Tag Archives: spanish

Sonny Beaches

Nationality: American
Age: 53
Occupation: Methodist Pastor
Residence: Frisco, Texas
Performance Date: April 9, 2012
Primary Language: English

Billy Echols-Richter

Houston, Texas

April 9, 2012

Folklore Type: Joke

Informant Bio: Billy is my uncle on my mother’s side. He is a Methodist Pastor, and a hilarious and friendly person and/or kid. He recently did a sermon series using Dr. Seuss. I have recently discovered he could be considered the family story teller because he learned all of my grandfather’s stories, jokes, and songs.

Context:  During this past summer of 2011 my grandfather on my Mom’s side passed away. Then recently my grandfather on my Father’s side passed away, and my Uncle Billy stayed with us and did the funeral service. He, my parents, and I were all talking. Then all of a sudden he started telling jokes his father used to tell.

Item: There is a Mexican who came and said, “I am able to understand. I can tell you what things are cause of what they sound like. I can tell you that’s a cheekin.” “How can you tell?” “Cause it go cluck, cluck.” “I can tell you that’s a cow.” “Well how can you tell?” “Cause it go moo, moo.” And I can tell that a man from Florida because he always yelling sunny beaches, sunny beaches.”

 

Informant Analysis: Let me see which one. I hear a certain word and it always kinda reminds of the punch line of some of those jokes. And he was always telling us those kinds of jokes. Well I think part of the deal was, 1 dad came from a big family. He was not the oldest and he was not the youngest and so between the eight of them they told lots of stories. They didn’t have a TV or anything and his dad was a good story teller. And people stopping through getting gasoline and that’s where you would hearthe latest story or gossip. Of course he was also in the military and that’s notorious for hearing all sorts of things. The last thing is work in the oil fields and he didn’t realy work in the fields well I guess at first he did. And workin in the fields you get lots of jokes. And there were still lots of racism. Lot of the jokes centered around African Americans, Hispanic, and even Cajun. What made me think about it was dad work in the oil fields was corpus and they were with a lot of Hispanic and Mexican Americans. It would be a racist riddle.

There’s two or three things. It certainly helps me have a joyful smile and just helps my dad stay with me. I had a sense that papa was with me with just the sense of things. I had a friend where my dad used to write me handwritten letters and when I read them I can still hear his voice. For these little rhymes or jokes I can hear my dad. I also think of family and how it came from my dad and his family and his dad. As silly as they are I’m a part of something much, much bigger than myself. I’m not the first to think it’s funny. It’s funny but at the same time there’s some depth to it. You know a lot of people have items that they pass on to people and special objects and what not, but the silly things we are talking about now they don’t ever get lost or deteriorate. You know now I try to pass them on to my kids, and some things they find funny and some they don’t. I think Julie finds some funnier now than when say she was Lawson’s age.

 

Analysis: I think my Uncle Billy really understands and has thought about this joke and where it comes from. It is a slightly racist reflection of a language barrier. Yet it still contains innocence because the Mexican does not know what the last part means; he is just going on the sounds he hears. This joke was more than likely developed as a result of Mexicans crossing the border and willing to work for very cheap resulting in fewer jobs for other lower income ethnicities.

Alex Williams

Los Angeles, California

University of Southern California

ANTH 333m   Spring 2012

Cielito Lindo

Nationality: Mexican-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Claremont, California
Performance Date: February 2007
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

SourceURL:file://localhost/Volumes/HP%20V125W/SP%2007%20FL&PC%20COLLECTS/Scheffler/1.%20Spanish%20Folksong.doc

“Cielito Lindo”

Ay, ay ay ay
Cantar no llores
Porque Cantando se alegran,
Cielito lindo,
Los corazones

Translation:

Ay, ay ay ay
Sing and don’t cry
Because singing, my Beautiful Heaven,
Gladdens the heart

 

My informant first learned this song as a child, when his father would sing it to him as a lullaby.   His father is Mexican and his mother is Caucasian, and he was traditionally raised in the American sense, learning English and not Spanish.  In fact, the only Spanish he knows is this Mexican folksong, and he is not able to translate it.  He sings this song when he’s bored, to break an awkward silence, and just to be obnoxious.  In fact, he once removed the last three lines with “Please leave a mess-age/and I’ll get back to you/as soon as I ca-an” and used the song as his phone’s voicemail message.

While it may seem pointless to recite the folksong considering he does not even know what the lyrics stand for, my informant believes the song is his only link to that part of his heritage, and when he sings it, he feels closer to his dad and that part of his family tree.  He believes that it used by others for the very same reason, to connect with the history of their ancestors.

When translated, the song is about how singing will protect your heart from sorrow.  In Mexican tradition, Cielito Lindo represents a lovely stranger.

La ambición rompe el saco.

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

La ambición rompe el saco.

If you do more than you can handle, you will bust.

 

(Similar Proverb: Don’t spread yourself too thin.)

My informant, who is bilingual, remembers hearing this proverb from her grandmother, who moved to the United States from Cuba in 1976. (My informant’s mother came to the United States at the same time in 1976).

Her grandmother would always say this to her when she was stressed out. Her grandmother meant to remind her of her limitations with her workload, particularly in high school.

My informant noted that these proverbs are said more by her grandmother than her mother, and hardly ever by her own generation.

My informant also has discussed the effect that speaking English has had on her repeating proverbs in Spanish. She remembers them in Spanish, but does not say them in Spanish. She says the English variants more often than not. I asked about the structure of the proverb, the if/then statement, and if it is popular among Spanish proverbs, but my informant did not have an answer for me.

Ningún mono se ve el rabo.

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Ningún mono se ve el rabo.

No monkey sees his own tail.

 

(Similar Proverbs: Pigs don’t know pigs stink, Before you criticize the splinter in someone else’s eye, remove the log from your own.)

My informant, who is bilingual, remembers hearing this proverb from her grandmother, born in 1915, and who moved to the United States from Cuba in 1976. (My informant’s mother came to the United States at the same time in 1976).

This was one of her favorite proverbs growing up. Notice the objects used in each version of the proverb. In Cuba it was a monkey, a more western version uses a pig. It appears that this proverb is localized to each region in that they use native animals for the proverb.

My informant did note that, although some versions of this proverb do come from the Bible, she felt that “No monkey sees his own tail” is more a reflection of her grandmother’s origins, not the similarity between her grandmother’s version and the version found in the bible involving removing the log from ones eye.

My informant explained the proverb to me as a proverb advocating self-examination. When you want to criticize someone for a small fault, look at yourself and any faults that you might have first.

“Más vale un pájaro en la mano que cinco en vuelo.”

Nationality: Cuban-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: April 2007
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

Más vale un pájaro en la mano que cinco en vuelo.

A bird in hand is worth more than five in flight.

 

My informant, who is bi-lingual, remembers hearing this proverb from her grandmother, born in 1915, and who moved to the United States from Cuba in 1976. (My informant’s mother came to the United States at the same time in 1976).

My informant said that her mother and grandmother are the ones who say these proverbs, she claims that her generation does not repeat them as much.

For this particular proverb, my informant could not recall the context in which she heard it,  just that she thought it was clever. It refers to the value of money today as opposed to possibilities of money in the future.

This proverb appears in many different regions, so therefore the uniqueness of this variant is the comparison of a bird in hand to five in flight. Other variants have the birds in a bush, not in flight. Therefore, the Cuban influence on this proverb is evident through the influence of Cuba’s aviary wildlife.

 

Annotation: This proverb, (worded as “a bird in hand is worth a thousand flying”) and its comparison to a western variant are mentioned in the article, “Capital Financing, An Old Approach Reapplied” by Ronald W. Chapman Public Productivity Review, Vol. 7, No. 4. (Dec., 1983), pp. 378-387.