Category Archives: Proverbs

Spanish Proverb

Nationality: Cuban
Age: 67
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Houston, TX
Performance Date: March 15, 2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Subject: Proverb

 

Informant: I asked my dad, Jose Oti, if he knew any proverbs that were important to him or that he grew up with. He was born in Cuba in the fifties and moved to the United States when he was eleven. When he immigrated to the U.S., he had to escape without the government finding out he and his family were trying to move out for good. Because of this, his parents told him to take his little brother and his little sister and go to the United States alone, and they would come meet them in Miami later. As a result, he was forced to grow up fast, in a sense, and learn not to make mistakes. When I asked him if any proverbs came to mind, he responded,

 

“There’s a saying in Spanish that translates to ‘it’s better to be alone than in bad company.’”

 

The phrase is a common saying in the Spanish language in general, but my family got it from Cuba, where their extended family and friends of the family said the saying regularly. He said his parents started saying it to him more often when they had all moved and settled in the U.S. Since he had never spoken English before arriving in the United States, he was held back a few grades in school, and had to work extra hard to become fluent enough in English so that he could do well enough in school and skip a few grades to catch up with the kids that were his age. Therefore, he could definitely not afford to get into significant trouble that would set him back. His parents stressed this to him with the proverb, and whenever they thought he was hanging around with kids from school who might be a bad influence on him, they would repeat in the original Spanish,

 

“Mejor solo que mal acompnañado(a).”

 

I’ve heard the proverb many times from my dad before, growing up, but as it is a phrase said as advice or as a scolding, usually from a parent to their child when the child has gotten into trouble, I never really took it to heart or thought about what it actually meant. When I asked my dad where he had first heard it from, he told me, “I learned it from Abuelo and Abuela [or, “dad and mom”] when they thought I might be hanging around with kids who may get me into trouble.”

Lessons in Friends

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 74
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Sunnyside, WA
Performance Date: 3/20/17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

LW is a retired 74-year-old woman who lives with her husband in Sunnyside, WA. She was born and raised there and came from an immigrant mother and father who came from Guadalajara, Mexico. She never went to college but became a mother to three children and a grandmother to several grandchildren. She was remarried twice and worked two minimum wage jobs to support her family. Her primary language is Spanish but her English is perfect as well.

Are there any saying you have learned that you have passed down or that were passed to you?

LW: My mother used to be big on the fact that my friends were a direct reflection of me and that they would tell her a lot about the kind of person I was so she used to always say to me in Spanish, ‘Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres’. That saying basically means, show me who your friends are and that will show me who you are.

Do you think she learned it from anywhere or did she invent that saying herself?

LW: I am not sure if she got it from anywhere but I also don’t think she came up with it all by herself. I mean, the philosophy behind it was something she may have come up with on her own in order to teach me a lesson about making friends with trouble-makers. I have passed it on to my own children in order to teach them the same lesson my mom taught me, because it really is true that the friends you pick are a direct reflection of who you are and how other people will perceive you.

Analysis:

It is common to pass on saying from family member to family member that teach a lesson. The particular lesson of this saying was very important to the heritage of this family and continues to be passed down from generation to generation. Although the lesson is widely known, the direct saying may not be. This piece of folklore could easily die out if it is not passed on from the previous generation, but the lesson is the one thing that will live on.

Wartime Proverb

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/21/17
Primary Language: English

Informant Information:

Clerisse Cornejo is a student at the University of Southern California. She comes from a mixed background (Japanese/Mexican), and is originally from Fontana, CA.

Story:

“I think that one story that really stuck with me that my grandmother told me was about her adolescence. As a child she was born into WWII and lost her dad at a really early age. Because it was wartime kids couldn’t really go outside and play so she often stood home and spent time with her cousin Hiroko who she considers her best friend. When the war was over in Japan they were finally able to go out and be kids. So when she was a teen they both decided they wanted to learn how to ride a bike. They would take turns riding it and help each other balance. My grandmother said that they both fell down a lot but they would always help each other up and try again. She told me this as a lesson for failure so even though I might fail a lot at first I should keep trying until I succeed.”

Q: What would your grandmother and Hiroko do inside if they couldn’t play?

“I never asked about that, but I would think as kids in wartime they would try their best to emulate what they would do if they were allowed to go outside. I think it was probably really important for them to make up their own games or play game they heard from other people outside of their house. You weren’t confined to your house every moment of the day, but going outside you were never sure if the bombs were gonna drop. So it was really important to them I think.

Analysis:

 The informant told me this as a sort of proverb/lesson from her grandmother. From what I can see, this proverb can be seen in other cultures/circumstances (the whole notion of never giving up/trying again), but it just so happened that in this case the proverb was told to the informant from her grandmother’s personal experience. Because her grandmother was isolated throughout her childhood, this goes to show that proverbs/advice such as this can pop out of basic human circumstances and different situations we all go through regardless of whether or not we’ve heard the proverb before.

A Vietnamese Proverb: Dark and Light

Nationality: Vietnamese
Age: 49
Occupation: Accountant
Residence: San Jose, California
Performance Date: April 22, 2017
Primary Language: Vietnamese
Language: English

This is a Vietnamese proverb that was told to me by my mother when I was very young:

“Gần mực thì đen gần đèn thì sáng.”

 

Literal translation:

“Close to ink then you are dark, close to light then you are bright”

 

This is a proverb often told to children, meaning that you should be careful with who you surround yourself with. People are shaped by others around them, and if one surrounds themselves with bad people (the dark) they will become bad, while if one surround themselves with good people (the light), then they will be a good person. This is a lesson about peer pressure, as well as a warning to young children about how friends, family, and peers can influence them.

 

Collectors Comments:

This is a proverb that has stuck with me for a long time since my mom first told me way back when. It reminds me of sayings such as “hanging with the wrong crowd” or other proverbs that deal with friend groups and peer pressure. This saying was my mom’s way of trying to teach me that I should be selective with my friends, and only hang around people that would make me better. The proverb makes use of the contrasts between black and white and dark and light that are common in so many cultures. While, I have heard similar proverbs in other languages, this is the first one I’ve heard that relates to ink as black and light to white.

 

Mexican Proverb

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 35
Occupation: Nanny
Performance Date: 4-26-17
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Main Piece: Mexican Proverb

 

Original – “El burro sabe más que tú”

 

Transliteration – “The donkey knows more than you”

 

Translation – “The donkey knows more than you”

 

Background:

 

This proverb is also from my Mexican nanny, Mirna, and this one is more of an insult. My nanny says she likes to use this one especially in America because more often than not people do not understand Spanish and it is easy to offend them without even knowing. Donkeys are a large part of Mexican culture in agriculture and just life in general. They tend to be more of a source of power for hauling goods or farm equipment, and aren’t necessarily thought of as being the brainiest.

My nanny says that this was your generic grade school insult, and it was never really meant for too much harm, sort of an elaborate version of just telling someone their stupid. She and her siblings would use it on each other, and there is no profanity used in it so it was never really frowned upon by elders when they heard it.

 

Context:

 

My nanny has actually been saying this to me for a long time now, as she would talk to me and my siblings in Spanish at a young age to give us an understanding of another language while we were still apprehensive to it. Of course we would get into our usual shenanigans and she would say this to us and we would think it was funny not really knowing what it meant, but now knowing what it means it only really seems fitting as something you would say to a child, as an adult would think you were being childish if you just said “a donkey knows more than you.”

I was just told this in a face to face conversation so the real context of using it is not there, but I can see how it would be more so used between childhood friends on the playground or in instances like that.

 

My thoughts:

 

It is interesting to see how a culture’s lifestyle has an effect on how they insult each other, and even though it may be seen as something not very effective in offending someone, it can be thought of as more playful banter because obviously a donkey is not a smart animal. I doubt there is much of a real world application for this insult but it is interesting to me how it is more of an intellectual insult as opposed to simply telling someone the