Tan Paleto: a reply to those who frown at a kiss

Holding hands in the street. Kissing your boyfriend on a bench. Tiny things that for many people are still a spectacle worth commenting on. Tan Paleto (So Small-Minded) is born from that outside gaze, the one of someone who thinks they're the judge of what others do.

The lyrics speak directly to that gentleman, or lady, who gets annoyed. It annoys them that we hold hands. It annoys them that the boyfriend is African. It annoys them that their children see a kiss, and they cover their eyes as if they were watching something terrible. Deep down, what annoys them is simply the face of the person in front of them.

I really like the word the lyrics choose for the one watching: spectator. Because that's what they are. Someone sitting in the stands of someone else's life, giving opinions nobody asked for. And the answer is blunt: «No voy a aceptar consejos de ningún espectador» ("I'm not going to take advice from any spectator").

The chorus's question

The chorus does the smartest thing you can do in the face of prejudice: it doesn't argue. It doesn't start explaining or justifying. It asks, with a mix of astonishment and mockery, how anyone can be so cateto, so paleto (both mean a narrow-minded yokel). And it adds that it won't give any more explanations, that it already knows that mind has its limitations.

The formal "usted" form of address seems a brilliant detail to me. It's polite and devastating at the same time, like that very Spanish way of putting someone in their place without raising the tone.

There's racism and homophobia in the same scene, and the song lumps them together without any need for speeches. They're the same narrow-mindedness.

I'd dedicate it to all the couples who ever let go of each other's hand on noticing a stare. And I'd play it loud anywhere someone sighs on seeing two boys kiss.

Short, catchy and absolutely right.

The full lyrics are further down. Listen on Spotify