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“Ojalá” (“I Hope ,” 1969); in
Al final de este Viaje, 1978 and En vivo en Argentina

Rodríguez has stated consistently in interviews and testimonials that this song, written onboard the Océano Pacífico in 1969, was for Emilia Sánchez, whom he had met when they were both eighteen. A medical student in Havana whose true passion was literature, she introduced Rodríguez to such poets as César Vallejo and Lord Byron. After a year in Havana, she returned to study literature at her home town of Camagüey, where she later became a professor. As Rodríguez recounted to the Chilean nueva canción singer Isabel Parra, the song relates his continued obsession with Emilia: “Se me quedó un poco ese fantasma detrás. Por eso es que compuse esta canción, quizás en un momento de delirio, de arrebato, de sentimiento un poco desmesurado, ‘ojalá esto, ojalá lo otro’” (Díaz Pérez 1995: 115)^[1] . As Sanz notes, the song illustrates the songwriter’s conflict between his desire to free himself from her image, which he sees everywhere, and his simultaneous pull toward yielding to his obsession rather than forgetting her (Sanz 1984: 142-143).

The song has two contrasting sections, with a verse in D^[2] , where he relates his omnipresent vision of Emilia in the leaves, the rain, the moon, and the earth (e.g., “Ojalá que la luna pueda salir sin ti”), and a chorus in C major, where he declares his wish to be freed of her memory (“para no verte tanto, /para no verte siempre”). These two sections are connected by the modulatory pre-chorus from D minor to C major.

While the verse is easily heard in D from the beginning, its mode remains somewhat ambiguous until the end, as it shifts constantly. At the beginning, the repeating chromatic descent in the high note on the guitar ends on B natural, which is not part of the natural D minor scale and hence hints at D Dorian. In the third line (Ex. 6A), however, the harmony modulates to the parallel D major, as if to recall a happy memory in “ojalá que la lluvia/deje de ser milagro/que baja por tu cuerpo.” This modulation starts with the E minor (ii) at the beginning of this line, which would exist in D Dorian but not D minor. A move to B minor at “ojalá que la luna pueda salir sin ti” brings a melancholy air to the words “sin ti” but is also still in the harmonic plane of D major (vi). It is only in the final line of the verse, where the harmony abruptly goes back to D minor and the passing harmony of Bb favors the D minor tonality over D Dorian, that the perfect authentic cadence finally confirms the mode as D minor. This modal ambiguity would seem an appropriate setting for a text that relates to a memory involving complex and conflicting emotions.

Ex. 6A-“Ojalá,” Verse

*Rhythms in melody as per Martha Duarte (Rodríguez 2005, vol. 3: 232-234)

The pre-chorus also mixes modes momentarily, substituting F minor (iv) for IV at “la sonrisa perfecta,” lending these words, to this author, a bittersweet color. This chord leads to the strongest cadence in the song, a perfect authentic cadence in C major at the words “Ojalá pase algo que te borre de pronto” (Ex. 6B). The ensuing chorus is unambiguously in C major, with an imperfect authentic cadence in C major (“que me lleve la muerte”) confirming the tonality, as if to lend harmonic credence to the songwriter’s wish to forget Emilia (“Para no verte tanto, para no verte siempre”). Despite this confirmation, the ambiguous mood (and mode) returns as the last chord of the chorus (G=V/C) resolves not to C but loops back to D minor.

Ex. 6B-“Ojalá,” Pre-chorus and Chorus

*Rhythms in melody as per Martha Duarte (Rodríguez 2005, vol. 3: 234-235)

Hence, the harmonies in “Ojalá” illustrate Rodríguez’s ambivalent feelings about the subject. On the one hand, he wants to believe his resolve to let go of the relationship, as illustrated by the resolute and hopeful C major progressions in the chorus. On the other hand, he is tormented by memories and conflicting feelings, as illustrated by all the modal mixture between D minor and D major in the verse. Such harmonies suggest to this author that Rodríguez is protesting too loudly, perfect authentic cadences and all, at “Ojalá pase algo que te borre de pronto”; he can’t quite bring himself to erase her from his memory.

Several commentators outside of Cuba have claimed that the song is not about Emilia Sánchez but a challenge to the political leadership. Moore has suggested that the song is directed at an officer involved in Rodríguez's military service or perhaps Castro himself (Moore 2003: 37). When Gloria Simonetti sang the song in the Viña del Mar Festival, the Chilean audience interpreted it as a rejection of tyranny, even though she sang it as a canción romantica, changing the words “tu viejo gobierno” to “invierno” (Faulin 1995: 169). Armando Valladares, a Cuban dissident, has claimed in Spanish newspapers that the song is about Castro (Faulin 1995: 152); an annoyed Rodríguez denies this claim in a filmed interview, saying that Valladares had changed the text to suit his argument, while he himself has never changed the words of the song (Figueredo 1997). The words leave some room for such an interpretation, as some words could describe (sarcastically) an omnipresent ruler as well as an all-encompassing lover (“Ojalá que la tierra no te bese los pasos,” “Ojalá se te acabe la mirada constante”).

Nonetheless, I believe that the harmonies of “Ojalá” support the argument that the songwriter originally intended it as a love song, as their constant flux seems reflective of those emotions; a wish to erase the memory of a dictator would not need to be painted in nearly so harmonically complex a fashion. As illustrated in the previous section, Rodríguez’s political songs, while containing their own harmonic surprises, are simpler harmonically than “Ojalá,” with some of them repeating the same harmonies. Had Rodríguez meant “Ojalá” as a political song, he could have employed the same strategy as in “Resumen de noticias” or “Ese hombre,” given the frequent repetition in the text.

• [1] “This phantom was still with me. For this reason, I composed this song, perhaps in a moment of delirium, a fit, a slightly excessive feeling, ‘I hope this, I hope that.’”
• [2] The recording on Al final de este viaje (1978) is in C minor; the recording on Silvio Rodríguez – Pablo Milanes: En vivo en Argentina (1984) is in D minor. As Rodríguez told me that he had recorded all the songs on the former album a half- to whole-step lower than usual, I have left the transcription in D minor, as per the live recording.

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