"I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would. I'd rather be a hammer than a nail."
: The play, written by Julio Baudouin, tells a story of social protest where indigenous miners in Cerro de Pasco rebel against their exploitative bosses. El Condor Pasa
Robles wrote the piece as part of a zarzuela —a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes. The play, also titled El Condor Pasa , told a story of the conflict between indigenous Andean miners and their foreign industrial exploiters. In the context of the play, the music represented the struggle for freedom, using the condor—the king of the Andean skies—as a metaphor for the soaring spirit of the oppressed people. "I'd rather be a sparrow than a snail
