El martes me fusilan [English translation]

On Tuesday I'll be executed

at six in the morning,

for believing in the everlasting God

and our Lady of Guadalupe1

They found a holy card

of Jesus Christ in my hat,

that's why they have sentenced me:

because I was a Cristero2.

It's for this reason they'll execute me

on Tuesday morning,

they may kill my useless body

but never...never my soul!

I tell my executioners

that I want them to crucify me,

and once I am crucified

then; they may use their rifles.

Farewell hills of Jalisco,

Michoacán and Guanajuato,

where I fought against the government

that always ended up fleeing.

They grabbed me as I was kneeling;

worshiping Jesus Christ,

they knew there were no defenses

in this holy place.

I am a laborer by blood3

a Jalisciense4 by birth,

I have no other God but Christ

because he brought me into being.

Killing me will not end

the belief in the everlasting God

many still remain in the struggle

and others, who are coming into being.

It's for this reason they'll execute me

on Tuesday morning.

Platoon!: ready! aim!

"Long live Christ the King!" and fire!5

1. lit. 'the great Guadalupe'.2. A period of peaceful resistance to the enforcement of the anticlerical provisions of the constitution by Mexican Catholics brought no result. Skirmishing broke out in 1926 and violent uprisings began in 1927. The rebels called themselves Cristeros, invoking the name of Jesus Christ under the title of "Cristo Rey" or Christ the King.3. lit. 'through inheritance', he comes from a long line of laborers.4. the demonym for someone from Jalisco.5. orders are being given to aim and he yells out just as they execute him "Long live Christ the King!" before the last order is given: "fire!". It's either this or they're mocking him by yelling that part out (up to the reader to interpret that).

• Artist:Vicente Fernández
• Album:El Tahúr [1979]