Pedro Navaja

The lyrics of the song by Blades[10] describe the namesake of the song as he walks down an unnamed avenue in New York City, explicitly mentioning how Navaja dresses, what kind of shoes and hat he wears, his dark glasses (worn so that no one can tell where he's looking at), his shiny gold tooth, and how he always hides his hands in his coat pockets so that "no one can tell in which hands he holds his knife." At the same time, the song notes and also describes a tired streetwalker who is walking the same street about three blocks from Navaja. An unmarked police cars slowly cruises down the avenue, and the prostitute steps into an alley to have a drink - it's a slow day and she hasn't had any clients.[10]

Navaja looks around the empty avenue, when suddenly the woman comes out of the alley and he sees her. He tightens his grip on the knife and silently runs across the street. Meanwhile, the prostitute takes a gun out of her coat pocket and is about to put it in her purse, so that it stops "bothering" her, when Navaja attacks her with the knife, laughing and the gold tooth "lighting up the avenue" as he plunges the weapon into her. Suddenly a shot rings out from a Smith & Wesson .38 Special (Smith y Wesson del especial") and Navaja falls to the ground while the mortally wounded woman taunts him verbally as she also falls to the ground.[10]

A drunken man stumbles upon the two dead bodies, picks up the gun, the knife, and two dollars and saunters away singing off-key about the "surprises that life throws at you."[10]

On the review of the album Siembra, John Bush of Allmusic referred the message as "a devastating life-in-el-Barrio exposé".[11] He also praised the arrangements of Willie Colón and Luis Ortiz, noting the use of street noise and police sirens as well as the statement "I like to live in America", part of the chorus lyrics for the song "America" from West Side Story, the film. It was listed on Billboard's "15 Best Salsa Songs Ever" in 2018.[12]

The song has been covered by Los Joao, La Lupe, La Orquesta Plateria (that popularized the song in Spain), Pepe Arevalo, Los Flamers, Roman Palomar, A Palo Seko, Markoz, and La Pozze Latina. Pedro Navaja was one of the songs that Puerto Rican singer Chayanne covered his 1994 album, Influencias.[13] Mexican pop singer, Emmanuel covered the song on his live album, Emmanuel Presenta...[14]

The song is featured in The Flash (2023) as Nora Allen (Maribel Verdú) sings it to her son, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), before her death.[15]

Musicians as listed in the album's liner notes are:[16]