When musician and composer Daniel Valdez first read the poem “Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun,” he was reminded of his parents, who were migrant farmers from Mexico.
He was inspired to create a bolero, typically a romantic ballad, dedicated to farmworkers and their families. The refrain of the song “And what will you be giving to your brown-eyed children of the sun?” is a call to reflect—and a call to action.
Valdez joined the United Farmworkers Union in 1966.
♪ Up to California ♪ ♪ From Mexico you come ♪ ♪ To the Sacramento Valley ♪ ♪ To toil in the sun ♪ ♪ Your wife and seven children ♪ ♪ They're working every one ♪ ♪ And what will you be giving ♪ ♪ To your brown-eyed children of the sun ♪ - The "Brown-Eyed Children of the Sun" was a poem that was sent by two young Chicanos from LA.
I read the poem and I heard a bolero, that's what I heard.
♪ Your face is lined and wrinkled ♪ I mean, it represented something to me that was very personal.
It brings back memories of being a kid and watching your mother and father work.
What will you be giving to your brown-eyed children of the sun?
It's that question for the future, the future generation.
♪ The children's eyes are smiling ♪ ♪ Their lives have just begun ♪ ♪ And what will you be giving ♪ ♪ To your brown-eyed children of the sun?
♪ - We were born in a farm near Yuma, Arizona.
That farm was a homestead that my grandfather homesteaded when they came to Yuma.
(bolero music continues) But during the Depression, they lost it because they didn't have the money to pay the taxes.
And so we moved to California and became migrant farm workers.
- Yeah, it was very hard when we left Arizona.
And here we come to California, oh my god.
I said, "This is a different world for us."
You know, from one field to the other and from farm and living in a tent, in the car, whatever we could 'cause, you know, we didn't know any better.
Cesar, he was always, 'cause we worked in the fields, and he always says, "I'm so mad at these people, "the way they treat us.
"Somebody has to help us."
- And I remember him clearly, clearly saying, he said, "Somebody oughta do something about this.
"This is not right.
"Somebody has to do something about it."
Not knowing that four years later, he was gonna be the one that was gonna be doing something about it.
And that's how it started too.
♪ You're a free man ♪ ♪ And this heritage is won ♪ ♪ That you can be giving ♪ ♪ To your brown-eyed children of the sun ♪ (bolero music continues) (music ends) (dramatic theme music)
