The Pachuco Hymn—Repair the wall and show the PH the door

Note: This is The second in the “Mending Walls” series, and is being crossposted at The Real Ugly American. Some of the following may depart a bit from Rick’s personal views. I know we have a few differences on rthe practical limits of immigration enforcement, for example. But this post is not about a border fence or wall, but walls and fences of a different kind. And yes, this does devolve into something of a rant.

You figure out from what follows where the walls need to be erected, where old walls need to be repaired and who needs to be shown the door and have a swift boot up their ass on the way out. The only way, now, I fear, to repair the walls, build up proper protections for American culture and even simply provide protectionm for our nation is to start simply, plainly and bluntly throwing the stupidity and the insults back in the faces of the invaders, the corrupters, the destroyers. never back down. No compromises. Hard lines.

Yeh, it’s all over the place. Even CNN and Fox have taken note! *heh* Seems some reconquistadores think rewriting our National Anthem is just hunky dory. No, not just translating it into Spanish. Uh-uh. That isn’t enough of an insult for them. They have to change the words and still claim it’s our national Anthem… only in kinda hip-hop-reggae-mariachi-rap drag.

But it’s not just insulting.

Here’s the real thing. Click on the mp3 file and sing along, if you want. (You’ll need to restart the mp3 file for each verse you want to sing with, though.)

First Verse

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Second Verse

On the shore, dimly seen thro’ the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream;
‘Tis the Star-Spangled Banner, O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Third Verse

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Fourth Verse

Oh, thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, “In God is our trust”
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

(Do note the lines with emphasis added.)

Not so the “Pachuco Hymn”… witness the dazzling wonder of its departure from translation to insulting parody:

Oh say can you see a la luz de la aurora
Lo que tanto aclamamos la noche al caer?
Sus estrellas, sus franjas flotaban ayer
En el fiero combate en senal de victoria,
Fulgor de lucha, al paso de la libertada,
Por la noche decian: “Se va defendiendo!”

OK, apart from the lame English intro (apparently the writers of the Pachuco Hymn can’t translate the first five words), the first verse is not all that far off (apart from being a slap in the face to millions of legal immigrants from all over the globe who have learned English, become Americans and forsaken allegiance to foreign lands):

Oh say can you see to the light of the aurora
What as much we acclaimed when the night was falling?
Their stars, their strips floated yesterday
In the fierce combat in signal of victory,
Dazzling splendor of fight, to the passage of the freed one,
At night they say: “it is defended”

Apart from needing to descend into Slanglish with “fulgor” it’s not terrible, just not very good. What? There’s no way to say “dawn’s early light” in Spanish? “Aurora” carries none of the context of the Francis Scott Key lyrics’ historical context. Apart from that, well, the translation into Spanish is just… lame, subliterate, and thus ultimately disrespectful.

But then… but then come the words,

Chant:

It’s time to make a difference the kids, men and the women
Let’s stand for our beliefs, let’s stand for our vision
What about the children los ninos como P-Star
These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws.
See this can’t happen, not only about the Latins.
Asians, blacks and whites and all they do is adding
more and more, let’s not start a war
with all these hard workers,
they can’t help where they were born.

OK, every damned part of that constitutes fightin’ words. There’s more, but every bit of it is absolutely disgusting. If your blodd pressure’s still managable, you can see the rest of the abortion at Hot Air.

What about the real thing? Well, it wasn’t exactly written to help finance invading forces as the Pachuco Hymn has been… (h.t. Michelle Malkin)

On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title “Defense of Fort M’Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy._*_

How about, as a baby step in “repairing the wall”—reasserting the real National Anthem—we do three things:

1. Go hunting for some nice lil Mexican (buy them during the May 1 “boycott”) flags and a neighborhood with Latinos
2. Plan a lil demonstration on the Fifth of May featuring a lil parade through a Latino neighborhood waving some burning Mexican flags and
3. Singing altered words to the Mexican Hymn (Mexican National Anthem)?

My Wonder Woman says the last step is a bit too far, but I disagree… Besides, the words to the Mexican Hymn as it stands now are stupid, silly, lame. It NEEDS some help! See for yourself:

Mexicanos, al grito de guerra El acero aprestad y el bridón; y retiemble en sus centros la tierra Al sonoro rugir del cañón.	Mexicans, at the cry of battle prepare your swords and bridle; and let the earth tremble at its center at the roar of the cannon.
Ciña oh patria! tus sienes de oliva De la Paz el arcángel divino, Que en el cielo tu eterno destino Por el dedo de Dios se escribió.	Oh fatherland Your forehead shall be girded with olive garlands, by the divine archangel of peace For in heaven your eternal destiny has been written by the hand of God.

Now, are those lame lyrics or what? (Certainly not “or what”–yep. Lame they are.)

So, just being the helpful kinda guy I am, here are some improved lyrics—in English—to help the poor re”conquis”tardos out:

Pachucos, at the signs of trouble,
Quickly run the other way.
Flee, flee North, away from Mexico
Because our Mexico is lame.

Leave Mexico for a better land
But take your falied land with you,
Make the new land you flee to
As lame as Mexico is.

There. It’s not much, but it’s certainly better than the Pachuco Hymn poorly translated and written by re”conquis”tardos and American Quislings OR the dumbass Mexican Hymn. And at least it has the virtue of being more truthful than either the Pachuco Hymn or the Mexican Hymn.

So, what are you doing to celebrate the fifth of May?

🙂

Manning the barricades at Stop the ACLU, Stuck On Stupid, The Uncooperative Blogger and Rhymes With Right.