junto’a mí
y’a sí verás tu canto’y tu bandera florecer.
La luz de’un rojo’amanecer
anuncia ya la vida que vendrá.

¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

THE PEOPLE UNITED

Stand up and sing for we are going to win.
Advance the flags, the flags of unity.
And you have come to march, to march with me, and thus you’ll see
your songs and banners come to brilliant flower. The light, the light of a red dawn
anouncing now the life that is to come.

The people united will never be defeated! The people united will never be defeated!

I don’t know where or when this video was recorded.

Here is a recording by Inti Illimani. I don’t find it as exciting as the one above, but I had some trouble fitting the words to the melody when I was transcribing this song and here the words are clearer.

O bella ciao

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Download PDF of O bella ciao

(We’ll have a version of O Bella Ciao for band available soon.)

Non violence is in its essence a method of communication by taking down walls and, if possible, making friends with the enemy and convincing them to change their ways. We always hope for that possibility. Often, we can do this work better through music than we can by yelling and arguing. Here‘s an interesting clip from The Tennesseean showing a confrontation at the No Kings demonstration in Nashville between the police, a group from The Proud Boys and a crowd of demonstrators. A lot of protestors were yelling and swearing; but a brass band stepped up and started playing O Bella Ciao. By the end of the song, the tension had dissipated and everybody, even the Proud Boys, were clapping and cheering for the music.

During World War II, this song of resistance was sung by the partisans. It is known and used widely in Europe and Latin America.  But it’s in Italian, not Spanish. O bella ciao is one of those melodies that can be deeply moving while also being adaptable for dancing.

Here is a famous performance of it by the popular Italian singer Milva:

Milva singing O bella ciao
Milva singing O bella ciao

For a totally different take on O bella ciao, here is an scherzando arrangement for band.

If you would like to learn more about the song, try this Wikipedia entry.