The region of Los Monegros (a name that come out of the joining of montes –mounts- and negros –black-: the “Blackmounts”) is a land of Aragon, between Zaragoza and Huesca. Most of the region is badlands. In 1976, the folk duo from Aragon, La Bullonera (bullonera means a drain hole in bowls and jars), formed by Javier Maestre and Eduardo Paz, recorded in 1976, in their first LP La Bullonera, this song, written by Maestre and the great Aragonese songwriter José Antonio Labordeta, vindicating a help to the abandonated and humble Los Monegros land. The song has the form of a traditional Aragonese jota de ronda: a style in which the young men sing to the girls they like:
Listen the original version: http://www.goear.com/listen/4d812a7/me-dicen-que-no-quieres-la-bullonera
Me dicen que no quieres
Me dicen que no quieres
que te cortejen,
pienso que lo que quieres
es que te festejen;
que te festejen tierra
de los Monegros,
pues al paso que vamos
todo p’a yermos.
Todo p’a yermos, oye,
que te lo digo,
que de los pobres nunca
hay un amigo.
Hay un amigo siempre
de los más ricos,
y a esos les llevan agua
y cordericos.
También les llevan hombres
de los baldíos,
que con el agua cerca
se van del sitio.
Hay que coger al Ebro
y otros ríos,
y aplacar con sus aguas
tantos estíos,
tantos estíos bestias
que han hundido
a los Monegros secos,
casi perdidos,
casi perdidos, pero
todos unidos
vamos a aupar la tierra,
pues no han vencido.
De esta tierra hermosa,
dura y salvaje,
haremos un hogar
y un paisaje.
letra: José Antonio Labordeta y Javier Maestre
música: La Bullonera
They tell me you don’t want
They tell me yo don’t want/ to be courted,/ I think that what you want/ is to be celebrated;// to be celebrated land/ of Los Monegros,/ because the rate we are going/ all goes into wilderness.// All goes into wilderness, hear me,/ so I’m telling you,/ because never there’s a friend/ of the poors.// There is always a friend/ of the richest,/ and to those they bring them water/ and little lambs.// Also they bring them men/ from the wastelands,/ who with the water near/ they go away from this place.// It musts to take the Ebro/ and other rivers,/ and placate with their waters/ too much summers,// too much brute summers/ that wrecked/ to the dried Los Monegros,/ almost irreparable,// almost irreparable, but/ all united/ we’re going to praise up the land,/ because they haven’t won.// Of this beautiful land,/ hard and wild,/ we shall make a home/ and a lanscape.
La Zamarra de Gustavo 