Music has always accompanied the march towards a more just society. Our fellow citizens have for decades sung “¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!” to move us and to push our democracy forward.
We’ve made this video as our response to “¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!” We invite you to share your own musical response on social media using the hashtag #BeginWithTheBallot to inspire others to vote and to take any of the following actions.
- Register to vote, check your registration status, and get local election info at headcount.org
- Become a poll worker
- Transport voters to the polls
- Spread this musical call-to-action using the hashtag #BeginWithTheBallot
- Contribute your own musical response to ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!
- Vote before or on November 3 and in your local and state midterm elections beyond
In the spirit of American composer Frederic Rzewski’s The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, we’re inviting all of you in the Alarm Will Sound community to create your own variation on the original song, in the hope of inspiring everyone to vote and to take further action in their communities.
We’d love for you to contribute your own variation (preferably in D minor if it’s in a key). It can take any form: it can be as simple as you performing it in your own style; it can be a more complex arrangement that incorporates other protest or suffrage songs; it can be a creative improvisation inspired by ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido! — anything you’re motivated to do.
The hashtag #BeginWithTheBallot represents our belief that voting is just one step we can take in a democracy that must serve all its citizens fairly.
While the core of our message is unity around the principles of democracy, we understand that voting has complex and contradictory meanings for our fellow citizens. Music is a vehicle for expressing such rich and complicated feelings about the political franchise (or the lack of it). Therefore, we also invite you to add text or video to your musical recording to say what voting means to you and how your variation expresses those feelings.
Questions and comments can be sent to music@alarmwillsound.com
Download the #BeginWithTheBallot motion graphic.
Lyrics by Quilapayún
| De pie, cantar que vamos a triunfar. | Arise, singing because we will win. |
| Avanzan ya banderas de unidad. | Flags of unity are now advancing. |
| Y tú vendrás marchando junto a mí | And you will come marching next to me |
| Y así verás tu canto y tu bandera florecer. | And so you’ll see your song and your flag blossom. |
| La luz de un rojo amanecer | The light of a red dawn |
| Anuncia ya la vida que vendrá. | Already announces the life to come. |
| De pie, luchar, el pueblo va a triunfar. | Arise, fighting, the people will win. |
| Será mejor la vida que vendrá | The life to come will be better |
| A conquistar nuestra felicidad | To conquer our happiness |
| Y en un clamor mil voces de combate se alzarán, | And a clamor of a thousand fighting voices will rise, |
| Dirán canción de libertad, | Chanting a song of freedom, |
| Con decisión la patria vencerá. | With determination the fatherland will win. |
| Y ahora el pueblo que se alza en la lucha | And now the people, who are rising in struggle |
| Con voz de gigante gritando: ¡adelante! | With a giant voice crying out: Forward! |
| ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! |
The people united will never be defeated! The people united will never be defeated! |
| La patria está forjando la unidad, | The fatherland is forging unity, |
| De norte a sur se movilizará | From north to south they’re mobilizing |
| Desde el salar ardiente y mineral | From the salt mines burning and mineral |
| Al bosque austral unidos en la lucha y el trabajo | To the southern forests united in struggle and labor |
| Irán, la patria cubrirán. | They go covering the fatherland. |
| Su paso ya anuncia el porvenir. | Their steps already announce the future. |
| De pie, cantar, el pueblo va a triunfar. | Arise, singing, the people will win. |
| Millones ya, imponen la verdad, | Millions now are imposing the truth, |
| De acero son ardiente batallón, | Their steel battalions are on fire, |
| Sus manos van llevando la justicia y la razón. | Taking in their hands justice and reason. |
| Mujer, con fuego y con valor, | Woman, with fire and courage, |
| Ya estás aquí junto al trabajador. | Is already here alongside the worker. |
| Y ahora el pueblo que se alza en la lucha | And now the people, who are rising in struggle |
| Con voz de gigante gritando: ¡adelante! | With a giant voice crying out: Forward! |
| ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! |
The people united will never be defeated! The people united will never be defeated! |
