Borinqueño means “Puerto Rican,” specifically someone or something connected to Borinquen, the Indigenous Taíno name for Puerto Rico. It is more evocative than the everyday adjective puertorriqueño and gives the song a distinctly cultural, patriotic voice as it calls the people of Puerto Rico to awaken and fight for freedom.
"La Borinqueña" is Puerto Rico's anthem, and this short version uses the fierce 1868 revolutionary words rather than the gentle official ones. It opens with a wake-up order: "¡Despierta Borinqueño / Que han dado la señal!" (Wake up, Puerto Rican, for the signal has been given!). "Borinqueño" comes from Borinquen, the Taíno name for the island, so the singer is calling every islander by the island's oldest name. Then the song turns to war: "¡Ven! nos será simpático / El ruido de cañón" (Come! The roar of the cannon will sound sweet to us), and "Nuestros machetes nos la dará" (Our machetes will give it to us), where "la" is freedom.
The last lines repeat one word until it becomes a chant: "¡La libertad, la libertad!" (Freedom, freedom!). In West Side Story (2021) the Sharks sing it to claim their Puerto Rican pride in a New York neighborhood that wants them gone. It is a good song for practising commands like "despierta" (wake up) and "ven" (come), and the "vámonos" (let's go) form.
David Álvarez was born in Montreal in 1994 to Cuban parents, and his first languages were French and Spanish. He trained in classical ballet with American Ballet Theatre and at 14 shared the 2009 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Billy in Billy Elliot on Broadway.
He then left performing for several years, serving in the US Army and later backpacking through Mexico, which is where a casting director's message found him. That led to the role of Bernardo in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story in 2021, and he has since acted in the series American Rust and Étoile.