HAVANA TIMES – A cheerful Cha Cha Cha tune called La basura (The garbage) enjoyed immense popularity in Cuba during the fifties and early sixties. Its jocular refrain advocates fleeing the garbage man when the bells announce his approach, because he “carries away everything worthless.” The song, composed by the Mexican-Cuban songwriter Jorge Zamora, known as Zamorita and sung by the Mexican comic actor “Tin-Tan,” whose real name was German Valdez, was a huge hit in both countries, with its lyrics:
“When I hear that bell ringing, way out there
With its rhythm of delicious Cha cha cha,
I know he’s coming close, the garbage man,
To carry off the stuff that ain’t no good..”
With humor, the singer advises us all to hide so the garbage man won’t get us. Because of the context, it’s understood that the song refers to the person collecting the garbage, although in Cuba we use the terms basurero – garbage man – and basural – dumping ground – interchangeably, interpreting their meaning according to the way they’re used.
For those of us living here, the tragic part comes if you think about trying to hide from the garbage dump instead of the garbage man – closing the doors and windows to avoid the unpleasant smell that is the invisible extension of its closeness.
The garbage pile is like a slow (but not that slow) sinister organism that you can see growing day by day, in three dimensions
