The Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer Carlos Puebla, often called El Cantor de la Revolución, first met Fidel Castro in México in 1955 — Fidel always found inspiration in the Mexican Revolution — and quickly joined the revolutionary movement. Puebla would go on to write and perform music chronicling that movement, spreading Cuba’s cause worldwide. He wrote one of his most famous songs, Y en eso llegó Fidel, after the revolution’s 1959 triumph. Take a listen online!

And then Fidel arrived

Here they wanted to continue
taking everything for them,
having luxurious houses,
and making people suffer.
 
And continuing in a cruel way
to conspire against the people
to continue exploiting them...
and then Fidel arrived.
 
The fun was over,
El Comandante came
and ordered them to stop. (encore)
 
Here they wanted to continue,
swallowing and swallowing the land,
not suspecting that in Sierra Maestra
the future was born.
 
And continuing in a cruel way
the custom of crime
to turn Cuba into a gambling den...
and then Fidel arrived.
 
The fun was over,
El Comandante came
and ordered them to stop. (encore)
 
Here they wanted to continue,
saying that vicious
fugitive bandits
were devastating the country.
 
And continuing in a cruel way
with disgrace as their shield,
to defame bearded people...
and then Fidel arrived.
 
The fun was over,
El Comandante came
and ordered them to stop. (encore)
 
Here they wanted to continue
pretending to be democrats,
and people would just die
in their misery.
 
And continuing in a cruel way,
not caring how it was done,
with robbery as a rule...
and then Fidel arrived.
 
The fun was over,
El Comandante came
and ordered them to stop. (encore)