Ojo por Ojo (eye for an eye)
“A very hard song written at a very hard time, during the long curfew nights in early November 2019. The song channels the rage and anger felt after police abuse which has resulted in over 350 people losing their eyes, some of them having lost both eyes and becoming blinded for life.”
Nano Stern
A rough translation of lyrics……
An eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth.
People are angry
and the street shows it.
An eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth.
The bullets you fire
will return, Mr. President.
There´s lots of anger in the street
and in the street there’s lots of people
and it’s the people that demand
that the president leaves.
Goddam the hour
in which a greedy merchant
declared war
on his own people.
Troy is burning,
and how wouldn’t it,
when so many have so little
and those who have it all
also have the armed forces.
How blind do you have to be
not to realize that the people have awoken
when they go on with their struggle
dead after dead, blind after blind.
Enough murders,
enough repressing us with bullets,
we don’t want any more soldiers
or shooting in the classrooms,
Over a million people said in the Alameda
We are not afraid anymore
of the cops or the curfews.
The weeping of our voices is loaded with hope
and that, you should all know,
is non-negotiable.
An eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth.
People are angry
and the street shows it.
An eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth.
The bullets you fire
will return, Mr. President.