Today, I wanted to write
about the sayings or proverbs that we, Spanish speakers, use daily, and we know
that sometimes are very interesting to learn and understand to foreigners,
because they are part of the idiosyncrasy of our Hispanic culture.
In this publication I will
show you five of the proverbs or sayings most used by Spanish speakers: the differences between each country, their
meaning, use and origin.
Enjoy!
NUMBER 1: INDIO COMIDO,
INDIO IDO- INDIO COMIDO, PUESTO AL CAMINO
(
Indian eaten, Indian gone- Idian eaten, indian on the road- Nicaragua)
MEANING:
Its used when someone eats in anyone else´s house and leaves as son as he or
she finishes eating. This act is either rude or unpolite for both: those who
invited this person to dine at their house as much to their other guests. The
polite way is to wait at least 20 or 30 minutes after everybody has finished
their meal to leave. In english there is an proverb very similar: eat and run
or indian fed, indian run.
Although there is an
exceptionq to the rule when someone has finish running an errand and can leave.
But it is not very used.
ORIGIN: In
the first place, we have the aborigin image who is misscalled indio, because
Christopsher Columbus mistakenly thought he arrived to India. After seeing the
people living in the teritorry he asumed the natives were “indios”. After many
years and language miscegination, “being indio” meant being an aborigine, but
also being a slave, a second-rate human being.
Such a condition, gave way
to the peyorization of the indigenous as "Indian" and was related to
him as someone badly educated, uncivilized, gross, clumsy, rude and
others.
Rooted in this Eurocentric
thought before and nowadays, "Indio" is often a derogatory label
against a person, regardless of race with no knowledge at all of manners or any
other protocole.
NUMBER 2: LA NECESIDAD
TIENE CARA DE HEREJE / LA NECESIDAD TIENE CARA DE PERRO (The need has a face of heretic -Spain – Chile / The need has a Dog´s face –
Colombia)
MEANING: Refers
to an urgent need for something, which must be obtained regardless of the means
to which they have to resort to obtain it. Leaving aside their principles for
imperious needs, committing acts that would otherwise be unthinkable, given
that necessity drives them to cross their moral limits.
For
example: a bully boss you have to bare because you
need the money to pay your apartment fee, or you owe money to the bank, and
your boyfriend/girflriend is unemployed, etc. For these cases apply the
Proverb: “The need has a face of heretic” or as in Colombia, “The need has a
dog face!”.
ORIGIN:
Spain. But it is part of a Latin proverb “Necessitas caret lege” which means
“Need lacks of law”. Therefore it could mean thejre should be a legal
procedure where someone could take
shelter if she or he committed a fault because of desperation.
With time and with
Cristianity arrival, the phrase became as we know it nowadays: “Need has a face
of the Heretic. The apparition of the term “HEREJE” comes form vulgar latin
where “LEGE” came to be “HEREJE” because the sound was similar. Althoug, Lege
means Law.
Let´s remember: Heretic
were those who didn´t believe in God, so, if they needed something urgently,
they could deny God to achieve it. Now, about the use of “DOG”, it is related
with “MAD DOG” and its used wen someone is in need, and doesn´t know about law
or any reasonings and acts by impulses ignoring the law. Another association is
that maybe the dog can take terrible punishments for food.
NUMBER 3: EL QUE MUCHO
ABARCA POCO APRIETA (Jack
of trades, master of none- Spain and Latin America).
MEANING:
Who wills to make many things at a time, won´t be able to make fine any. It is
a popular proverb. It is used to point out
that whoever wants to get too much can end up with less than what can be
obtained with realistic expectations. It applies in particular to the desire to
undertake too many things at the same time.
For
example: When you are incharged of the school play
and your chores include scenery, dressing, the scripts, and call a casting,
etc. In this case we say: ¡El que mucho abarca poco aprieta!.
ORIGIN:
Spain and used by all the spanish speaking countries.
NUMBER 4: ¡ HAY GATO ENCERRADO! (there
is a cat locked, is like in english “There is a Catch” is used in Latin America
and Spain)
MEANING:
There
is something fishy. Is an expression used to say there’s something not very
clear or not very honest. That there are some secret maneuvers. This phrase prevents us of a tricky business, a corrupt politician
who doesn´t go to jail because he did something fishy. Here we can say: ¡ Hay
gato encerrado!
ORIGIN: The
genesis of the expression comes from a seventeenth-century practice in Spain,
where it was common to make purses to keep money which were made with cat skin,
therefore, the cat by extension, became the bag where I kept money. From there
was the expression "have locked in cat", which is but a way of
referring to the suspicious attitude of someone who has something hidden and
wants to protect themselves from thieves. Thus, what originally came to mean
the expression was that there was money hidden. But over time it happened to
mean "having something hidden or not clear".
NUMBER 5: A
CADA PAVO LE LLEGA SU NOCHEBUENA ( Every turkey has its Christmas eve! –
Colombia), A CADA COCHINILLO LE LLEGA SU SÁBADO (Every pork has a Saturday- Venezuela), A CADA PUERCO LE LLEGA SU SAN MARTIN ( To every pork gets its St Martin -Spain,
Argentina, Paraguay), A CADA CAPILLITA LE LLEGA SU FIESTECITA
( Every tiny chapel gets its own Little party-
Mexico), A CADA SANTO LE LLEGA SU DÍA ( Each saint gets his day – Cuba, Peru).
For
example: When someone hurts us, maybe bully us or
anything of the sort, we say: ¡A todo cerdo de llega su noche buena! In other
words, fate will pay these people back for what they have done to us.
ORIGIN: First of all, it is
very important to clear this: The Word “CERDO” (pig), both Latin America and
Spain, has eight synonims: Marrano, Chancho, Chanchito, Puerco, Cochino
Cochinillo, Lechón and Guarro. At the same time “Cerdo” can be used to design a
dishonest person, mean, with bad intentions, bad feelings, unfair.
Second of all, we have two
celebrations: SAN MARTIN and CHRISTMAS. The first one is celebrated on November
11th in honour of St Martin of Tours, a very indicated date in many Spanis
towns because the “Pig slaughter” takes place. In Argentina, St Martin de Tours
is known as Patron Saint of Buenos Aires, the capital city (The city is
dedicated to Him). As for Christmas Eve (December 24th), it is a Catholic
celebration and it is the commemoration of the birth of Jesus. In some of the Latin American countries,
usually kill pigs for dinner.
As for the Turkey: It is a
meal from the American´s Thanksgiving party. Some countries adopted this
tradition for Christmas and some countries, such as Colombia were upper clases
prefer to eat turkey and lower classes prefer pork.
About the third proverb:
Every tiny chapel gets its own little party from Mexico, and Each Saint has a
Day have the same significance of the above. The origin is uncertain.
 |
| Written by Adriana Martinez |
