He tried so hard to keep her bound
She was bought and sold in some Norteno town
All those chains and dowries locked her in
Her grandmother would say it's just a little sin
For 10 long years she lived as if a slave
Pinned beneath his thumb in the United States
Solitary nights
She was a victim of unfettered free trade, he beat her daily, kept her locked away
until the day she was to be replaced, when she met him in the kitchen
and beat him to death with a table leg
Solitary nights
Rosa went and turned herself in
thinking that she would be treated fairly in the land of the free
The judge he put her away for life and then some
And Rosa found the chains they put on her were longer
than the ones she freed herself from
So she waits
and she counts the days
Never knowing what it's like to get away