The
Good Ship Grandma
The lies at anchor in the harbor
Waiting for the evening tide
to bring high water
It's bound for Cuba
She must go across the Gulf of Mexico
and the Caribbean Ocean
She's carrying a human cargo,
eighty -three good compañeros,
each one learning with determination
to be free.
Against Batista, the Fidelistas.
Courage was their only armour
as they fought at feet outside with
Che Guevara.
Ten days out from Mexico,
these compañeros
Landed on the Cuban beach,
Los Colorado's
And Fidel said,
this year we'll see our country
and its people free,
or else we will be martyrs
We've only guns enough for twenty,
the enemy has arms of plenty,
beat him then, defeat
And they'll keep us well -supplied
Against Batista, the Fidelistas
Carriz was their only armor
As they fought at Fidel's side
with Che Guevara
Five weeks later in the canyon del Ar royo
The People's Army, Number 18,
Compañeros.
Hungry, weak, but unafraid.
They're learning revolution's trade
In the high Sierra Maestra.
And in the mountains winds are blowing,
Bearing seeds of hope and sowing crops
In Cuban earth that mark
the birth of victory.
They fought their
way
across the peak of El Turquino.
Joined by peasant bands
and men from Santiago
They faced Batista's tanks and planes
And drove them down into the plains
From the high Sierra Maestra
They drove the gangsters from La Silla
Straight across the Cordillera
Santa Clara fell to Che Guevara
an d was free.
Against Batista, the Fidelistas,
courage was their only arm, honest.
They fought at Fidel's side
with Che Guevara.
The fire lit on that Cuban beach
by Fidel Castro
Shines all the way to Chiaradel,
Fuego Sparks are blown upon the breeze
And men rise up from
off their knees
When they see the night is burning
It blazes up in Venezuela, Bolivia,
and Guatemala lights the road the
men must go in order to be free.
En compañeros, Americanos,
for a people's free
America, Fidel has shown
the way with Che Guevara.
you