Re: [Unschooling-Discussion] Digest Number 3812
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/10/03 4:43:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
La Cucaracha! La Cucaracha!
Dum dee dumdee dum dee dum.
LOL
We were talking about this song just the other day, does anyone know the
translation and WHY somone wrote a song about cock-a-roaches?
*~*Elissa Jill*~*
unschooling Momma to 3 beautiful brilliant people
Loving partner for life to Joey
terrible guitarist, fair singer and happy woman.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected] writes:
> La cucaracha! La cucaracha!I know the second line!
>
> That's about it.
>
> -pam
>
>
>
La Cucaracha! La Cucaracha!
Dum dee dumdee dum dee dum.
LOL
We were talking about this song just the other day, does anyone know the
translation and WHY somone wrote a song about cock-a-roaches?
*~*Elissa Jill*~*
unschooling Momma to 3 beautiful brilliant people
Loving partner for life to Joey
terrible guitarist, fair singer and happy woman.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
My sister took Spanish so I learned to say, "Esta Susanna is la cocina?
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.."
What you tried to say turned out something like: Is Susanna the Kitchen?
Hehe
What you wanted to say was "Esta Susanna en la cocina?"
"Si, Susanna esta en la cocina"
There is no "is" or "in"...what you wanted was "es" or "en"...close, but not quite there.
Which brings me to my lanugage experience.
I took a year of Spanish in HS, a semester in Jr.High....couldn't remember much of anything, but the Spanish language I pick up fairly easy. We spent a week in Mexico and I remembered and used more Spanish than I ever did in class..cool!
Now I own a couple of Spanish programs that I find useful when I feel like using them (course, they're speaking to you in Spanish throughout, so it's similar to immersion.
I've found that I can learn a Spanish song fairly quick, I sing them to the kids. Music is a fantastic way to learn parts of a lanuage.
Immersion is definitely the only way to go!!
Ren
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.."
What you tried to say turned out something like: Is Susanna the Kitchen?
Hehe
What you wanted to say was "Esta Susanna en la cocina?"
"Si, Susanna esta en la cocina"
There is no "is" or "in"...what you wanted was "es" or "en"...close, but not quite there.
Which brings me to my lanugage experience.
I took a year of Spanish in HS, a semester in Jr.High....couldn't remember much of anything, but the Spanish language I pick up fairly easy. We spent a week in Mexico and I remembered and used more Spanish than I ever did in class..cool!
Now I own a couple of Spanish programs that I find useful when I feel like using them (course, they're speaking to you in Spanish throughout, so it's similar to immersion.
I've found that I can learn a Spanish song fairly quick, I sing them to the kids. Music is a fantastic way to learn parts of a lanuage.
Immersion is definitely the only way to go!!
Ren
Mary
> In a message dated 7/10/03 4:43:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,La cucaracha, La cucaracha,
> [email protected] writes:
>
> > La cucaracha! La cucaracha!
> >
> > That's about it.>>>
Running up and down the wall.
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Me no love you not at all!!!
Little cucaracha mia,
La la la la la la la
When I'm not around to see ya,
You are eating my tortilla.
I don't think these are the real words but somewhere in grade school I
learned this one from one of my teachers. Don't ask me why. I can't for the
life of me think of that second line in the second part. I've been trying
for years and can't find these words anywhere. Just useless information
stuck in my brain!!!
Mary B
Fetteroll
on 7/10/03 12:44 PM, Mary at mummy124@... wrote:
Here's the "Straight Dope" on the song. Actually he doesn't do much better
on the lyrics but if you type cucaracha lyrics into Google, you'll get lots
of hits.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010727.html
Dear Cecil:
What are the words to the song "La Cucaracha"? Every person I asked at
school didn't know beyond the title. Even my parents did not know. I am
using my parents' E-mail to ask you. --Liz Dear Liz:
Happy to oblige, kiddo, but some people aren't going to be pleased. "La
Cucaracha," one of Mexico's best-known folk songs, doesn't put the ideal
spin on life south of the border. The U.S. may have amber waves of grain;
the UK has jolly jolly sixpence; Mexico has . . . cockroaches. The Mexican
Tourism Board can only hope monolingual Yankees don't realize what the title
means. As possible evidence on this score I note that in Minneapolis, the
Kyoto of midwestern culture, La Cucaracha is the name of a restaurant.
Somebody really ought to clue these people in.
But you wanted the lyrics. One complication is that there are about five
million verses, many of them proof of how creative you can get on a couple
quarts of Dos Equis at three o'clock in the morning. Here are the two most
commonly quoted:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar.
(The cockroach, the cockroach
Now he can't go traveling
Because he doesn't have, because he lacks
Marijuana to smoke.)
You can see how closer acquaintance with the lyrics does not improve the PR
situation. Sometimes the last line is replaced with a bowdlerization such as
limonada que tomar (lemonade to drink), but if you're old enough to be
messing with dad's E-mail program, you're old enough to know the truth.
To continue:
Ya la murio la cucaracha
Ya la lleven a enterrar
Entre cuatro zopilotes
Y un raton de sacristan.
(The cockroach just died
And they carried him off to bury him
Among four buzzards
And the sexton's mouse.)
You're thinking: Mexicans are strange. But there's more going on here than
meets the eye. "La Cucaracha" is the Spanish equivalent of "Yankee
Doodle"--a traditional satirical tune periodically fitted out with new
lyrics to meet the needs of the moment. The origins of the song are obscure,
but apparently it's pretty old. Some verses I came across refer to the
Moorish wars in Spain, which concluded with the conquest of the Moorish
kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. (Obviously 1492 was a
big year for Ferdinand and Isabella on a number of fronts.) Probably the
song itself doesn't go back that far, but in an 1818 book, according to one
source, the Mexican writer Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi claimed the
song was brought to Mexico from Spain by a captain of marines.
One can find "La Cucaracha" lyrics commemorating 19th-century conflicts in
both Spain and Mexico, but verse production didn't really get rocking until
the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920. So many stanzas were added by partisans
on all sides during this period that today, despite its Spanish origin, the
song is associated mostly with Mexico.
Included among the new lyrics were the verses quoted above. Some say the
jape about marijuana was directed at the dictatorial Mexican president
Victoriano Huerta (ruled 1913-1914), ridiculed by his many enemies as a
drunk and dope fiend who lived only for his daily weed. No doubt the four
buzzards and the sexton's mouse were lampoons as well.
Some claim la cucaracha refers solely to Pancho Villa, the
bandido/revolutionary general who eluded U.S. troops following a 1916 attack
on an American border town, only to be assassinated in 1923. Others say the
word refers solely to Villa's car or to the soldaderas, female soldiers/camp
followers who provided cooking and other comforts to the various armies.
These claims are undoubtedly false--the identity of the cockroach varied
with the verse--but still, one shudders. If no one knows the verses to "La
Cucaracha," it's probably just as well.
CECIL ADAMS
> I've been tryingBut obviously not trying on the internet ;-)
> for years and can't find these words anywhere.
Here's the "Straight Dope" on the song. Actually he doesn't do much better
on the lyrics but if you type cucaracha lyrics into Google, you'll get lots
of hits.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010727.html
Dear Cecil:
What are the words to the song "La Cucaracha"? Every person I asked at
school didn't know beyond the title. Even my parents did not know. I am
using my parents' E-mail to ask you. --Liz Dear Liz:
Happy to oblige, kiddo, but some people aren't going to be pleased. "La
Cucaracha," one of Mexico's best-known folk songs, doesn't put the ideal
spin on life south of the border. The U.S. may have amber waves of grain;
the UK has jolly jolly sixpence; Mexico has . . . cockroaches. The Mexican
Tourism Board can only hope monolingual Yankees don't realize what the title
means. As possible evidence on this score I note that in Minneapolis, the
Kyoto of midwestern culture, La Cucaracha is the name of a restaurant.
Somebody really ought to clue these people in.
But you wanted the lyrics. One complication is that there are about five
million verses, many of them proof of how creative you can get on a couple
quarts of Dos Equis at three o'clock in the morning. Here are the two most
commonly quoted:
La cucaracha, la cucaracha
Ya no puede caminar
Porque no tiene, porque le falta
Marijuana que fumar.
(The cockroach, the cockroach
Now he can't go traveling
Because he doesn't have, because he lacks
Marijuana to smoke.)
You can see how closer acquaintance with the lyrics does not improve the PR
situation. Sometimes the last line is replaced with a bowdlerization such as
limonada que tomar (lemonade to drink), but if you're old enough to be
messing with dad's E-mail program, you're old enough to know the truth.
To continue:
Ya la murio la cucaracha
Ya la lleven a enterrar
Entre cuatro zopilotes
Y un raton de sacristan.
(The cockroach just died
And they carried him off to bury him
Among four buzzards
And the sexton's mouse.)
You're thinking: Mexicans are strange. But there's more going on here than
meets the eye. "La Cucaracha" is the Spanish equivalent of "Yankee
Doodle"--a traditional satirical tune periodically fitted out with new
lyrics to meet the needs of the moment. The origins of the song are obscure,
but apparently it's pretty old. Some verses I came across refer to the
Moorish wars in Spain, which concluded with the conquest of the Moorish
kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. (Obviously 1492 was a
big year for Ferdinand and Isabella on a number of fronts.) Probably the
song itself doesn't go back that far, but in an 1818 book, according to one
source, the Mexican writer Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi claimed the
song was brought to Mexico from Spain by a captain of marines.
One can find "La Cucaracha" lyrics commemorating 19th-century conflicts in
both Spain and Mexico, but verse production didn't really get rocking until
the Mexican revolution of 1910-1920. So many stanzas were added by partisans
on all sides during this period that today, despite its Spanish origin, the
song is associated mostly with Mexico.
Included among the new lyrics were the verses quoted above. Some say the
jape about marijuana was directed at the dictatorial Mexican president
Victoriano Huerta (ruled 1913-1914), ridiculed by his many enemies as a
drunk and dope fiend who lived only for his daily weed. No doubt the four
buzzards and the sexton's mouse were lampoons as well.
Some claim la cucaracha refers solely to Pancho Villa, the
bandido/revolutionary general who eluded U.S. troops following a 1916 attack
on an American border town, only to be assassinated in 1923. Others say the
word refers solely to Villa's car or to the soldaderas, female soldiers/camp
followers who provided cooking and other comforts to the various armies.
These claims are undoubtedly false--the identity of the cockroach varied
with the verse--but still, one shudders. If no one knows the verses to "La
Cucaracha," it's probably just as well.
CECIL ADAMS
Mary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fetteroll" <fetteroll@...>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2003 1:15 PM
Subject: [Unschooling-Discussion] La Cucaracha
on 7/10/03 12:44 PM, Mary at mummy124@... wrote:
> I've been trying
> for years and can't find these words anywhere.
<<But obviously not trying on the internet ;-)>>
I meant the words to the song I learned. I know all that other stuff and
never heard those words or that story before. I had spanish in elementary
school and just don't know where my teachers found this particular song.
Just bugs me (no pun intended) that I can't remember that second line!
Mary B
[email protected]
In a message dated 7/10/03 10:08:27 AM, starsuncloud@... writes:
<< My sister took Spanish so I learned to say, "Esta Susanna is la cocina?
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.."
What you tried to say turned out something like: Is Susanna the Kitchen? >>
And at first glance thought "cochina," since there was no preposition and I
thought maybe it was an error of la for un. It was just about as close to "Is
Susanna a pig?" until I saw the response, that she was en la cocina. Though
a pig could be in the kitchen too.
I have had a hard time getting other languages. I can read French better
than I can understand it spoken. I know more Spanish from conversation and the
radio than I learned in class. In class I learned to fear verbs. It's pretty
common in Northern New Mexico to have a conversation in which one person is
speaking Spanish and the other speaking English. Lots of people both
directions can understand what they can't speak in return. So several times someone
would ask me for directions or assistance, or a grandmother would ask me where
something was in the store, and I could help without knowing how to say it in
Spanish.
Sandra
<< My sister took Spanish so I learned to say, "Esta Susanna is la cocina?
Si, Susanna esta in la cocina.."
What you tried to say turned out something like: Is Susanna the Kitchen? >>
And at first glance thought "cochina," since there was no preposition and I
thought maybe it was an error of la for un. It was just about as close to "Is
Susanna a pig?" until I saw the response, that she was en la cocina. Though
a pig could be in the kitchen too.
I have had a hard time getting other languages. I can read French better
than I can understand it spoken. I know more Spanish from conversation and the
radio than I learned in class. In class I learned to fear verbs. It's pretty
common in Northern New Mexico to have a conversation in which one person is
speaking Spanish and the other speaking English. Lots of people both
directions can understand what they can't speak in return. So several times someone
would ask me for directions or assistance, or a grandmother would ask me where
something was in the store, and I could help without knowing how to say it in
Spanish.
Sandra