L'Estaca (; meaning "the stake", figurative sense "without liberty") is a song composed by the
Catalan singer-songwriter
Lluís Llach
Lluís Llach i Grande (; born 7 May 1948) is a Spanish Catalan singer-songwriter, novelist and politician. He is one of the main representatives of the '' nova cançó'' genre and an outspoken advocate of the right to self-determination of Cat ...
in 1968.
The song, which has been translated into several languages, has become so popular in some countries that it is erroneously considered to be a locally written song. It was composed during the
reign
A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...
of
caudillo
A ''caudillo'' ( , ; , from Latin language, Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of Personalist dictatorship, personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise English translation for the term, though it ...
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
* Franco of Cologne (mid to late 13th cent ...
in
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
and is a call for unity of action to achieve freedom. The song has become a symbol of the fight for freedom everywhere.
Polish singer-songwriter
Jacek Kaczmarski
Jacek Marcin Kaczmarski (22 March 1957 – 10 April 2004) was a Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author.
Life
He was the son of painter Anna Trojanowska-Kaczmarska, a Pole of Jewish background, and the artist Janusz Kaczmarski.
Kaczmarski ...
was inspired to write new lyrics to the melody of ''L'Estaca'' after hearing the song on one of several Spanish records he borrowed from a friend in December 1978. The result was ''
Mury
''Mury'' (The Walls) was a clandestine Girl Scouts group organized by young Polish women who were political prisoners in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. The group, led by Scout Group Leader Józefa Kantor, was established on 30 November ...
'', which became one of his most famous compositions after it was adopted by the
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
* Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...
trade union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
Solidarność
Solidarity (, ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity" ( , abbreviated ''NSZZ „Solidarność”''), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Polish People's Rep ...
and sung at countless rallies, meetings, protests and strikes throughout Poland during the 1980s. Later, a
Belarusian language
Belarusian (, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language. It is one of the two Languages of Belarus, official languages in Belarus, the other being Russian language, Russian. It is also spoken in parts of Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Polan ...
adaptation of the Polish version became a symbol of the
2020 Belarusian protests.
Lakadjina and Yasser Jeradi made a version of the song that became the anthem of the Tunisian Revolution in 2011.
''L'Estaca'' is also an anthem for the supporters of the
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby union: 15 players per side
*** American flag rugby
*** Beach rugby
*** Mini rugby
*** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side
*** Rugby tens, 10 players per side
*** Snow rugby
*** Tou ...
team
USAP, of
Perpignan
Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...
in
Northern Catalonia
Northern Catalonia, North Catalonia or French Catalonia is the Catalan language, Catalan-speaking and cultural territory ceded to France by Spain through the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 in exchange for France's effective renu ...
, in
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
.
The song was covered in
Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
(under the title "Der Yokh") by the American
klezmer
Klezmer ( or ) is an instrumental musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern Europe. The essential elements of the tradition include dance tunes, ritual melodies, and virtuosic improvisations played for listening; these wou ...
band,
The Klezmatics
The Klezmatics are an American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish language, Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing or ...
, in their 2016 album Apikorsim.
The song was also sung in Bilbao in Basque on September 16, 2017 in support of Catalonia's Referendum on Independence scheduled for October 1, 2017 before a crowd of 32,000.
In October 2020, as part of a protest movement against the
Israeli Prime Minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who has served as the prime minister of Israel since 2022, having previously held the office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021. Netanyahu is the longest-serving prime min ...
, L'Estaca was translated to
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
and performed by the artistic narrator and radio broadcaster
Benny Hendel. The clip, produced by Hendel and Yoni Haimovich and directed by Michael (Muki) Hadar, was uploaded to YouTube.
video clip - L'Estaca in Hebrew on Youtube channel
/ref>
Lyrics
The lyrics describe the struggle for freedom using a metaphor of being tied to a stake, itself a metaphor for Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
.
The song is a conversation held in a doorway at dawn, where the main character asks Grandfather Siset "Don't you see the stake that we're all tied to? If we can't take it down, we'll never be able to walk." and the old man tells him that the only way to get free is by working together: "If we all pull, it will fall down. If I pull this way and you pull that way, it will surely fall, fall, fall, and we will be able to liberate ourselves."
The struggle for freedom is hard, it is never over, there is no rest.
Llach says that when he originally composed the song, he used the word 'column' instead of 'stake'.
References
External links
Listen to ''L'Estaca'' on YouTube
*
{{Authority control
Songs in Catalan
Protest songs