Plástico

Here's one of my favorite songs from Ruben Blades.
I really like the lyrics.
I copied the English lyrics translation from his site.
The translation isn't well arranged for English poetical sensibility, but it suffices to give you the idea of what is being sung.
I think the disco intro really adds emphasis to the song's theme.

She was a plastic girl like others I see around
Those girls that sweat Channel No 3 when their agitated.
They dream of marrying a doctor
because he can provide for them better
They don’t speak to anybody they don’t consider their equal
unless he is “Mr. So & So”
Their pretty, slim and well dressed
with an aloof gaze and false laughter

He was a plastic guy like others I see around,
Comb in hand and an “it wasn’t me” expression,
Whose favorite topic in conversation is
which car brand is the best
He would rather not eat
to save appearances
and look elegant to be able to pick up a plastic girl.

It was a plastic couple like those I see around,
With him thinking only about money
And her only on Paris fashion,
Pretending they are what they are not,
Living in a world of pure illusion
telling their five-year old son
“Don’t play with kids of different color” ,
Drowned in debts to sustain
their social status at weddings and cocktail parties,

It was a plastic city like those I’d rather not see,
With cancerous buildings and a tinsel heart.
Where a dollar rises instead of the sun,
Where nobody laughs and nobody cries,
With people with polyester faces,
Who hear but don’t listen and look but can’t see.
People that sold out of convenience
their reason to live and their freedom.

Listen latino, listen brother, listen friend,
Don’t ever sell your destiny for gold or convenience,
Don’t hold back on me because we have a long way to go
Let’s all go ahead so together we can get rid
of the ignorance that has us all obsessing
about imported patterns that are not the solution.

Don’t let them confuse you,
Search for the bottomline and its reason
Remember we see the faces
But never the heart
Don’t let them confuse you,
Search for the bottomline and its reason
Remember we see the faces
But never the heart 
Remember we see the faces
But never ever the heart.

Chorus:
we see the faces,
we see the faces, vaya
But never the heart.

Soneos:
We all come from dust and that is where we are going back, like the tune goes.
Remember plastic melts down easier when the sun hits it directly
Use your conscience to analyze and at the end you will see.
ver the heart.
Indecency is over an at the end is truth that wins.
Don’t ever forget what you have lived and where you were born.
Study, work and be somebody first, that’s where salvation lies.
Look, don’t allow confussion, search for the bottomline and its reason.
we see the faces,
we see the faces, vaya
But never the heart.
Puerto Rico, I assure you that at the end we will win
While into the plastic, also during these past decades
we have been watching the faces of struggle, the faces of labor,
the faces of proper and decent people that fight for a 
better and more dignified tomorrow.
We see the faces of labor and sweat
People of flesh and bone who did not give up
People working, searching for a new road
Proud of their heritage and of being latino
Of one peopleunited, like the one Bolivar dreamed of
We see the faces, like those of Sotomayor
Puerto Rico ... present
Panamá... present
México... present
Cuba... present
República Dominicana... present
Guatemala... present
Nicaragua... present
Salvador... present
Honduras... present
Costa Rica... present
Belize... present
Panamá... present
Colombia... present
Venezuela... present
Ecuador... present
Perú... present
Bolivia... present
Brasil... present
Chile... present
Uruguay... present
Argentina... present
Costa Rica...again
One and only house
Present