Pies Descalzos, Sueños Blancos

I see this song in a completely different way. I think she is reffering to herself as eve talking about adam. The bible depics eve as being bad and manipulative and making adam take the apple. "You bit the apple, and renounced the paradise Condemned the snake, even though you’re the one who wanted it" He wanted the apple. He took the apple Eve had nothing to do with it a zebra could have come and asked him to eat the apple and he probably would have. He most likely would have blamed the zebra after that. Adams made up as a perfect man. I see him as being just like the average man. Not wanting to take responsibility for his own faults. After biting the apple adam and eve lost their paradise "You remained naked And you faced dinosaurs under a roof, and without a shield.Now you are here…Wanting to be happy…" Now that adam wasnt perfect and now that he had nothing he crawled back to eve wanting her back to make him happy & She wasnt gonna have that.

This song is about parents' expectations for their children.

Every parent wants their child to be successful - but what is success? The last three stanzas describe many of the expectations that parents put on their children for them to live a "successful life". These aren't metaphors, just descriptions. They have to have proper manners, do their homework, go to college, get married before they're too old, have their own children and pass on these expectations.

However, not all people have or can achieve this dream, which is what the chorus is about You belonged to an ancient race - What was the case for you may not be the case for people in the present. You had bare feet and white dreams - You had to work hard to achieve their happiness, and your effort won't be denied by others. Dust you were, dust you are - Don't try to force others to live how you lived. You may be older, but if you didn't change with the times you're probably not wiser. Think that iron is always soft before heat - Even if you make your children live how you want, you can't change their inner thoughts. If they don't want to live how you want them to, they will rebel in time.

The second stanza sets up the reasons parents try to force their view onto their children. You bit the apple and renounced paradise - You set your eyes on one goal that you thought was right, regardless of whether or not it brought you happiness. And condemned a snake being yourself who wanted it thus - Parents rarely take blame for their children misbehaving. They can't understand it, or they blame their teachers, blame the TV, blame videogames - anything other than themselves. For millenia and millenia you remained nude - You refuse to change your goals and opinions. And faced dinosaurs under a roof and without a shield - You fought bravely for your goals, ignoring that your approach may not be the best.

The 5th stanza is about how children feel about their parents crazy expectations. You built an exact world with perfect endings - There's no gray areas. People's instructions for their kids too often are "do this, don't to that." There's often no whys, no alternatives. Everything calculated in its space and time - Once again, proper manners are expected to be followed to the letter. You should feel about things this way, you should do this at this time, etc. Me, being a total chaos, the entries, the exits The names, and the measures don't fit inside my brain - It's crazy to expect a child to learn all this and follow it to the letter. Kids should be allowed to make mistakes.

So altogether the song is renouncing parents' excessive expectations of their children, and telling them to allow their kids to have a childhood.

First you have to consider the historical period of the song, it was late 90's, there were a lot of depressed young people, theories of world end, millennium bug, machines replacing manpower and globalization menace (specially on the Third World, South America and perhaps Shakira's young rebel self) To me, as a kid from Brazil (and we don't speak spanish) we had plenty of those pop-rock or solely rock songs everywhere (like North America's grunge), with lyrics about being lost, lonely and afraid of the future. Shakira' song is no different, she talks sarcastically about following rules but you're chaos, people live with masks and she reminds you the human race was naked, raw, pure and you might not need all these complex, ephemeral and obscure life and feelings. To seek freedom, bare feet, pies descalzos.

I love this song. ^_^

my english is not so good but here we go: This song try to tell us that You are the only one who controls your destiny. You planificate everything you do. So we can not blame other people if things doesn't go like we want to . It also says that we live under a world manage by society-rules and if u don't follow them then you are like the black-sheep,

I love this song...I just translated it and submitted it in...so I am hoping that will help more people to understand. It is truly a beautiful song...I believe Valentinegirl is right... Shakira is trying to say that we can't change the past, but we shouldn't let the past change our future, and we should try to direct ourselves to civilization...

God: you get what you give, you decided to sin, why are you crying? Humans: you made everything perfect, I'm a mess without you! there are too many rules- greet the neighbor work everyday to live the life... and then she describes the thing's society is worried about in these days, meaning we are still being stupid....

You were here since the world had first been created. You are from beauty and perfection, but you doubted your first love. You wanted me but turned me away when because you considered me a Jezebel. Ever since you have been lost without me. Despite previous conclusions, you suited for war, unprepared no matter the time. Like me you could care less about the so called plans we had made. Everything is different now. Like God, you predicted the outcome of this world from the origins of existence. And I have never been graceful, these fools never knew or seen what we saw. And now that we are both here, passing at the same time. You don't care what anyone says. You don't take anyone's advice. We don't listen to the world. You were my first love, always. You will be my last. Working so hard to impress the man upstairs, we both strayed from each other and lost ourselves in the chaos of a corrupt and fallen world. Trying to hard to take care of your family, to make them proud, to marry a sweet girl that would make you humble. Keep your manners, never say a bad word. Always respect your elders. Women always settle down and have kids at the perfect time even if you are denying your true love and covenant you have made with God. Entertain your guests first and forget about your passions. You must do this from the time you become a women. Sit still and look pretty.