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Aterciopelados is a Colombian rock band founded and led by Andrea Echeverri and Héctor Buitrago. They are famous for their musical style, a fusion of Colombian and other Latin American traditions, and for their consciousness of social and environmental issues and willingness to make them the focus of their art.
Rio, River, is a prayer and a lament for the polluted Bogotá river. The images are beautiful and memorable: the river pictured as a snake, winding through the city and splashing everything with paint; guitarist Buitrago playing while wearing a gas mask; the ripples of smog gathering over the earth as the fish jump (to name just a few). It is a very moving video, intelligent and emotional. Please enjoy.
River
The river comes running, singing
going through the city, dreaming to be clean, to be clear.
You are thirsty, you have a cough, Bogotá river, be healthy, oh my River.
The waters fly from the river, they flood clouds,
and the sky falls in crystals that wash over us.
Oxygen, Let’s send the river, waves of prayer for the river,
prayers for the river.
We must save our blood that runs,
watch the vital water that flows,
bathe the sweet thread that weaves,
sing that the fish return.
Video via Nacionalrecords on Youtube.