CHICO YOU'RE A DITCH MAN

(Music: BABY, YOU'RE A RICH MAN, Lennon-McCartney) (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)

How does it feel to be
Loving your land and your people?
How long have you been living there?
Most of your life, I'm told
What have you learned while living there?
Wisdom both true and old

How does it feel to be
Caring for land and for people?
How do you feed your family there?
Garden and fish the sea
How do your plants get water there
In your desert village by the sea?

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a jardinero

Your garden's laid so carefully
I watch the water flow
Right on the level
And you hold your shovel

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a jardinero

How does it feel to be
Gardening in such aridity?
Where do you plant all your plants?
Near the top of each ditchside
How wide a ridge do you make?
The ridge and the ditch are equally wide (a foot-and-a-half or so)*

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're un buen patron

I'm working here so happily
Knowing just what level
You are working on
You're helping everyone

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're un buen patron

Vegetables of every kind
Fruit trees, flowers, herbs are everywhere
What do you think of chemicals?
Malos por la salud

You teach me Spanish while we work
It seems to come so naturally for you

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're un buen maestro

You love your land and people
I wish every son of earth
Could be more like you
Love life as you do

Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're un buen maestro

Oh, Chico, you're a ditch man
Chico, you're a ditch man ... (repeat and fade)

Comments: *The Beetless add an explanatory background comment.
This one dates from a Beetless trip to a small fishing/farming village on the Sea of Cortez, in Baja California Sur. The name of the village has not been divulged. Chico is reportedly the true nickname of a real person. The Spanish words tell us that Chico is a gardener, a good "boss," and a good teacher, who believes that agricultural chemicals are bad for the health. For more cross-cultural agricultural perspectives, see Michael Ableman's From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World.

 
Excerpted from The Beetless' Gardening Book: An Organic Gardening Songbook/Guidebook, copyright 1997 by Chris Roth (info./disclaimers) (glossary) (index) (gardening guide)