La Carroza Negra Lyrics in English by Beto Quintanilla
This is a corrido that tells a whole short film in a few verses, and it is a sad one. A black hearse, la carroza negra, pulls up slowly at the gates of a prison. The guards send for one inmate, "pero él no sabe qué quieren" (but he doesn't know what they want). When he sees the withered face inside, he goes silent: it is his wife, who died in the hospital. Her last wish was "antes de que me entierren ir mi esposo a visitar" (before they bury me, to go and visit my husband).
The details are what hit hardest. The guards remember she was always the first one at visiting time and never minded getting up early. They hand him her belongings, a few things and a battered photo of the two of them hugging, plus a barely legible note: "Cuando salgas de la cárcel prométeme no volver" (When you get out of prison, promise me you won't come back). The narrator admits he doesn't know what the man did, and the last line is quietly brutal: he thanks his wife for giving him "la última vuelta" (the last visit, literally the last round). Celadores are prison guards, a useful word for any corrido fan.
