[Verse 1]
He’s a handsome boy
Good, charismatic, I saw him grow up
Always a little problematic
The streets called him, his dad worried
At 20 years-old, he had a lot of doors closed
He didn’t know what to study, so he worked
But at $7.25, who can progress?
And he has to feed his recently born daughter
So he moved abroad looking for a better life
And an old man stopped in a mall
He said to him in English “Man this is your call”
And he said “I don’t speak English very well
But I know numbers even though I can’t spell”
With money problems, they give him a good salary
So that he’s available for any necessary evil
And though he has an island tattooed on his body
He says “to hell with it, let’s go” as he signed
[Chorus]
And Mambrú went to war
What pain, what pain, what pity
And I don’t know if he’ll come back
He says goodbye to his mom and dad
They take advantage of necessity
And Mambrú went to war
What pain, what pain, what pity
And I don’t know if he’ll come back
He says goodbye to his mom and dad
They take advantage of necessity
Silver of lead, what a nationality
[Verse 2]
Mambrú was in Iraq, in Korea, in Vietnam
He just went to Tehran to fight against Iran
Because they have a lot of pistols and a lot of terrorists
With millionaire gringos written on a list
Well, Puerto Rican, Black, Latino, poor
The war calls them to work hard
Give the nervous kid the dangerous job
Because he’s brown-skinned and has a gross accent
And Mabrú went to war, what pain, what a pity
Under a flag that doesn’t fill him up
Over a dilemma that doesn’t involve him
His mother crying you might get soaked
With his unconventional life, so
Someone informs him, he changes, how he transforms
When he puts on his uniform
Green, army, with lines on his face
Any movement, you don’t think, you shoot!
They’re the enemy, they want your liberty
A bomb goes off and the mortality goes up
A beat on the timpani, Mabrú disoriented
He hoists up his allies, he kills a masked child
He returns to the base and hears “USA”
Like it was the NBA final
They celebrate Mabrú, they shout “MVP”
He smiles, he faints, he says “help me, please”
[Chorus]
And Mambrú went to war
What pain, what pain, what pity
And I don’t know if he’ll come back
He says goodbye to his mom and dad
They take advantage of necessity
And Mambrú went to war
What pain, what pain, what pity
And I don’t know if he’ll come back
He says goodbye to his mom and dad
They take advantage of necessity
Silver of lead, what a nationality
[Verse 3]
Now he has a pacemaker, they shot him twice
He walks with a cane, he can’t move an arm
He feels proud to be veteran
He says in the war what he did was meet brothers
They ask him how many he killed and he can’t remember anything
But every night, nightmares wake him up
And thank god that Mambrú survived
But his family says that Mambrú never came back
[Outro]
Mambrú went to war
I don’t know if he’ll come back
It makes me so sad
Na - Na
Mambrú went to war
I don’t know if he’ll come back
It makes me so sad
Na - Na - Na - Na - Na
Mambrú went to war
I don’t know if he’ll come back (I don’t know if he’ll come back)
It makes me so sad
Na - Na
Mambrú went to war (he’s gone)
I don’t know if he’ll come back (I don’t know if he’ll come back)
It makes me so sad
Na - Na - Na - Na - Na