El Preso
Fruko y sus Tesos · 1975 · written by Álvaro Velásquez, from the album El Grande
A man facing thirty years in a cell sings about a world with no sky, and it became one of the best-loved salsa songs in Colombia.
The story
1.His world
A prisoner describes the world he lives in now: the same few corners, day after day, and darkness.
2.No sky
For him there's no sky anymore: no moon, no stars, no sun.
3.His mother
What he has left are his memories of his mother. Everyone else seems to have forgotten him.
4.Thirty years
He has lost all hope. With thirty years to serve, the only thing he sees waiting for him is death.
Key phrases
- “Para mí, no existe el cielo”For me, the sky doesn't existCielo means both sky and heaven: he's lost both.
- “Perdí toda esperanza”I lost all hopeThe line at the center of the chorus.
- “Solo me espera la muerte”Only death awaits meNot a threat but a resignation: the only way out he can see.
- “treinta años de condena”A thirty-year sentenceCondena is a prison sentence, and also a damnation.
Context
Fruko y sus Tesos was the salsa band of Julio Ernesto “Fruko” Estrada, a bassist and producer at Discos Fuentes in Medellín. El Preso came out on the album El Grande in 1975, sung by Wilson “Saoko” Manyoma.
The band's percussionist, Álvaro Velásquez, wrote it after a letter from a friend told him about another friend of theirs, locked up for thirty years on a drug charge.
Fruko called it a world anthem of salsa, and it's still one of the best-loved songs in Colombia.
On the dance floor
Salsa's great paradox: a song about despair on a bright, driving groove. Dance the rhythm, and let the words give your dancing some weight.
In the montuno the coro keeps repeating the prisoner's lament while Saoko improvises around it, and the band pushes harder each round.
This is our own retelling of the song, not its lyrics or a translation of them: the few short phrases quoted are there to explain what they mean. The song belongs to its writer, Álvaro Velásquez.