Jutía refers to a hutia, a rodent native to the Caribbean, particularly Cuba. It's a unique and culturally specific word that you won't encounter in everyday Spanish songs.
In the song, a hutia is described as throwing a party, adding a whimsical and distinctly Cuban flavor to the narrative. This word offers a glimpse into the local fauna and cultural context of the music.
"Candela" (Spanish for "fire" or "flame") is a classic, playful son cubano made famous by Ibrahim Ferrer and Buena Vista Social Club. On the surface it tells a little folk story about a mouse and a cat who throw a dance party in the countryside, but "candela" is really slang for feeling hot, excited, or overwhelmed with passion.
The song builds around a call-and-response chorus, "Ay, candela, candela, candela, me quemo" ("Oh, fire, fire, fire, I'm burning"), which the singer and chorus trade back and forth, egging each other on until Margarita is asked to call the firefighters because everyone is "burning up" with the music and the dancing.
It's a joyful, high-energy party song about letting loose, dancing until you can't take the heat, and calling for help only half-seriously when the fun gets out of hand.
Buena Vista Social Club is a Cuban ensemble that brought the golden age of Havana's dance halls back to the world stage. The group formed in 1996 when producer Juan de Marcos González and American guitarist Ry Cooder gathered a dozen veteran musicians, many of them retired, to record the styles they had grown up playing: son, bolero, danzón and guajira. They took their name from a members-only club in Havana's Buenavista neighborhood, once a lively hub for music and dancing in the 1940s.
Among the standout voices were guitarist and singer Compay Segundo, the group's oldest member, pianist Rubén González, and singer-guitarist Eliades Ochoa. Their self-titled 1997 album became a global phenomenon, selling millions of copies, winning a Grammy Award, and introducing Cuban traditional music to a whole new generation of listeners. Most of the musicians were Cuban, carrying decades of experience playing in the clubs and orchestras of Havana and Santiago before the world rediscovered them.