Category Archives: Riddle

“Agua pasa por mi casa, cate de mi corazón, lleva un vestido verde, y amarillo el corazón,” Mexico

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/24/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

This riddle was collected from a friend, who was born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico and is 21 years old. The riddle “agua pasa por mi casa, cate de mi corazón, lleva un vestido verde, y amarillo el corazón” translates into English literally as “water passes through my house, cate from my heart, it wears a green dress, and has a yellow heart.” The answer is avocado, for the word in Spanish for it is aguacate, so if it is split in too it becomes “agua” (the word for water) and “cate,” which isn’t an actual word.

 

My friend says she used to hear it a lot around school as she was growing up. She says she isn’t surprised that avocados were made into a riddle since avocados are very common in Mexico, and she grew up eating them with every single meal.

 

This riddle is a variation of one I grew up with myself, and it is one of the most popular ones that I can remember from my childhood. It seems that Latin American riddles are a bit more symbolic in that they involved more imagery than American ones.

Erre con Erre

Nationality: Venezuelan American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: usc
Performance Date: april 17, 2018
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

What is being performed?
TV: There’s this little riddle Venezuelan’s teach their children to learn how to roll their “r’s”
AA: How does it go?
TV: Erre con erre cigarro. Erre con erre barril. Rápido corren los carros, cargados de azúcar del
ferrocarril.
AA: What does it mean?
TV: Nothing real, it’s just a way to practice rolling your “r’s” by saying as many “r” words as
possible.
AA: What could it translate to?
TV: I guess roughly it translates to R with R, uh, cigar, R with R, barrell, the cars go fast and
they’re carrying sugar from the railroad. It’s a lot of gibberish.

Why do they know or like this piece? where/who did they learn it from? What does it mean to
them?
AA: Has this helped you?
TV: It actually has. It sticks with you and it’s fun so you get good practice rolling your “r’s.”
AA: What does it mean to you?
TV: I see it as a way I can help my future children embrace their Venezuelan culture and learn
how to speak with an accent when speaking Spanish. The Venezuelan accent is very different
from other Latin American accents, too, so it’s a way to embrace that.
Context of the performance- where do you perform it? History?
AA: Where do you perform this?
TV: It’s mostly performed amongst young children in school as sort of a little competition or
between a parent and a child as practice.

Reflection
I think this is a very catchy and fun way of practicing rolling “r’s”– something that’s fundamental
to proper pronunciation in Spanish. I think it’s a special trick that gets to be shared with families
and passed down. I also think it’s a celebration of Spanish and a language that is very beautiful
because of it’s pronunciation.

Dental Joke

Nationality: Irish American
Age: 19
Occupation: student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: 4/20/18
Primary Language: English

What is the best time to go to the dentist? Tooth hurty.

This joke was told to me by one of my closest friends, and she is quite the jokester. As she was telling me this joke, she pretty much admitted to telling everybody this joke because she finds it so funny. It’s very senseless and does not really have any catch lines or interesting elements to it. It was ironic because I had heard this from my uncle many years ago, as he always tells everyone he meets this joke too. It is not inventive or really that funny, that makes everybody laugh, almost every time because of the simplicity of it.

 

Cabbage Riddle

Nationality: Former Soviet Union/Ukranian/Russian
Age: 50
Occupation: Business owner
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/10/18
Primary Language: Russian
Language: Ukranian, English

Main Piece: Riddle

Original:

Сто одежек и все без застежек.

– Капуста.

Phonetic:

Sto odezhek i vse bez zastezhek.
– Kapusta.

Translation:

One hundred outfits and each without clasps.

– Cabbage

Background Information:

  • Why does informant know this piece?

This was told to him by his childhood friends

  • Where did they learn this piece?

Ukraine

  • What does it mean to them?

It’s an interesting riddle.

Context:

This is told by children to other children to play riddle games.

Personal Thoughts:

I have heard multiple variations of this riddle, including one where instead of the answer being “cabbage”, the answer is “onions.”

The Inedible Pear Riddle

Nationality: Ukranian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Kyiv, Ukraine
Performance Date: 4/12/18
Primary Language: Russian
Language: Ukranian

Main Piece:

Original:

Весит груша, нельзя скушать.

– Лампочка.

Phonetic:

Vesit grusha, nel’zya skushat’.
– Lampochka.

Translation:

A pear is hanging, but you cannot eat it.

– Light bulb.

Background Information:

  • Why does informant know this piece?

This was told to him by his childhood friends

  • Where did they learn this piece?

Ukraine

  • What does it mean to them?

It’s an interesting riddle.

Context:

This is told by children to other children to play riddle games.

Personal Thoughts:

I have heard a different variant of this riddle, where the answer is “boxing punch bag” instead of a light bulb, since the word for “pear” and “punching bag” in Russian is the same (груша).