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A contemporary corrido song sheet of La Cucaracha issued during the Mexican Revolution. Note
the original lyrics and the reference tocartoncitos, which were a type of scrip issued as pay.
"La Cucaracha" (Spanish: "The Cockroach") is a traditional Spanish folk corrido that
became popular in Mexico during the Mexican Revolution.
Contents
[hide]
1Structure
o
1.1Refrain
1.2Verses
2Historical evolution
2.1Pre-Revolution lyrics
2.2Revolutionary lyrics
2.3Other verses
4Notes
5References
6External links
Structure [edit]
The song consists of verse-and-refrain (strophe-antistrophe) pairs, with each half of each
pair consisting of four lines featuring an ABCB rhyme scheme.
Refrain [edit]
The song's earliest lyrics, from which its name is derived, concern a cockroach that has
lost one of its six legs and is struggling to walk with the remaining five. The cockroach's
uneven, five-legged gait is imitated by the song's original 5/4 meter, formed by removing
one upbeat (corresponding to the missing sixth leg) from the second half of a 6/4
measure:
La cu-ca- | ra-cha, la cu-ca-ra-cha
| ya no pue-de ca-mi-nar
por-que no | tie-ne, por-que le fal-ta
| u-na pa-ta de a-trs. [nb 1]
("The cockroach, the cockroach / can no longer walk / because he doesn't have,
because he lacks / a hind leg"; these lyrics form the basis for the refrain of most
later versions. Syllables having primary stress are in boldface; syllables having
secondary stress are in roman type; unstressed syllables are in italics. Measure
divisions are independent of text line breaks and are indicated by vertical
barlines; note that the refrain begins with an anacrusis/"pickup.")
Many later versions of the song, especially those whose lyrics do not
mention the cockroach's missing leg(s), extend the last syllable of
each line to fit the more familiar 6/4 meter.
Verses [edit]
The song's verses fit a traditional melody separate from that of the
refrain but sharing the refrain's meter (either 5/4 or 6/4 as discussed
above). In other respects, they are highly variable, usually providing
satirical commentary on contemporary political or social problems or
disputes.
Historical evolution[edit]
The origins of "La Cucaracha" are obscure. The refrain's lyrics make
no explicit reference to historical events; it is difficult if not impossible
therefore to date. Because verses are improvised according to the
needs of the moment,[1] however, they often enable a rough estimate
of their age by mentioning contemporary social or political conditions
(thus narrowing a version's possible time of origin to periods in
which those conditions prevailed) and/or referring to specific current
or past events (thus setting a maximum boundary for a version's
age).
Pre-Revolution lyrics[edit]
There exist several early (pre-Revolution) sets of lyrics referring to
historical events.
Francisco Rodrguez Marn records in his book Cantos Populares
Espaoles several verses dealing with the Reconquista, which was
completed in 1492 when the Moors surrendered the Alhambra to
Spain:
Spanish
English
de la infantera espaola.
[2]
Some early versions of the lyrics discuss events that took place
during the conclusion of the Granada War in 1492.[2]
One of the earliest written references to the song appears in
Mexican writer and political journalist Jos Joaqun Fernndez de
Lizardi's 1819 novel La Quijotita y su Prima, where it is suggested
that:
Spanish
English
Un capitn de marina
A naval captain
Other early stanzas detail such incidents as the Carlist Wars (1833
1876) and the French intervention in Mexico (1861).[4]
Revolutionary lyrics[edit]
The Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to about 1920, was a period of
great political upheaval during which the majority of the stanzas
known today were written. Political symbolism was a common theme
in these verses, and explicit and implicit references were made to
events of the war, major political figures, and the effects of the war
on the civilians in general. Today, few pre-Revolution verses are
known, and the most commonly quoted portion of the song[1] is the
two Villist anti-Huerta[4] stanzas:
Spanish
English
La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
ya no puede caminar
marijuana to smoke.
Ya muri la cucaracha
ya la llevan a enterrar
y un ratn de sacristn.
English
English
listen carefully:
ya la pobre cucaracha
no consigue ni un tostn.
in this Revolution,
English
Tells a saying
Other verses[edit]
Apart from verses making explicit or implicit reference to historical
events, hundreds of other verses exist. Some verses are new and
others are ancient; however, the lack of references and the largely
oral tradition of the song makes dating these verses difficult if not
impossible. Examples follow:
Spanish
English
Mi vecina de enfrente
y si no se hubiera muerto
an as se llamara.
1. La Cucaracha (chorus
only)
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