Juan Martha Lyrics in English by La Arrolladora Banda El Limon
Corrido is a special word that describes an entire genre of Mexican music. A corrido is a popular narrative ballad that tells a story, often about famous outlaws, heroes, or historical events.
This song is a classic corrido that recounts the legendary tale of Juan Martha. The final line even invites you to "sigan cantando el corrido de Juan Martha" (keep singing the corrido of Juan Martha), making it the perfect word to unlock this piece of Mexican musical culture.
Listen to this classic Mexican corrido performed by La Arrolladora Banda El Limón. Right from the start, the song laughs off wild superstitions. People claimed Juan Martha carried the devil himself, but the opening lines clear that up immediately: "Mentiras, no traía nada / Lo que traiba en su cintura / Era una pistola escuadra" ("Lies, he was not carrying anything / What he had at his waist / Was a semi-automatic pistol"). The narrator is shockingly blunt about his crimes, simply saying he robbed and killed people "porque así se divertía" ("because he found it fun"). With a massive price of 15,000 pesos placed on his head, the federal rurales (a historical Mexican mounted police force) feared him like literal poison.
The drama peaks when his captured reality hits home and his mother breaks down, offering to pay that exact 15,000-peso reward to buy his freedom. Juan Martha tells her to put her money away. He even jokes about outsmarting the cordada (an armed squad of guards transporting prisoners): "Que llegando aquel cerrito / Yo me río de la cordada" ("Once I reach that little hill / I'll laugh at the armed guard"). Still, facing his execution under the sun and moon, he delivers one of the coldest lines in Mexican ballad history: "Que de 100 vidas que debo / Con una la estoy pagando" ("Out of the 100 lives I owe / With just one I am paying it off"). He knows the math is strictly in his favor, accepts his fate, and leaves behind a letter so everyone keeps singing his name.
