The Borinqueña

Lola Rodríguez de Tió.

La Borinqueña is the National Anthem of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The music was composed as a popular dance and without political connotations in 1867 by Félix Astol Artés. The original lyrics are from 1868 by Lola Rodríguez de Tió, who composed it after Lares' cry, becoming a hymn with a clear revolutionary trend. This was adapted in 1901 by Manuel Fernández Juncos with more neutral, peaceful and unifying lyrics after the change of sovereignty from Spain to the United States caused by the Spanish-American War in 1898. Since then it has become popular.

In 1952 the music of the anthem was made official with the establishment of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, but it was not until 1977 that the legislative chambers and Governor Rafael Hernández Colón made the lyrics of Manuel Fernández Juncos official as the National Anthem of the State Free Associate of Puerto Rico.

Lola Rodríguez de Tió's version is known as the Revolutionary Hymn of Puerto Rico because, although it was originally oriented against the Spanish occupation, it was later used in support of the country's freedom from the invasion and imposition of United States on the rights of autonomy of the nation. Since it was classified as "too subversive" to adopt the letter officially, a patriotic letter without pro-independence motives was created, written by Manuel Fernández Juncos in 1901, a letter that was adopted by the country's public schools.

Both the official and the revolutionary versions are given below. The revolutionary version is associated with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement.

Letter

Official anthem of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

(Lyrics by Manuel Fernández Juncos, 1903)

The land of Borinquen

where I was born,

is a flower garden

magical cousin.

An ever crisp sky

It serves as a canopy.

And they give arrullos plácidos

the waves at your feet.

When Columbus came to his beaches;

He exclaimed full of admiration:

"Oh! Oh!

This is the beautiful land

I'm looking for."

It's Borinquen the daughter,

the daughter of the sea and the sun.

From the sea and the sun.

From the sea and the sun.

From the sea and the sun.

From the sea and the sun.

Revolutionary version

(Lyrics by Lola Rodríguez de Tió, San Germán, 1868)

Wake up Borinqueño
they have given the signal!
Wake up from that dream it's time to fight!

To that patriotic call
Doesn't your heart burn? Come! It will be nice to us the noise of the cannon.

Look, already the Cuban
free will be;
he will give you the machete his freedom...
he will give you the machete your freedom.

Already the warrior drum
says in his son,
that is the manigua the place,
the meeting place, of the meeting...
of the meeting.

Beautiful Borinquén,
you have to follow Cuba;
you have brave children they want to fight.

Dauntless for a longer time
we can't be,
we no longer want, shy,
let us subdue.

We want
be free now,
and our machete sharp is...
and our machete sharp is.

Why then, we
we must be,
so sleepy and deaf and deaf to the signal...
At that sign, at that sign.

Don't be afraid, riqueños
to the noise of the cannon, than to save the homeland it is the duty of the heart!

We no longer want despots,
fall the tyrant already,
the untamed women they will also know how to fight.

We want
freedom,
and our machetes they will give it to us...
and our machete he will give it to us...

Let's go Puerto Ricans,
let's go now,
that anxiously awaits us, longing for freedom freedom, freedom!