Paciencia y Fe Olga Merediz & "In the Heights" Original Broadway Company

[ABUELA CLAUDIA]
Calor, calor, calor
Calor, calor, calor
Ay, Mamá
The summer’s hottest day
Paciencia y fe, paciencia y fe
Ay, carajo, it’s hot!
But that’s okay
Mamá would say, "Paciencia y fe"

It was hotter at home in La Víbora
The Washington Heights of Havana
A crowded city of faces the same as mine
Back as a child in La Víbora
I chased the birds in the plaza
Praying, Mamá, you would find work
Combing the stars in the sky for some sort of sign
Ay, Mamá, so many stars in Cuba
En Nueva York, we can’t see beyond our streetlights
To reach the roof you gotta bribe the supa
Ain’t no Cassiopeia in Washington Heights
But ain’t no food in La Víbora…

I remember nights, anger in the streets, hunger at the windows
Women folding clothes, playing with my friends in the summer rain
Mamá needs a job, Mamá says we’re poor
One day you say, "Vamos a Nueva York"
And Nueva York was far, but Nueva York had work
And so we came
And now, I’m wide awake
A million years too late
I talk to you, imagining what you’d do
Remembering what we went through
Nueva York! Ay, Mamá!
It wasn’t like today
You’d say, "Paciencia y fe"