Viva Zapata

Lyrics

[Verse 1} What would you do if the news came through They've stolen your village's land And they say they'll kill any man dares to complain? Stony field by stony field The haciendado's plan Is to bury us all in the rich man's sugar cane When you see your friends and neighbors hang like earrings from the trees Does it make you think they're playing a game of bluff? Isn't it better to die on your feet than to live upon your knees? 400 years of bondage, that's enough [Chorus} Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! [Verse 2} Zapata, true as steel Champion of the poor To the marrow up my bones I am your man We're the dispossessed and dangerous With nothing left to lose And it's time to put a gun in every hand What good is peace and plenty if it's not for one and all? For this ideal, we fought side by side Though society condemns us now, history will prove Our actions will be justified [Chorus] Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! [Verse 3] Oh why did you go to Chinameca That fatal April day? That wasn't the way that a cautious man behaves? The traitor, Guajardo Carranza, González too I hope they rest uneasy in their graves Oh the bugler blew three icy blasts, Zapata crossed the square Dismounting at the threshold of the door And the guard of honor raised their guns and shot him in the back Such honor was seldom seen before [Chorus} Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! [Verse 4} Now many's the folks in the southlands Will look at you kind of strange And say that they don't believe that he ever died They'll talk about a nervous horse Way up in the mountain range And they swear to you they've seen Zapata ride And the guns go off like thunder and the bullets fall like hail Bodies lie as far as the eye can see For many's the brave man went to fight and many's the brave man fell For the sake of land and sweet liberty [Chorus} Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata! Viva Zapata!