[Intro] [Spanish guitar intro, driving syncopated pulse, steady frame drum] [Verse 1 - Male] Under Hispaniola’s sun, a guilty priest took stand, Sweat stinging in his eyes upon that conquered land. He held the encomienda, then gave it all away, Though gold can never tarnish, it had stained the light of day. He saw the people stagger, ribs sharp beneath the skin, And heard the friar’s thunder strike him from within: “¿No son hombres? Do they not have souls and minds?” He turned his back on plunder for the truth he had to find. [Chorus - Female] Oh, the School of Salamanca dared to question why, Challenging the Crown beneath a Spanish sky! For truth and human conscience rise above imperial might: Unbelief is never cause to sanctify the fight! Every human bears a dignity, a purpose in the soul— Endowed with will and reason that no monarch can control! [Verse 2 - Male] In Salamanca’s lecture halls, of cold stone, ash, and smoke, Francisco de Vitoria of sovereign nations spoke. His masterwork, De Indis, cut clean across the air: He proved the royal titles were neither just nor fair. Outside, the winter wind blew cold across the Spanish plains, While he declared no Emperor could bind a soul in chains: The native had his liberty, his laws, and his razón— No crown could take his birthright just because he stood unknown. [Chorus - Female] Oh, the School of Salamanca dared to question why, Challenging the Crown beneath a Spanish sky! For truth and human conscience rise above imperial might: Unbelief is never cause to sanctify the fight! Every human bears a dignity, a purpose in the soul— Endowed with will and reason that no monarch can control! [Bridge - Male] The King commanded silence, for the truth exacts a cost, And the oro counted higher than the lives that would be lost. They passed the Laws of Burgos to make the slaughter right, And read the Requerimiento in the blackness of the night! Las Casas cried against it—he had seen the blood firsthand, Denouncing all the butcheries that stained that plundered land! The New Laws failed in council, Realpolitik held sway— Yet the man who once held slaves refused to look away! [Verse 3 - Male] From sacred bee-hah pigment to the cuts into the bone, Las Casas wrote the agony; Vitoria spoke in stone. They struck the flint of conscience when all the thrones resisted, And proved that in the eyes of God, our natural rights persisted. You can hear the quill still scratching on the margins of the page: Una voz profética to face the tyrant's rage. [Chorus - Female] Oh, the School of Salamanca dared to question why, Challenging the Crown beneath a Spanish sky! For truth and human conscience rise above imperial might: Unbelief is never cause to sanctify the fight! Every human bears a dignity, a purpose in the soul— Endowed with will and reason that no monarch can control! [Outro] [Music slows to a quiet, syncopated guitar and cello pulse] [Female - soaring, distant] A rational being... Born to be free... [Male - low, spoken whisper] ¿No son hombres? Do they not have souls? [Both - harmonizing] Beneath the sky... [Final resonant guitar strum] [Fade out with sound of a scratching quill] [End]
