Tag Archives: Mexican Proverb

“Perro que ladra no muerde”

Informant: My informant is a current sophomore at the University of Southern California. Her parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. However, she grew up in Denver, Colorado. 

Main Piece: “Perro que ladra no muerde” 

Transliteration: “Dog that barks don’t bite” 

Translation: “Dog that barks doesn’t bite” 

Context: My informant stated that this proverb is usually present when someone is being threatening, but you know that they will not do anything. My informant proceeded to give an example of her own explaining the following: For example, if somebody told me, oh, I’m in denial, I’m finally going to buy my car or something, and it’s like someone who doesn’t have the funds to buy a car or something, then this proverb would apply to them. She stated that this proverb is used to like the question “But are you actually going to do it? Probably not. She heard it from my parents and other members of my family. And now, it has been said so many times by her family, that she also began saying it. She started seeing it sort of as a joke not even just to say it literally, but just because it was like something that she heard with the older people in my family. She felt like at first it was just sort of like an “Oh, let me try to fit in with the in my culture.”

Analysis: I think it’s interesting how in so many cultures, we don’t say what we think upfront, but rather we look for sneaky ways of creating proverbs to talk about people. I for one, am also very familiar with this proverb because it used a lot for the same reason as it was explained for above. This proverb just demonstrates how in Mexican culture we detest individuals who are all talk, but never take action. For example, if you talk too much about supposed accomplishment that you will be doing, yet you don’t accomplish them, in Mexican culture that is embarrassing. All in all, I think this proverb serves its purpose to humble down people.

La Carne de Burro no es Transparente

Informant: My informant is my Mexican dad who grew up in Puebla, Mexico.

Main Piece: “La carne de burro no es transparente”

Transliteration: “donkey meat is not transparent”

Translation: “Donkey meat is not transparent”

Context: My dad stated that he heard this proverb in Mexico a lot whenever, he was in the way or when someone was in his way, he would say it. This proverb is told in order to tell someone to move out of the way. In other words, “excuse me,” but in a much vulgar way.

Analysis: I think this proverb can be problematic because it stems from fatphobia. Although it is proverb used to tell someone to get out in the way, it means to say it because you are telling the person that they are too “big.” It also emphasizes how in Mexican culture, when this is said it means that the person who said it to you has no time to deal with you. Therefore, you should move out of their way because they have a busy day. Therefore, emphasizes just hardworking Mexican people are.

“Dios en mi. El en ti, la sangre de cristo, me alibre de ti” Mexican proverb and narrative

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/24/2020
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

Main Piece

Informant: My grandma tells me this story about a lady who lived three towns over when she was living in Mexico. There was a time when bulls got out and were running through the streets because they escaped, and this woman was in the streets and caught off guard and a bull was running straight towards her. And there was a prayer that she said over and over again watching the bull run over.  When the bull came up to her it stopped right in front of her, they made eye contact, and the bull  just walked away. She told everyone in town the prayer she told herself to protect her, and it spread across town and that is how my grandma heard it. The prayer went like this:

“Dios en mi. El en ti, la sangre de cristo, me alibre de ti”

It roughly translates to “God is with me. The Devil is with you. The blood of Christ protects me from you.” 

She always tells me to say this whenever I am in danger, whenever I don’t feel safe, to just recite it over and over again and now I do whenever I am scared shitless. There is nothing else to do! Haha. 

Background

The informant is a great friend and housemate of mine, and he is a senior at USC studying Lighting Design. Coming from Oxnard, CA he and his family are very connected with their Mexican roots and he has grown up practicing and identifying with many aspects of Mexican culture. He is also a very big raver, as he enjoys going to many EDM festivals and aspires to do lighting design for different raves as well. 

Context

One day the informant was driving while I was in the passenger street and we had to take a very dimly lit dirt road. When he was driving I heard him reciting a  prayer in Spanish while we were taking this road, and since I speak Spanish fluently as well I could understand it was some sort of protection prayer. After we got off of the road I asked him what he was reciting, and asked him about it once more in our interview to get more of the context. 

Analysis

Coming from a very Hispanic city and a Mexican family, the informant was taught this folk proverb and accompanying narrative through in Spanish and through word of mouth. It offers a sense of protection and security, and ties into the religious nature of Hispanic communities. Since this story was passed down from his grandmother, it also is a signifier of identity not only to his family, but to his culture as a whole.

Friends Proverb

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 48
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Santa Ana
Performance Date: 4/21/19
Primary Language: Spanish

MG: Cual is tu favorito dicho?

Which is  your favorite proverb?

CG: “Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres. Como si te juntas con personas inteligentes seras inteligente y si te juntas con personas malosas tambien vas a ser cosas malas.”

Tell me who you are with and I will tell you who you are. Like if you are around people who are intelligent you are going to be intelligent too and if you hang out with people who do bad things you are also going to do bad things.

English proverb: “A man is known for his friends”

Context: I asked CG for her favorite proverb and this was the first one that came to her mind.

Background: CG is my mom and she was born in Mexico. She came here when she was 17 years old and she still remembers these proverbs that old wise people would tell her. She believes it especially because the people who you are around can strongly influence who you are. She has told this one to me before and when she told me the proverb many stories of her using this one on me came to mind.

Thoughts: This is a well-known proverb and I was not too surprised to find that there is an official English version of this proverb. Growing up my mom would tell me this whenever she would advise me to choose my friends wisely. She has always explained to me that even if I did not do bad things with my friends, people would automatically make assumptions on who I was by the people I would hang out with. This is a common Mexican proverb used in families within the context of gangs. There is a large amount of young people in the Latin American culture who are involved in gangs and this proverb is used to discourage them from being friends with gang members.

 

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