Zafra Fusion Cepeda Part One - Zafra Fusion Cepeda_Part One_Annotations_EN
07:00
Narrator: Throughout our history, Black people carried the weight of labor. They cleared the fields, plowed the land, and planted the coastal valleys with the seed of sugar. Understanding this arduous and hostile process of the sugar plantations makes it easier for us to grasp the importance of religion, cultural life, and the customs of Black Puerto Ricans. If we do not understand this essential fact, we will never comprehend their other contributions—such as their imprint on our ethnic formation and their cultural integration into our society. For all these reasons, we must emphasize that sugar and Black slavery were synonymous throughout our history. Over time, there was a shift. Black labor became concentrated in coffee cultivation, which was not very successful. Then Queen Sugar displaced the rich bean, and once again Black hands became responsible for Puerto Rico’s economic development. The contribution of Black people to Puerto Rican society was especially significant in the second half of the 19th century. In 1873, when the number of enslaved people had already been reduced to a minority, the Spanish courts proclaimed: Abolition of slavery!
14:54
Chorus Colony, colony, take the sugarcane to the mill. Colony, colony, take the sugarcane to the mill. Verses Do not let the poor die of hunger; they receive their wages on the plantation where they are dying. If we have the cane, let us earn our sustenance; I beg you, give the workers their place. If on Sunday they carry cane to the mill, all the poor go without remedy. If we do not have the cane, there is no sustenance. I beg you, give work to those who prepare their own livelihood.
Zafra Fusion Cepeda Part One
07:00 - 08:00
Narrator: Throughout our history, Black people carried the weight of labor. They cleared the fields, plowed the land, and planted the coastal valleys with the seed of sugar. Understanding this arduous and hostile process of the sugar plantations makes it easier for us to grasp the importance of religion, cultural life, and the customs of Black Puerto Ricans. If we do not understand this essential fact, we will never comprehend their other contributions—such as their imprint on our ethnic formation and their cultural integration into our society. For all these reasons, we must emphasize that sugar and Black slavery were synonymous throughout our history. Over time, there was a shift. Black labor became concentrated in coffee cultivation, which was not very successful. Then Queen Sugar displaced the rich bean, and once again Black hands became responsible for Puerto Rico’s economic development. The contribution of Black people to Puerto Rican society was especially significant in the second half of the 19th century. In 1873, when the number of enslaved people had already been reduced to a minority, the Spanish courts proclaimed: Abolition of slavery!
14:54 - 16:00
Chorus Colony, colony, take the sugarcane to the mill. Colony, colony, take the sugarcane to the mill. Verses Do not let the poor die of hunger; they receive their wages on the plantation where they are dying. If we have the cane, let us earn our sustenance; I beg you, give the workers their place. If on Sunday they carry cane to the mill, all the poor go without remedy. If we do not have the cane, there is no sustenance. I beg you, give work to those who prepare their own livelihood.