Cuando Salí de Cuba

Cuando Salí de Cuba - A Song of Exile
                                                             KENNETH E. HALL        SEPTEMBER 11, 2018     HOUSTON

From the Sandpipers album "Softly as I Leave You":

"It's the dream of every man to go back to the land where he was born;
And that's how it is with me.  
Every night I say a silent prayer for the day when I can go home again—
To feel the warm, morning sun, 
And to walk where I used to run. 
Many things can keep a man and his homeland apart,
But the years and the miles can't change what is in a man's heart, 
And someday, somehow, I will go back to the land I love."


It was October 26, 1967, and I had just turned 16. I was living in New Orleans and was just beginning to explore the wide world of music that exists outside of the USA. To be sure, the first examples of "foreign" music would arrive to my ears in a watered-down and quite Americanized form, but that did not prevent the essence of that music from touching me, peaking my interest, and causing me to reach out further and further - always seeking more and different sounds. 

The later Sixties was an era of many and varied forms of music, and it was all happening at the same time. There was rock, folk-rock, country, EZ-listening, pop, soul, blues, jazz, and other forms that sometimes are hard to categorize. Why must we always put music into categories, anyway??

In the "pop" genre, I guess, there came a group called The Sandpipers. They covered hit songs, but toned them down to soft, mellow harmony with orchestral backup. My grandmother liked this group very much, and saw that I did, too, so she began giving me Sandpiper albums for Christmases and birthdays. Little did she know the effect this would have on me.

The Sandpipers in a way mirrored the all-to-brief "open-minded" period of the mid- to late Sixties, a time before the all-powerful juggernaut of ROCK slammed all doors of musical diversity shut and riveted and welded them closed - perhaps forever. 

The Sandpipers not only sang American songs, they also performed "foreign" ones, and actually sang them in "foreign" languages!! This practice was a continuation of international hits made by folk groups. It later became taboo as xenophobic Americans retreated inward into a concrete ROCK bunker!!!

As I mentioned, for my birthday in 1967 I got one of the Sandpipers record albums, "Softly as I Leave you". The first cut featured an exile's lamentation for his lost land.  I listened to the strange song, written about Cuba by an Argentine and backed up by what sounds suspiciously like the *Tijuana Brass Band! It was about as Cuban as "I Love Lucy" - so I have some 'splainin' to do: although the author was not Cuban and the overall sound was Cali-Mexican, the MESSAGE was what was important, and the words were paraphrased into English so that that it would reach the ears of English speakers.

This was during a time of the great exodus from Cuba: From 1960 to 1979, hundreds of thousands of Cubans left the island, and most thought it would be a temporary departure. As their stay dragged on and the years went by, it was clear to most that the Cuban influx would be something more permanent than simple "exile." This song sings about the Cuban HEART - that which was in them before they left, and about that same heart which remains buried in the palm-lined beaches of Cuba. They may have reached a foreign shore for refuge, but the love they had for their native land will go on no matter what - only from afar.

It is for this reason that this song became a big hit within the Cuban Exile community in 1967-1968. though not necessarily by the Sandpipers.

There is a saying which I often quote: "What's bred in the bone, you cannot knock out of the flesh." What you once were is what you are and what you WILL be - regardless of your circumstances, and you should admit to that fact and accept it. Cuando Salí de Cuba contains the essence of this saying.

I listened to this song so many times it is a wonder I did not wear out the record!! But I thought: If there are people who feel like this, they must be deeply patriotic. I wanted to get to know them, their music, and their culture better, so I set off to the local record shops in search of the true Cuban sound - and found it and more - so much more!

Over the years I began to understand the Cuban Exile experience - to see things through their eyes, as it were. I listened to their stories and songs, and realized that when a person leaves his or her native land, so much comes, but so much is left behind. Cuba is only 90 miles from the U.S., but it might as well be on the other side of the world, if those born there cannot return to it. 

Many years later, I found myself living in Houston - far away from my native New Orleans. It was not too far away - only 300 miles - and I could go home to visit. Then Hurricane Katrina hit, and flooded and destroyed so much of what I loved about that city, that what I remember as a youth is hardly recognizable. I realize that now I, too, am an exile in time and place, and know what it is like to live far away from a place I can never ever really call home again - but I do call home in my heart. 

 Here are the words in Spanish: 

Nunca podré morirme 
Mi corazón no lo tengo aquí 
Alguién me está esperando 
Me está aguardando que vuelva aquí

Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé mi vida dejé mi amor 
Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé enterrado mi corazón

Late y sigue latiendo 
Porque la tierra vida le da 
Pero llegará un día 
En que mi mano te alcanzará

Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé mi vida dejé mi amor 
Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé enterrado mi corazón

Una triste tormenta 
Te está azotando sin descansar 
Pero el sol de tus hijos 
Pronto la calma te hará alcanzar

Cuando salí de Cuba
Dejé mi vida dejé mi amor 
Cuando salí de Cuba

Dejé enterrado mi corazón.

Songwriters: Luís Aguilé (Luis María Aguilera Picca)

Cuando Sali De Cuba lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell 

English translation of the words:

I will never be able to die
My heart, I do not have it here
Over yonder it is waiting for me
It is awaiting until my return;

When I left Cuba,
I left my life, I left my love;
When I left Cuba,
I left my heart buried 

It beats, and is still beating,
Because the earth gives it life,
But one day will come
In which my hand will finally reach you;

A sad storm
It is lashing you without respite
But your children's sun
Soon the calmness will make you reach

When I left Cuba,
I left my life, I left my love;
When I left Cuba,
I left my heart buried 

---------------------
*Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Band was a popular Cali-Mexican pop group that had a great following during approximately the same time as the Sandpipers did. The two groups also released albums on the same label, A&M Records, so the possibility is great that it was indeed an uncredited Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Band that backed up the Sandpipers on "Cuando Salí de Cuba."


♪♫ Cuando Salí de Cuba - sung by the Sandpipers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2EOo-jxF2Q