The deeply emotional lyrics and the sorrowful and heroic score, usually sung a cappella by a male choir, turned the song into a symbol of Asturian coal mining and of mining in general.
Sometimes used as a working class anthem, the hymn was widely used during the Asturian miners uprising of 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
The lyrics (usually sung in Asturian, Spanish or a mixture between both languages) describe the painful returning home of a miner, covered in the blood of his fellow miners, who tells his wife (Maruxina) of a mining accident in the famous Asturian mine known as Pozu Maria Luisa (located in Ciañu, Langreo).
Santa Bárbara is nowadays considered to be an important piece of Asturian traditional music and is included prominently in the Asturian folk music repertoire.
A last couplet, sometimes omitted because of non politically correct profanity runs likewise Cago en los capataces Arrivistas y esquiroles (Variant) Accionistas y esquiroles I Crap on the foremen (they're all) hustlers and union scabs (variant) And the shareholders and unions scabs too