Los argentinos, los portugueses y los griegos

Nora BAYES


En 1920, un año después de haber grabado "Prohibition Blues" (con letra de Ring Lardner), Nora Bayes registró una de las canciones que más se suele citar como ejemplo de temática inmigratoria en la música popular norteamericana de comienzos del siglo XX: la canción se llama "Los argentinos, los portugueses y los griegos".

The Argentines, The Portuguese, and The Greeks

Columbus discovered America in 1492

Then came the English and the Dutch

The Frenchman and the Jew

Then came the Swede and the Irishman

Who helped the country grow

Still they kept a coming and now

Everywhere you go

There’s the Argentines and the Portuguese,

The Armenians and the Greeks

One sells you papers, one shines your shoes,

Another shaves the whiskers off your cheeks

When you ride again in a subway

Notice who have all the seats

And you’ll find they are held by

The Argentine and the Portuguese and the Greek

There’s the Ritz Hotel and the Commodore and

The Vanderbilt and the rest

All of them are classy, up to date hotels

They boast accommodations of the best

When you ask the clerk for a room and bath

He looks at you sarcastically and speaks

Why we’re all filled up with the Argentine

And the Portuguese and the Greek

There’s the Oldsmobile and the Huntmobile

And the Cadillac and the Ford

There are the motors you and I can own

The kind most anybody can afford

But the Cunningham and the Mercury

And the Rolls Royce racing free

Ah they all belong to the Argentine and

The Portuguese and the Greek

There are pretty girls, there are witty girls

There is every kind of a girl

Some you like a little, some a little more

But none of them will set your heart a whirl

When you really feel you’ve met your ideal

A girl with smart and chic

You will find she belongs to an Argentine or

A Portuguese or a Greek

They don’t know the language

They don’t know the law

But they vote in the country of the free

And the funny thing when we start to sing

My Country Tis of Thee

None of us know the words

But the Argentine, the Portuguese, and the Greek