This is one of my favorite songs. It was written by Pablo Milanés in 1976, 3 years after the coup d’etat that started one of the bloodiest periods in Chilean history – where the military disappeared and massacred thousands of Chilean citizens.
Here is a translation:
I will step once again on the streets
of what was bloodstained Santiago
and in a beautiful liberated town square
I will stop to cry for those who are absent.
I will come from the scorching desert
and I’ll come out of the woods and lakes
and I’ll evoke from a hill of Santiago
my brothers who died before.
I, joined with whom did much and little,
with whom wants this land liberated,
I will shoot the first bullets
rather earlier than later, without respite.
The books, the songs, will return
those burnt by murdering hands
my people will be reborn from its ruins
and the traitors will pay for their guilt.
A child will cry in a tree-lined avenue,
and will sing with his new friends
and that song will be the song of the soil
to a life ended in La Moneda.
I will step once again on the streets
of what was bloodstained Santiago
and in a beautiful liberated town square
I will stop to cry for those who are absent.

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Yo pisaré las calles nuevamente
de lo que fue Santiago ensangrentada
y en una hermosa plaza liberada
me detendré a llorar por los ausentes.
Yo vendré del desierto calcinante
y saldré de los bosques y los lagos
y evocaré en un cerro de Santiago
a mis hermanos que murieron antes.
Yo unido al que hizo mucho y poco
al que quiere la patria liberada
dispararé las primeras balas
más temprano que tarde sin reposo
Retornarán los libros, las canciones
que quemaron las manos asesinas
renacerá mi pueblo de su ruina
y pagarán su culpa los traidores.
Un niño jugará en una alameda
y cantará con sus amigos nuevos
y ese canto será el canto del suelo
a una vida segada en La Moneda.
Yo pisaré las calles nuevamente
de lo que fue Santiago ensangrentada
y en una hermosa plaza liberada
me detendré a llorar por los ausentes.