Fuerteventura may be far away from Seville, but from 21 to 29 April, we also have Feria de Abril — right here in C.C. El Campanario, with live acts, flamenco dress fashion and horse show... Don't miss it!
This week's song is famous A bailar, a bailar by Cantores de Híspalis.
Whenever you order a cup of coffee (or tea) in Canaries, you have an opportunity to learn a bit of vernacular. The Canarian company, Café Ortega, came up with a brilliant idea: to put Canarian words (canarismos) where they are least expected... on sugar sachets. I don't take sugar with my hot drinks, but when I saw a sachet with the word zumbadera on it, I just had to take action. And when I say action, I mean a bit of internet research. Luckily for me, some people not only collect sugar sachets, but share their treasures with the world. Adriana, a schoolgirl and a budding sucrologist from Gran Canaria, did just that. I used many of the words from her collection in the table below.
Mind you, these sugar-sachet definitions of canarismos can be tricky, and not just for chonis (foreign tourists) but for the Spanish speakers too. For example, matraquilla is defined as "pesado con idea fija, obsesión, guineo". Guineo? In Collins Spanish-English Dictionary, guineo means "banana". But according to Léxico Canario y Palabras Canarias guide, guineo means "repetitive talk" or "nonsense". Or take mago: "campurrio, maúro, hombre del campo" — both campurrio and maúro are Canarian words themselves.
Spanish Wikipedia classifies canarismos as follows:
The latter include those "borrowed" from Guanche language, for instance baifo, gofio, or tabaiba; Portuguese, such as margullar or millo; and English, e.g. bisne (business), fonil (funnel) or quinegua (King Edward potato).
| aboyado | harto de comer, lleno hasta reventar |
| ahuevado | con forma esférica o de huevo |
| alongarse | asomarse, proyectar el busto hacia adelante |
| arrente | a ras, próximo a, seguido de |
| baifo | cabrito |
| baña | barriga, chicha, gordura |
| belingo | fiesta, jolgorio |
| bembas | labios (generalmente gruesos) |
| bisne | negocio de carácter trapisondista |
| bochinche | cafetín, taberna, cantina |
| cachimba | pipa para fumar tabaco |
| cachorro | sombrero que usa el canario |
| cambado | curvado, torcido, doblado |
| cartucho | bolsa de papel para envolver |
| chispar | lloviznar, llover ligeramente |
| choni | turista extranjero, guiri |
| destupir | desatascar, dejar libre el paso de una corriente del agua |
| encabronarse | irritarse, ponerse furioso |
| enyesque | tapa, pequeña porción de alimento para acompañar la bebida |
| escoñar | estropear, dejar algo inservible |
| escobillón | el cepillo de barrer |
| fañoso | que habla con pronunciación nasal, constipado, resfriado |
| farruco | bravucón, matón |
| fechillo | cerrojo, pasador para cerrar puertas y ventanas |
| fonil | embudo |
| fósforo | cerilla |
| jalar | tirar de algo con la mano |
| jeito | maña, habilidad |
| jeringarse | fastidiarse, conformarse |
| jocico | boca, principalmente de animal aunque también se usa para personas |
| liña | cuerdas para tender la ropa |
| mago | campurrio, maúro, hombre del campo |
| magua | pena, desconsuelo, añoranza |
| majada | golpe (normalmente en las manos) |
| margullar | bucear, sumergirse |
| matraquilla | pesado con idea fija, obsesión, guineo |
| molido | cansado |
| ñoños | dedos de los pies |
| partigazo | tortazo contra el suelo, peñazo |
| pastuño | excremento de animal o persona |
| pelete | frío |
| queque | bizcocho (postre) |
| quinegua | tipo de papa (proviene del inglés King Edward) |
| raña | sucio, encachazado |
| rayar | anotar puntos de la partida "arrayar" |
| rodarse | desplazarse hacia un lado |
| rosca | palomita de maíz |
| ruín | 1. Se dice del niño muy travieso, inquieto y revoltoso. 2. Se dice de los alimentos con mal sabor. |
| sancochado | hervido, guisado |
| solajero | sol muy fuerte |
| sopladera | globo |
| tangonazo | beber de un golpe, lingotazo |
| templadera | borrachera |
| tenderete | fiesta, reunión de gente divirtiéndose |
| tenique | piedra grande |
| tolete | lerdo, torpe |
| tonga | pila o porción de cosas apiladas en orden |
| ventorrillo | quiosco de feria de comidas y bebidas |
| verguilla | alambre de hierro |
| zarandajo | informal, persona en la que no se puede confiar |
| zumbadera | aturdimiento, atontamiento |
...is The Girl is Gone — a tasty flamenco-funk-R&B fudge I mean, fusion from the New York City band Caramelo. Their debut album Ride is out on May 29, 2012.
El Choclo was composed at the turn of the 20th Century by Argentine Ángel Villoldo. According to Roberto Selles,
Undoubtedly, next to La cumparsita it is the tango tune most widely spread.
The vocal versions of El Choclo were recorded by Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Julio Iglesias and many others. But I'd rather stick to the instrumental. I really like this rendition by Italian jazz pianist Paolo Di Sabatino.
...is Oriente by Guadalupe Victoria Yolí Raymond, better known as La Lupe. This song appears on El Rey y Yo, her 1967 recording with Tito Puente.
It was incomprehensible why a woman with that spirit would have returned to a dead town burdened by dust and heat, and much less with a husband who had more than enough money to live anywhere in the world and who loved her so much that he let himself be led around by her on a silk leash. As time passed, however, her intention to stay was more obvious, because she did not make any plans that were not a long way off, nor did she do anything that did not have as an aim the search for a comfortable life and a peaceful old age in Macondo. The canary cage showed that those aims were made up on the spur of the moment. Remembering that her mother had told her in a letter about the extermination of the birds, she had delayed her trip several months until she found a ship that stopped at the Fortunate Isles and there she chose the finest twenty-five pairs of canaries so that she could repopulate the skies of Macondo. That was the most lamentable of her numerous frustrated undertakings. As the birds reproduced Amaranta Úrsula would release them in pairs, and no sooner did they feel themselves free than they fled the town. She tried in vain to awaken love in them by means of the bird cage that Úrsula had built during the first reconstruction of the house. Also in vain were the artificial nests built of esparto grass in the almond trees and the birdseed strewn about the roofs, and arousing the captives so that their songs would dissuade the deserters, because they would take flights on their first attempts and make a turn in the sky, just the time needed to find the direction to the Fortunate Isles.Something is wrong here, I thought. For comparison, here's the original:
No era comprensible que una mujer con aquel espíritu hubiera regresado a un pueblo muerte, deprimido por el polvo y el calor, y menos con un marido que tenía dinero de sobra para vivir bien en cualquier parte del mundo, y que la amaba tanto que se había sometido a ser llevado y traído por ella con el dogal de seda. Sin embargo, a medida que el tiempo pasaba era más evidente su intención de quedarse, pues no concebía planes que no fueran a largo plazo, ni tomaba determinaciones que no estuvieran orientadas a procurarse una vida cómoda y una vejez tranquila en Macondo. La jaula de canarios demostraba que esos propósitos no eran improvisados. Recordando que su madre le había contado en una carta el exterminio de los pájaros, habla retrasado el viaje varios meses hasta encontrar un barco que hiciera escala en las islas Afortunadas, y allí seleccionó las veinticinco parejas de canarios más finos para repoblar el cielo de Macondo. Esa fue la más lamentable de sus numerosas iniciativas frustradas. A medida que los pájaros se reproducían, Amaranta Úrsula los iba soltando por parejas, y más tardaban en sentirse libres que en fugarse del pueblo. En vano procuró encariñarles con la pajarera que construyó Úrsula en la primera restauración. En vano les falsificó nidos de esparto en los almendros, y regó alpiste en los techos y alborotó a los cautivos para que sus cantos disuadieran a los desertores, porque éstos se remontaban a la primera tentativa y daban una vuelta en el cielo, apenas el tiempo indispensable para encontrar el rumbo de regreso a las islas Afortunadas.See? The translation goes "The canary cage showed that those aims were made up on the spur of the moment" while García Márquez writes "La jaula de canarios demostraba que esos propósitos no eran improvisados". That is, Amaranta Úrsula's aims were not "made up on the spur of the moment".
This week I'd like to introduce an amazing band from Brooklyn: Chicha Libre! According to the band's website,
Chicha Libre plays a mixture of latin rhythms, surf and psychedelic pop inspired by Peruvian music from Lima and the Amazon. The Brooklyn collective is made up of French, American, Venezuelan and Mexican musicians who mix up covers of Peruvian Chicha with original compositions in French, Spanish and English, re-interpretation of 70's pop classics as well as cumbia versions of pieces by likes of Satie, Love and Wagner. Chicha is originally the name of a corn-based liquor favored by the Incas in pre-colombian days. Chicha is also the name of Peru's particular brand of cumbia first made popular in the late 60's by bands such as Los Destellos, Manzanita, Los Mirlos and Juaneco y su Combo.
Wait, what Wagner? That Wagner. Enjoy The Ride of the Valkyries from Chicha Libre's forthcoming album Canibalismo.
...is Desde las Entrañas by the San Francisco band LoCura, from their forthcoming album Semilla Caminante.
Continuing with cumbia: this week's song is Nunca es tarde by Canteca de Macao, from their new album of the same title. As usual, the entire album is available for free, well, everything: listening, download, sharing and redistribution.
letra y música Chiki Lora Miro desde abajo se me nubla el horizonte |
