Guadalajara, Mexico (Honoring Danny Garcia)

From the Album Here I Stand: Elder’s Wisdom; Children’s Song (Smithsonian Folkways)

I started working when I was eight
To feed my family
Eleven brothers; seven sisters
Working hard like me
A table and tray in the market
Ear rings and watches I sold
All that I made in Guadalajara
A week was 400 pesos

Guadalajara, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
Buscando trabajo
Shelter from the rain
Guadalajara, Mexico

My daddy worked in California
Harvesting the crops
Forty-five years carrots & cabbage
Ten a day was tops
Eight hundred dollars
to cross the border
To the U.S. of A.
Adios Guadalajara
Hola U.S. of A.

Guadalajara, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
Buscando trabajo
Shelter from the rain
Guadalajara, Mexico

Got me a job at Taco Bell
Found me a wife
Off to Atlanta to a chicken plant
Where they gave me a knife
What am I to do with this
Cut chickens up to fry
From Atlanta to Guadalajara
With love on the chicken line

Guadalajara, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
Buscando trabajo
Shelter from the rain
Guadalajara, Mexico

Now I work at Cagles plant
In Collinsville
Two hundred dollars a month we pay
Plus, gas and electric bills
We like here even though
Sometimes it rains and snows
Merry Christmas Guadalajara
Alabama home sweet home

Guadalajara, Mexico
Guadalajara, Mexico
Buscando trabajo
Shelter from the rain
Guadalajara, Mexico

Words & music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 1996 | BMI

*Lyrics collectively written by Larry Long with youth from rural Alabama through the Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song program in partnership with PACERS Small Schools Cooperative and Community Celebration of Place. Inspired by Danny Garcia.

Appears on

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Here I Stand: Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song is exclusively available on Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

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