Tag Archives: saying

Don’t Let the Cucuy get you

Nationality: Mexican American
Age: 24
Occupation: Custodian
Residence: Riverside, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/2015
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

SC: Whenever me or my siblings would act up, the nearest authority figure would say, “You better calm down or I’ll call the cucuy.” This happened often in the car, and my parents would knock on the windows. (Informant knocks on the table)

“YOU HEAR THAT? THE CUCUY’S COMING!” And I’d be all “…fffff.” Y-yeah. Didn’t spook me at all. Wasn’t like I thought I actually was going to get abducted when no one was looking.

Me: What’s a cucuy?

SC: It’s basically a Mexican boogeyman. Are you asking what I thought it looked like? Probably seven feet tall, ratty moss-green fur, bloodshot yellow eyes. Craggly coffee stained teeth. Like a giant baboon that lived in a sewer all its life.

The cucuy is also sometimes called the coco in Portugal and el cuco in Latin America, and the Coco Man in Hispanic communities in the states. Its appearance is different in each culture, ranging from a pumpkin-headed ghost to an anthropomorphic alligator. This legend is referenced in the last chapter of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, in which Don Quixote is referred to by this title on his epitaph.

Little Willie mean as hell, threw his sister in the well, mother said when drawing water, “Gee it’s hard to raise a daughter.”

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 1 2013
Primary Language: English

Will’s grandparents would watch him and his siblings when his parents went on trips. Whenever Will would act up or do something wrong, his grandpa used to say to him “Little Willie mean as hell, threw his sister in the well, mother said when drawing water, ‘Gee it’s hard to raise a daughter.’” When his grandpa would say this to him, it was a sign of disappointment. It was a way of making Will feel bad about whatever he had done wrong without actually getting angry with him. Will would protest and say that he wasn’t mean, and he would try and disprove his grandpa the first few times his grandpa would say the phrase to him. There were other versions of the saying that Will’s grandpa used to say to him, but he can’t remember exactly what they were.

Drink Your Windex

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 3rd, 2013
Primary Language: English

This saying was said by my informant’s father to her whenever she stood in front of the television. He would say “you didn’t drink your Windex this morning”, and my informant now says this whenever she finds herself in a similar situation.

Windex is a window and mirror cleaner, and so presumably this saying means that you are not clear enough to see through (and you would be if you had ingested Windex). It could only have come into existence after 1933, when Windex was first produced. It also indicates the commonality of the product and the issue, as there is a saying incorporating a brand name product in a situation that became more and more prevalent as televisions began to enter homes.

A Cookie A Day

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 12th, 2013
Primary Language: English

This is a joke passed on in the family of my informant, and dates back to his grandfather. It plays on the saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”. His father would have a cookie for breakfast every day, saying that he didn’t need a doctor or an apple and that he would rather have a cookie. He died in his fifties from heart complications.

This has now become a joke in their family; every time someone feels ill, a family member would recommend that the person start eating cookies for breakfast, and gave rise to the adapted saying in their family that “a cookie a day keeps the doctor away”.

Drunken Words Are Sober Thoughts

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 20th, 2013
Primary Language: English

The saying is “drunken words are sober thoughts”, and was provided by an informant at university. This saying warns that alcohol has a truth telling effect, or an effect that would lower the inhibitions of whomever may be speaking and thus they will speak their true thoughts, rather than dissembling. It warns people not only to believe in drunken confessions, but also would warn those who would drink in a precarious situation that they may say things that they would normally not be driven to say. My informant didn’t know where she heard it but believed in its validity, and given that overconsumption of alcohol has a very long history, it would be fairly impossible to determine the length of time this proverb has existed. Alcohol alters the normal state of consciousness, thus allowing for people to do or say things that they might not normally, and this proverb indicates that one could gain insight into someone else’s character in this manner.