Music Performance: “Bracero” by David Spener
Phil Ochs’ Bracero
Translation & Performance by David Spener
Introduction
Here is a new Spanish version of an old English-language song that you might appreciate: Phil Ochs’ “Bracero,” from 1963. I translated the song into Spanish to sing to my Chilean compañeros when I was there earlier in the year. Ochs had a special connection to Chile, having visited the country in 1971, where he was befriended by Victor Jara. My version is a fairly faithful translation, approved by Chilean singer-songwriters who helped me with it, with something of a huapango rhythm on guitar. Attached find an mp3 made on a hand held digital recorder in my bedroom and a sheet with lyrics in English and Spanish. – David Spener
PLAY > “BRACERO” SUNG BY DAVID SPENER
“BRACERO” > ENGLISH TEXT & SPANISH TRANSLATION
David Spener is a sociologist who works principally on Latino and Latin American issues at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. A singer/songwriter in his younger years, he currently is studying the role played by song in movements for social justice in the Americas in the final decades of the twentieth century.