“Cruzar el Niagara en Bicicleta

Nationality: Cuban
Age: 58
Occupation: Retired
Residence: Miami, FL
Performance Date: 4/15/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Cuban culture in general is incredibly vibrant and colorful. With recent tourism to Cuba rising, foreigners often underestimate how vibrant the buildings, cars, and clothes are in Cuba. And this powerful expression also transfers over into language and proverbs. When visiting home recently, my aunt and grandmother came over to share common Cuban vernacular with me. This one specifically came from my mother.

Her idiom is: “Cruzar el niagara en bicicleta”. Phonetically, it’s easy to pronounce since it utilizes the same Latin alphabet. It’s literal translation is “Cross Niagara Falls on a bicycle.” However, when one says the idiom they really mean that something is incredibly difficult or impossible, like crossing Niagara Falls on a bicycle.

My mom was the oldest of three children, witnessing and remembering the most out of her siblings. Also as the oldest, more emphasis was put on her by her father to be successful. In high school, when she expressed interest in a career that fulfilled her, her father would refuse by using the idiom. She was severely limited, but ultimately found ways to overcome her father’s presence by moving out to seek a college education. She’s such a badass she makes crossing Niagara Falls on a bicycle look easy.

Красота требует жертв

Nationality: Ukrainian
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/20
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

My friend V typically speaks about her crazy Ukrainian family and their escapades whenever we’re outside of class. Growing up as a first generation Ukrainian-American is a little wild (as a first generation anything for that matter!).

I asked if she had a proverb that really influenced her, and she told me this: “Красота требует жертв”. Phonetically it’s pronounced “Krasota trebuet zhertv”. V said that the literal translation is “Beauty requires sacrifice” with the actual translation being “Without pain/sacrifice, you will not achieve beauty.”

V said that she had learned it from her Ukrainian mom when growing up, and says that it has two meanings for her. The first being that the proverb reminds her of how different and sexist the environment was where her mother was raised. Her other interpretation is that one must go through hard and unpleasant circumstances to achieve good things and have good things happen to them. It’s also a value of hard work for her, as she gave me the example of drawing thousands of dots for a pointillism painting. It’s tedious and one can easily get carpal tunnel, but the ends, to V, justify the struggling means.

El Camaron que se Duerma se lo Lleva la Corriente

Nationality: Cuban
Age: 54
Occupation: Customer Service Supervisor
Residence: Miami, FL
Performance Date: 4/15/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Cuban culture in general is incredibly vibrant and colorful. With recent tourism to Cuba rising, foreigners often underestimate how vibrant the buildings, cars, and clothes are in Cuba. And this powerful expression also transfers over into language and proverbs. When visiting home recently, my aunt and grandmother came over to share proverbs and common Cuban vernacular with me.

One such proverb is: “El Camaron que se Duerma se lo Lleva la Corriente”. Phonetically, it’s easy to pronounce since it utilizes the same Latin alphabet.

My aunt knows about this proverb because when they were growing up in Puerto Rico, my grandfather was a constant example of hard work: he became very wealthy in Cuba, lost it to Castro, and gained it back again in both the US and Puerto Rico. When literally translated it says “The sleeping shrimp is taken by the current”, meaning that if not attentive or on top of things, one does not have control. It’s generally a good proverb to know as a reminder for one to continue her studies. It was a constant reminder for my aunt to work hard and be on top of her priorities; a value that was instilled into her and her sisters and eventually down to me and my cousins.

As my aunt mentioned this proverb, my mom, who was also in the room, yelled “Yes, someone needs to tell this chiquito this” (meaning me) because I’m super lazy and need to be more on top of things. Now that my mom was reminded of this proverb, I don’t think I’ll hear the end of it.

Russian Fortune Telling

Nationality: Ukrainian
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/12/18
Primary Language: English
Language: Russian

A friend of mine in class offered to read me my fortune. I was ecstatic to have her read me my fortune–which she says is legitimate due to her Gypsy heritage–and when she came she had a deck of cards neatly wrapped in cloth and a little book. “I use playing cards that have never been played with before, or else it won’t work.” I didn’t ask her why it needed to be specifically unplayed cards, but before I had the chance to she had formed a star out of playing cards. She told me to use the four that formed a cross first and pick a direction, explaining to me that one of the four is destined to occur. After I finished that, she told me to go the other way and pick the remaining cards, which looked like an X. She said the same thing about how only one will actually occur, but explained that two may be intertwined together. Each time a row of cards was revealed, she would look into the little book she had and read their interpretations which depended on the order of cards and whether one was upside down or not. I asked her where she got the meanings from, and she said she had collected them over the years from her grandmother and compiled them into the little book. Amazed that she’s been able to do that, she read me my fortune (which only had one positive fortune each) which didn’t look good. So I took it with a grain of salt and thanked her for giving me my fortune. Let’s hope none of it happens.Russian Fortune Telling

Agua Que No Vas a Beber Déjala Correr

Nationality: Cuban
Age: 54
Occupation: Customer Service Supervisor
Residence: Miami, FL
Performance Date: 4/15/18
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: english

Cuban culture in general is incredibly vibrant and colorful. With recent tourism to Cuba rising, foreigners often underestimate how vibrant the buildings, cars, and clothes are in Cuba. And this powerful expression also transfers over into language and proverbs. Although the Cuban diaspora is widespread, our vernacular holds us together. When visiting home recently, my aunt and grandmother came over to share proverbs and common Cuban vernacular with me.

One such proverb is: “Agua Que No Vas a Beber Déjala Correr”. Phonetically, it’s easy to pronounce since it utilizes the same Latin alphabet.

This is Cuban proverb was told to me by my aunt, who’s heard it all her life whether in public or at home. As a native speaker, I’ve heard this proverb a lot while growing up but did not know what it really meant until my aunt explained it. When literally translated, it reads “Water you don’t drink, you should let run.” My aunt explained that the original context means that if an issue does not concern you, you let it be; like water flowing down a stream it is not important to you at all. Sometimes it’s worse, the proverb posits, to become muddled in someone else’s problems. If one tries to solve the problems of another, the one with the problem won’t grow as a result and the situation can become much worse as a result of the intervening. So everyone for themselves, y’all.