I always enjoy learning things about Mexican culture. Carolina has told me about a show that they had with really great kids' songs. Francisco Soler is a very well known writer of childrens' songs; many of which were featured on this show. The show itself was called "Cri-Cri", which is Spanish for "Cricket". I guess this was their answer to Jiminy Cricket, but who knows.
We were driving back, and this song came on the radio on a Spanish station. I thought it was really great. It's a song about a little gringo cowboy mouse who is trapped inside a house behind bars. The chorus of the song is in English where the mouse is begging to be set free, but the person singing remarks (in Spanish) that as long as the cowboy mouse has his dangerous looking pistols in the air, even if he speaks Chinese (listen for the word "Chino") he will never let him out. Watch the video, and see if this doesn't get stuck in your head. "What the heck is this house? For a manly cowboy mouse?"
Here is a youtube video of the song on Cri-Cri, and below are some of the lyrics.
EL RATON VAQUERO
(Francisco Gabilondo Soler)
En la ratonera ha caído un ratón,
con sus dos pistolas y su traje de cowboy;
ha de ser gringuito porque siempre habla inglés,
a más de ser güerito y tener grandes los pies.
El ratón vaquero saco sus pistolas
se inclinó el sombrero y me dijo a solas:
"What the heck is this house
for a manly cowboy mouse
hello you let me out
and don't cath me like a trout.
Con que si, ya se ve
que no estás a gusto ahí
y aunque hábles inglés no te dejaré salir.
Tras las fuertes rejas que resguardan la prisión,
mueve las orejas implorando compasión,
dice el muy ladino que se va a reformar
pues aunque hable en chino, pues ni así lo he de soltar.
El ratón vaquero tiró dos balazos,
se chupo las balas y cruzó los brazos.
"What the heck is this house
for a manly cowboy mouse
hello you let me out
and don't cath me like a trout.
Con que si, ya se ve
que no estás a gusto ahí
y aunque hables inglés no te dejaré salir.
I used to love this song when I was baby. Now that I am pregnant, I have already begun to sing this to my baby! I just wanted to make two quick notations: It's not Mexican culture. It's Central American (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, etc..) and "Cri Cri" is not spanish for cricket. The character was a cricket named Cri Cri. The spanish word for cricket is "Grillo" or "Saltamonte", which translates to "ground jumper".
ReplyDeleteMommy-to-be,
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by!
Thanks also for your notations. I am married to a Mexican, so I can speak with some insight about what is Mexican, though I do not have a broad enough base of experience to speak about Central America. I guess everyone likes Cri Cri!
I LOVE these songs! I have the record (yes, vinyl) from when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteMommy-to-be is actually wrong. The composer who created Cri-Cri is Mexican, from Veracruz. I don't know if the songs are his original compositions or if he recorded folk songs from various latin american cultures, but it is a song best known as being from Mexico. It's apparently been translated into French, Russian and other languages!
oh, also, "cri cri" is the name of the singing cricket because that's the noise a cricket makes - they are known as "Grillo" in Spanish and much like other animals, it's noise is translated (like dogs say "wow wow" in Spanish LOL) into "cri cri."
ReplyDeletesaltamonte is actually a grass hopper
ReplyDelete