On the corners together you'll find us 'Neath the streetlights at midnight we're there Our spirits like smoke that blows through the night Restless but going nowhere
Trouble is all we can give you But trouble is all we have known Our lives like water that runs through our hands Leaving us unloved and alone
Our fathers, you say, were just like us; Our children will all be the same - Hair like black leather and skin brown as wood, Speaking some low Spanish name.
Remember the mothers who gave us our lives, Like grass in the spring of their years? And left us behind with hearts light as wine, Their breasts undissolved in our tears.
The things that I do are all very bad things; I do them and then don't know why. You hold up your children with blue or brown eyes And say they're much better than I.
My friends, they too all despise me I do all the wrong they had planned And all that I have for the years of my life Is a cross that I've carved on my hand
You put me in jail behind iron bars, You'll find me with blood on my hands And tomorrow I'll stand up in front of the guns And I'll give you the life you demand
But tonight, as you sit at your table, With your wife and your child close by, Remember this corrido my young blood has made. And now, mi amigos, goodbye