I was patrolling a Pachinko
Nude noodle model parlor in the nefarious zone
Hanging out with insects under ducting
The C.I.A was on the phone
Well, such is life

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair, oh

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair

For the Zapatistas I'll rob my sisters
Of all the curtain and lace

Down at the bauxite mine
You get your own uniform
Have lunchtimes off
Take a monorail to your home

Checkmate, baby
God bless us and our home
Where ever we roam
Now take us home, flaquito

Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
The flower looks good in your hair
Latino caribo, mondo bongo
Nobody said it was fair

"mondo bongo", joe strummer, front man of the clash

"Para todos todo, para nosotros nada." - the zapatistas

tried to reconstruct the meaning of this song. the only comment i saw was "a guy works for the cia, fell in love with a girl and therefore this song is sad." fair enough, there's not much to work with but there seems to be a lot of unexplained detail in the song.

1. joe strummer is a leftist. keep that in mind
2. POV says, "for the zapatistas i'd rob my sisters, of all the curtain and lace" the zapatistas are for land reform, and are anti -globalization and also extremely left leaning. why the cia would support such an organization boggles the mind. so why is the cia on the phone? threatening him, a double agent? or is it "i would rob my sisters to catch a zapatista". this doesn't make sense though, as the curtain and lace is probably a bourgeois symbol.
3. bauxite mine and uniform = workers
4. so why checkmate?
5. "nobody said it was fair" that would sound pretty rich if you were fighting for fairness.

so i'm in a mess.